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Media - Statements
STATEMENT OF JAMES REES
June 3, 2008
You know, when it comes to historic places, Mount Vernon should and does consider itself lucky … George Washington probably remains the most familiar face of any historical figure.
Perhaps that’s why our attendance remains pretty strong … in fact, because of the new facilities we just opened a year and a half ago, we’re up some 20 percent from 2006—we expect to welcome more than 1.1 million people in 2008 …
But the overall trend for historic places in America is not encouraging … Mount Vernon actually welcomed 1.3 million in 1964 … that’s our all-time high …
And over the past decade, Colonial Williamsburg’s attendance has shrunk from more than a million to the seven hundred thousands … Monticello has dropped from the six hundred thousands to the four hundred thousands … and some smaller historic places are truly just hanging on for dear life … there’s simply no question that fewer families are choosing history over theme parks or beaches or wine tours or shopping …
Parents don’t feel it’s their duty to take their kids to places like Mount Vernon any more … In fact, I think kids themselves have a tremendous amount of influence in terms of what the family decides to do … much more than they used to … And I think the main reason that most kids would never even think of selecting Mount Vernon is that George Washington’s place in schools, his profile in the classroom, is at an all-time low …
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His coverage in today’s textbooks is a mere fraction of what it was 40 years ago … For instance, my own fourth grade history textbook in a Richmond, Virginia public school had 10 times more coverage of Washington than the text book used in the same school today. |
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In one survey of students, seven of ten fifth graders thought that Illinois, California or Texas were among the 13 original colonies. |
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And only seven of 100 could explain why the date July 4, 1776, was a significant one. |
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And it’s no better at the college level. A couple of years ago, when the American Council of Trustees and Alumni polled seniors from the 55 best universities in America, they asked, “Who was our victorious general at the Battle of Yorktown?” 34 percent did indeed say George Washington. But 37 percent answered Ulysses S. Grant … and six percent said Douglas MacArthur. |
As David McCullough has said time and time again, we are “Raising a generation of historically illiterate children.”
So as far as we’re concerned at Mount Vernon, this new report sponsored by the Bradley Foundation could not be more important, or more timely, or more relevant. And of course, we love the idea of reestablishing George Washington’s Birthday as a truly meaningful holiday …
And we would be thrilled if history textbooks were more focused on what American citizens have in common, including a world-class hero like George Washington …
You know, I’ve been complaining for 25 years that, after hanging on the walls of classrooms for generations and generations, George Washington’s portrait has virtually disappeared from our schools … About two years ago, after hearing me whine about this fact maybe a dozen times, one of our most generous donors took me aside and said, Jim… Stop talking about it—and start doing something about it … and so we have …
We created a large, canvas-style reproduction of Rembrandt Peale’s porthole portrait of Washington, placed it in a sensational frame, and wrote to our supporters saying, please help us to put these portraits back where they belong … in a matter of months, we raised about $400,000 … and First Lady Laura Bush presented the very first portrait to a school this past January … we’re now being overwhelmed with requests for portraits …. We’re at 4,000 and counting … and we’re still raising money … And we won’t stop until every principal who wants George Washington to be a centerpiece in his or her school is happy …
This project, and so many others we’ve experienced at Mount Vernon, tell us that deep-down, teachers and parents and really the vast majority of Americans want to celebrate heroes like Washington and feel a true sense of national pride and patriotism … it’s really not a hard sell—not at all.
I certainly wish that the ideas suggested in E Pluribus Unum had been put forth as persuasively and with such clarity 10 or 20 or even 30 years ago … then our job would have been a bit easier. But I’m still optimistic, and I’m here to say Mount Vernon is totally on board and very eager to help.
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