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America’s 250th year has been a great opportunity to reflect on America’s history and celebrate America’s accomplishments. Yet only 13% of 8th graders are proficient in American history. How do we redirect this dismal statistic? One answer is patriotic education.
An influencer during America’s founding 250 years ago understood the power of patriotic education, writing: “This ardent love of one’s country is most essential to the preservation of all Republican governments.”
Who wrote this? Was it the quippy Benjamin Franklin? The sacrificial George Washington? Or the brilliant John Adams? Although any of them could have written it, none of them wrote those exact words. So, who was it? None other than King George III.
That’s right. America’s first enemy—the most important influencer against America’s independence—secretly wrote this in his private papers, which were digitized and publicly released in 2017. He concluded that without a monarchy to determine future leaders, patriotic education would be crucial to sustaining America’s representative government.
“This ardent love of one’s country is most essential to the preservation of all Republican governments. The inspiring, therefore, the minds of youth in the first dawn of reason with this passion ought to be the principal view of education,” he wrote.
The tyrant who implemented martial law, denied Americans jury trials and disbanded legislatures figured out the importance of passing on love of country to each new generation through education. Our current adversaries have figured out the same thing.
If America’s first enemy understood the importance of patriotism in a Republic, then it’s not surprising that America’s current adversaries, whether ideologies like communism and socialism or nation states like China, also know this and have attacked patriotism to weaken us.
I recently shared this quote in a speech at Missouri’s College of the Ozarks, which leads the way in patriotic education.
For the past 10 years, Americans have witnessed attacks against America’s symbols, traditions and beliefs, starting with sports players refusing to stand for the national anthem and peaking now through political candidates and elected officials who openly embrace socialism and communism. One player, Colin Kaepernick, later co-edited a book with on-the-record communists.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently spoke about the results of these attacks on America and Western nations. “Over time, we in the west came to feel ashamed of the very things that made us exceptional. We felt embarrassed that our achievements set us apart from the rest of the world. Our prosperity somehow became a source of guilt,” he said in front of Greece’s ancient fortress, the Acropolis, on October 7, 2026.
“The word nationalism became a dirty word. And so, we tore down our monuments. We condemned our own history. And in too many places we taught our children to be ashamed of the countries they would inherit,” Rubio said, noting that open borders, outsourced industries, decaying militaries and global bureaucracies have diminished western nations’ sovereignties.
America’s top diplomat observed that ancient Greeks believed “there was nothing selfish or wrong about loyalty to your nation nor anything selfish or wrong about fighting to defend its interests above all else.”
When I visited College of the Ozarks, I was blown away by their patriotic education program. Each student takes a patriotic education course that encourages understanding American heritage, civic responsibility, love of country and a willingness to defend it.
“What I think may surprise them once they arrive, however, is just how deeply our patriotic mission is woven into the entire college experience. It is not simply one course, one program, or a series of special events. It is an integral part of who we are and how we seek to educate our students,” Chassidy Brittain, director of patriotic activities, explained.
College of the Ozarks also offers other patriotic classes, such as the America in Vietnam and the Global War on Terrorism courses. Both culminate in immersive travel opportunities that pair students with veterans to visit the battlefields and locations where the veterans served. Students have traveled alongside veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War and other eras. Though students learn history directly from those who lived it, this travel program becomes something deeper.
“Students and veterans form relationships across generations, and our students come home with an entirely different understanding of service, sacrifice, freedom and the people behind the history they have studied,” Brittain explained, noting the travel program “is unlike anything else in higher education.”
At College of the Ozarks, I also visited their Patriots Park, which features sculpted memorials honoring gold star families and veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Global War on Terror. The school is the first college to receive the designation of a POW/MIA Campus, an honor bestowed by the Jefferson Barracks POW/MIA Museum. Dedicating on November 5, 2026, this memorial honors war prisoners who endured captivity or remain missing in action.
So how do Americans today pass along love of country to Gen Z? Imagine what would happen if more colleges followed College of the Ozarks’ lead and offered patriotic education classes and a veterans’ travel program. Image the healthy perspective that could form if education showed what America faced in 1776, what America has achieved and injustices it has overcome along the way. Conversely, imagine what would happen if we do nothing, “the vacuum left behind by our weakness” as Rubio explained.
President Ronald Reagan warned about that vacuum when he told my generation: “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”
Done right, patriotic education is a way forward to help young Americans better understand their past. College of the Ozarks is showing us how.
Jane Hampton Cook is the author the new award-winning book, A Great and Grateful Nation: From Grievance to Gratitude. Janecook.com, janehamptoncook.substack.com.
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