From Connor at The Tuttle Twins.

If you walk into most classrooms today and ask why 56 men pledged their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor,” you’ll probably be met with silence.

Or worse—someone will parrot a line about how the Founders were just greedy, colonizers who didn’t want to pay taxes.

I wish this was an exaggeration, but after years of studying what passes for history education in America, I can tell you this is really what’s happening.

I recently wrote about this for National Review. (If you want, you can read it here.)

Some people like to comfort themselves by thinking kids have always been a little indifferent to the past, but this is different. What we’re seeing today is the product of a system that prefers members of a collective who memorize slogans over well-rounded individuals who think for themselves.

Consider this: only 13% of eighth graders are proficient in U.S. history. Nearly half can’t answer the simplest questions about our Constitution. That’s pretty terrible, and it doesn’t get better as they get older. Many college students can’t even name the rights protected by the First Amendment.

Of course you don’t need a spreadsheet to know this is happening. The evidence is all around us.

You can feel it in the way so many young Americans see freedom and responsibility as ideas that are dangerous or archaic. Many assume the rights they enjoy were inevitable instead of hard-won, while others believe that having rights means anything they want should be given to them for free.

When people don’t know where they came from, or what they inherited, they won’t fight to protect it.

This is why we created the Tuttle Twins America’s History books and curriculum. 

Not because they thought the world needed more textbooks (groan), but because we saw how many families wanted to do something about this decline in historical literacy but didn’t know where to begin.

These books are written to help you sit down with your kids and explore the real story of our country—all of it. The courageous ideas, the bitter debates, and the imperfect people who still managed to build something extraordinary.

We didn’t sanitize or sugar-coat; we were just honest. Because that’s what kids deserve. Plus, they’re smart enough to handle the truth and to have real conversations about real things.

With Independence Day almost here, and the 250th anniversary of our founding just a year away, we want as many families as possible to start having these important conversations at home.

To make it easier, we’re offering up to 70% off the entire history collection right now!

Shop the Independence Day Sale (button)

If you’ve been waiting for the right time to start teaching America’s History at home, this is it. 

I’m willing to bet that after the first chapter, your kids will be hooked. In no time at all, they’ll be able to tell you why freedom matters so much that regular people were willing to risk everything just for a chance to govern themselves.

In the end, the apathy and historical ignorance isn't going to be fixed by politicians or school boards.

It’s going to be fixed around dinner tables just like yours—one family at a time.