Rees Keeps the Flame at Mount Vernon

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 22, 2000 | by Stephen Goode

James C. Rees has turned Mount Vernon into a center to educate Americans about the life and character of George Washington, the father of our country, and his magnificent legacy.

Mount Vernon director dames C. Rees is distressed by the ignorance of many Americans about their nation's history and, more particularly, about what made founding father George Washington a great man. Rees cites the example of young people who visit Mount Vernon and ask the historical site Washington impersonator how it felt to fight in the Civil War.

Rees also sees it in textbooks. "I got my fourth-grade textbook from Richmond, Va., and compared it with the textbook that is used there today," the historian tells Insight. "There was 10 times more coverage in that textbook of long ago." So he is working to counter contemporary ignorance about the father of our country by turning Mount Vernon into an educational center whose primary mission is to make Americans aware of Washington's leadership and exemplary character.

Historic Mount Vernon receives no government money of any kind, Rees notes, but it's the most-visited historical homesite in the United States. Rees laments that the nation whose cities, communities and homes once celebrated Washington's birthday, Feb. 22, with parades and other special events (including family dinners where desert was cherry pie) now has substituted the "innocuous President's Day that is a shopping holiday and means absolutely nothing."

Rees explains: "To say that every president is worthy of an equal amount of respect," which President's Day implies, contends Rees, "is like saying all football players should be honored as if they had won the Heisman Trophy."

Insight: You've encountered some pretty distressing facts recently about the lack of knowledge young people have about American history.

James C. Rees: We've been gathering statistics for about five years now and they're pretty shocking. In a survey of high-school teachers, for example, the teachers themselves judged that only one out of 10 graduating seniors could be considered proficient in American history.

In a survey of fourth- and fifth-graders, seven of 10 felt that Illinois, California and Texas were one of the original 13 colonies. Moreover, only seven of 100 of those students could tell you what took place on July 4, 1776.

You cannot overstate the problem of how little American history is being taught. It's gotten even worse recently. The survey of the 50 best colleges and universities [the names taken from the annual U.S. News and World Report top-schools list], shows that only one out of five of the best colleges in America requires any history at all. A survey of seniors at those schools asked who was America's victorious general at the battle of Yorktown. Thirty-four percent correctly said Washington, but 37 percent guessed U.S. Grant.

These are the kids who will graduate from college and come back and teach; it's a vicious circle. American history is being left out of the equation.

Insight: Isn't it true that Americans tend to view George Washington as staid, too reserved, maybe even dull?

JCR: We face that all the time. We do surveys within focus groups where if you press the people hard enough most all of them use the term "great" to describe Washington, but if you ask them to go further and get at his personality it's not unusual for them to use the word "boring."

When I came here 16 years ago, my opinion of Washington was much like most people's today. I thought he was great but not terribly creative or interesting. What's been wonderful is to discover just what a multifaceted man he was.

People look at Washington as he appears on the dollar bill in an engraved reproduction of a great painting by Gilbert Smart that was done fairly late in life. Washington and Stuart never really got along. I don't think it's a very flattering painting, but Washington did indeed have trouble with his dentures and I've heard that look called "grumpy."

Insight: Grumpy, yes, and formidable, but that's not the way he was?

JCR: Truth be told, Washington was considered the most athletic of the Founding Fathers. He was regarded as the most robust and energetic. And he certainly was one of the most dashing, large and impressive men of the period. Of the famous men of the 18th century he was the most exciting action-figure, if you will, of his time.

Insight: Yet that's not the popular view of him.

JCR: I promise you, he was the man everyone wanted to sit next to at dinner. He was the one who walked into a room and every head turned. Time and again in the 18th century, when there was a critical and important job to be done, the other Founding Fathers turned to Washington. That's the best test of all! In that constellation of incredible men, the one they all looked up to was George Washington.

Insight: We don't appreciate today, do we, how significant it was when he turned down royal power and refused to be made king?

JCR: People look at the story of Washington convincing his officers not to take over the government and make him king and say, "Well, of course he did that, so what? That's what any good man would have done." They don't take into account that in his time that was what people expected Washington to do, take the power. Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, as soon as they took control, they put themselves in the role of king and dictator.