By Pam Hersh Special Writer
I looked in all the newspapers for the half-price sales at the car dealers or the “midnight madness” sale at Macy’s or the blow-out sale at Wal-Mart. I searched the Sunday newspaper inserts for the ubiquitous picture of Uncle Sam with his finger pointed at me and saying, “We want you to spend all of your money today in celebration of this great national holiday.”
Nothing was there, however — not a snippet of media advertising indicating that September 17th was a national holiday. I then stalked people, asking everyone I encountered whether he or she could tell me the significance of September 17th and why it was declared a holiday. They all struck out.
One sports fan wondered whether it was when the Yankees clinched the 2009 American League East Division title. Another asked which president was born on Sept. 17th, but figured all presidents were born in February. My Jewish friends knew that the Jewish holidays this year followed September 17th, not coincided with it.
One of my political groupie friends said he had no idea about September 17th, but thought a national holiday should be declared for October 3rd. On this date in 2009, Princeton Borough and Princeton Township Democratic candidates held a JOINT fundraiser, the first such unified or, I hate to say it, consolidated political fundraising event in the history of Princeton.
Apparently, my investigation was flawed in that I was polling only individuals who were in school four to five decades ago. Thus, at a Sunday morning garage sale, my quest for the truth ended when I talked to a first-year student at Princeton University. He provided the correct answer: September 17th is Constitution Day, also known as Citizenship Day, he said.
In May 2005, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement, issued a “notice of Implementation of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day on September 17 of Each Year.” No notification went to the car dealers or big box retailers, only to the educational institutions in the country.
According to the mandate, educational institutions receiving federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States’ Constitution on September 17th of each year. It is observed on this date, because September 17th is the date the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787. The law establishing the holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.)to the omnibus spending bill of 2004.
Every year Princeton University has hosted two Constitution Day lectures, representing both the progressive and conservative points of view.
I consulted with Princeton University Professor Stanley Katz, who gave a Constitution Day lecture in September of 2007, and he agreed with my research conclusion that almost no one pays attention to the holiday. He is grateful, however, that the holiday seems to have “done no harm,” in that it has never become a significant federal government intrusion into the curriculum — an issue that has worried Dr. Katz for a number of years. His uneasiness stems from the fact that there have been repeated federal attempts to promote “traditional” American history.
As stated in his lecture to Princeton University students two years ago, “My challenge to you, in the exercise of Princeton University’s obligation to provide an ‘instructional program’ for our students on this day, is simply to think about what the Constitution means today and has meant historically to this country.”
In other words, what Professor Katz appreciates is active engagement with/ debate of the topic of the Constitution and democracy, not a federally prescribed content of the programming.
“Since at least 2000, a variety of politicians from both parties have proposed programs to re-invigorate the teaching of United States’ history and civics, on the theory that history education is a prerequisite for democratic education … There is nothing wrong with striving to improve the teaching of history and civics,” but what is wrong is when programs are “ideological and didactic …,” Professor Katz believes.
“We ought not to be about telling our students what is right … The aim of liberal education is to challenge students to make their own informed judgments … The historian aims to train his students in historical thinking — to be able to acquire the relevant data (facts among them) and then to be able to make reasoned judgments and draw conclusions from them.”
Re-reading Professor Katz’s speech has led me to celebrate a national holiday in a way that I never have ever previously celebrated one. Rather than going through a mindless celebration of firecrackers, food, beer, long lines in airports and shopping malls, I actually thought about the meaning of a holiday. Who knows if this concept of thinking may catch on — maybe it would if we sold it for 50 percent off?
A longtime resident of Princeton, Pam Hersh is vice president for government and community affairs with Princeton HealthCare System. She is a former managing editor of The Princeton Packet
