NYT -- Thomas L. Friedman
A few years ago, the leaders of the College Board, the folks who administer the SAT college entrance exam, asked themselves a radical question: Of all the skills and knowledge that we test young people for that we know are correlated with success in college and in life, which is the most important? Their answer: the ability to master “two codes” — computer science and the U.S. Constitution.
Real Clear Politics -- Peter Berkowitz
Mission statements provide organizations the opportunity to present considered opinions about their primary goals. Yet little recognition is found within the mission statements of our institutions of higher education that among their chief responsibilities is conserving the wisdom of the ages and of our civilization in particular — for its intrinsic merits, as essential to the pursuit of truth; for guidance in understanding the nation’s fundamental principles and constitutional order; to grasp the diversity and unity of the world’s cultures and peoples; in the name of liberty of thought and discussion; as an antidote to the conceits and blind spots of the age; and to orient sensible reform.
The Moral Foundations of United States Constitutional Democracy was written for students of Western civilization and teachers of ethics, law, history, and government. It develops a framework for understanding moral and political philosophy. The framework takes into account several different aspects of human nature and the world in which we live. This provides a basis for understanding several different aspects of universal equality, the unifying “central idea” or primary moral concept of our form of government. The several aspects of universal equality are also traced historically as they developed in different ethical and legal systems of Western civilization. Constitutional democracy in the United States attempts to integrate and balance the several aspects of universal equality as they apply to the coercive powers of government.
