12/27/2022

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal begins by highlighting the intersection of American history and the holidays of Christmas and Hanukkah. Kerry Byrne focuses on the life of General John Glover, a solider who rowed across the Delaware River with George Washington and helped launch a surprise attack on the Hessians who camped at Trenton, New Jersey on Christmas Day. Born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1732, Byrne writes that “Glover met George Washington in the summer of 1775, during the siege of Boston that followed the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April.” On Christmas Day in 1776, Glover led the Marblehead militia of Massachusetts in ferrying “Washington and 2,400 troops in row boats across the ice-choked Delaware River” – a pivotal early moment in the War for Independence because at that time, “the American rebellion” was “on the brink of collapse.”

Stewart D. McLaurin, President of the White House Historical Association, recounts the history of holiday celebrations at the White House. As he writes, “The first known Christmas party at the White House was a small affair for the granddaughter of President John Adams and first lady Abigail Adams.” And it wasn’t until 1889 “when President Benjamin Harrison put up an evergreen in the family quarters,” the first records we have of a Christmas tree in the White House. It was then years later when “President Calvin Coolidge flipped the switch on the first public lighting of the National Christmas Tree.” And during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, the president “attending local Hanukkah celebrations” became a tradition, which “President George W. Bush converted into an annual White House menorah lighting, in which the Marine Band plays Hanukkah favorites.”

Finally, at the American Civics portal, Shawn Healy of the CivXNow Coalition reports that the $1.7 trillion stopgap funding measure that Congress recently passed includes “a significant increase in funding for K-12 civic education, from the current $7.75 million to $23 million.” As Healy notes, “While that may pale in comparison to other budgetary allocations, it represents a substantial down payment on the historic civic mission of our K-12 schools, moving us closer to ensuring equitable access to high-quality civic learning opportunities for all students.” He concludes by contending that through funding civic education at appropriate levels, “we can give our students the concrete skills and tangible tools needed to take up their roles in sustaining and strengthening our constitutional democracy as it approaches its semiquincentennial.”