President Jim Gash Calls on American Higher Education to Teach Patriotism in The Hill Op-Ed

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, Pepperdine president Jim Gash has contributed a timely op-ed in The Hill, published today, discussing the importance of patriotism and the role of educational institutions in cultivating virtuous citizens and preserving foundational American values.

Titled “250 Years in, American Colleges Should Still Teach Patriotism,” Gash reflects on the guiding principles set into motion within the United States Declaration of Independence signed July 4, 1776: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” 

Gash explains that the United States was founded on a unique idea, one that needs to be protected and carried forward into the next 250 years. “Even beyond the basic loyalty we owe to our homeland and our fellow citizens,” he writes, “ what has been passed down to us as Americans is the only nation thus far in history founded on a vision of God-given human dignity and lasting human flourishing.” Gash then discusses Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr.’s shared vision for preserving American liberty and human dignity, rooted in that foundational vision of flourishing. 

Echoing Benjamin Franklin’s observation that “only a virtuous people are capable of freedom,” Gash challenges educators to instill this kind of virtue in their students: “Will we continue to steward the vision the founding generation passed down to us, or will we abandon ship? Will we continue to carry the torch of liberty for the next 250 years, or will ours be the generation that allows freedom to go extinct once and for all?”

Gash points to America’s educational institutions, from kindergarten to college, as the determinants of America’s future. In order to “steward liberty for the good of their neighbors and their posterity,” Gash calls for classrooms across the country to operate under foundational American values, recognizing each person’s inherent worth and dignity, and “return[ing] to an educational vision of greater purpose than mere job preparedness—of character formation and whole-person formation.” 

Read President Gash’s vision for higher education’s' path forward with patriotism on The Hill.