CELEBRATE, REFLECT
North Carolina teachers remind us what July 4 is about
Cristofer Wiley, a civics and economics teacher at Reynolds High School, uses the Declaration of Independence to teach students about current events.
Golf cart parades. Baseball and fireworks. Hot dogs and beer.
In the North Carolina, the Fourth of July is celebrated in ways that the Founding Fathers could not have foreseen, except maybe that part about beer. George Washington did love a good ale.
As with other holidays, the meaning of Independence Day sometimes gets hijacked by the festivities, the solemnity of the day lost in a cloud of bottle rocket smoke.
Some experts — a few social studies teachers in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools — reminded us why the Fourth of July is so important. And for those of us who already know (shoutout to Schoolhouse Rock), it's instructive to re-read the Declaration of Independence if you haven't done so in a while. It's a bold, sometimes lyrical document, a clear-eyed case for revolution, written without exclamation points or all-capped words.
Writing on the website of the National Archives, communications scholar Stephen Lucas, called the Declaration "perhaps the most masterfully written state paper of Western civilization."
Abby Bailey, a social studies teacher at Meadowlark Middle School, laid out some basic facts.
"The Fourth of July celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. This document, declaring independence from a king and setting the founding principles of our democratic republic, contains ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke," Bailey wrote in an email.
"Our Declaration has been the foundation for arguments made by citizens when pushing for progress in our country, that 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,'" she said.
Breakup letter to the British
Cristofer Wiley, a social studies teacher at Reynolds High School and the 2025 Teacher of the Year in the school district, likened the Declaration to a breakup letter with the British empire. In scathing, blunt terms, the Declaration famously lists 27 grievances against King George III before proclaiming: "That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved... ."
When teaching the Declaration, Wiley asks students to examine it through the lens of current events.
"It's worth noting that the Declaration is the clearest indication of what our ideals are, what we are aiming for. It leads us to ask the right questions of the here and now, and hopefully a better way of charting our future and our democracy," Wiley said. "Democracy is not one train of thought, not one way of understanding. Those things are the opposite of democracies."
Wiley said he focuses much of his teaching on the Declaration's second paragraph:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government... ."
The paragraph spells out the role of the citizens in the newly declared nation.
"We have a process where you wait two or four years if you don't like it," Wiley said. "You don't have to burn the thing down because you don't like the outcome."
Life, liberty for all?
Some teachers pointed to problems in the language of the second paragraph, written during a period when hundreds of thousands of Blacks were enslaved, some by the founding fathers themselves.
"Our founding fathers pushed back against tyranny and took a risk in the signing of this document. We, too, must recognize that our founding fathers are not infallible, some were slave owners themselves, and that the realization of the rights listed in the Declaration would take many years for various groups in the United States. Our Declaration is still referenced and pointed to as we continue as a country to work towards progress today," Bailey said.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglas, suff ragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., all echoed words from the Declaration to advocate for the rights of the oppressed, she said.
"So, as we continue to celebrate the Fourth of July it is important to look at the past in how people fought for change and progress in our nation, and how the Declaration has provided the foundation to fight for that change," Bailey said.
Roberta Stephenson, a fourth-grade teacher at Clemmons Elementary School, said teaching students about the Fourth of July lets them see how Americans pulled together to fight tyranny. It also introduces students to what is called "hard history," those difficult and sometimes uncomfortable topics that challenge long-held beliefs.
"Not everyone received this freedom — African Americans, women, Native Americans. This would also be a good time to discuss why some people don't celebrate this holiday. July 4 is a celebration of freedom and liberty, but it is also a reminder that enslaved people were seen as property and not given citizenship until much later and then still not treated as equal citizens of this country. This would be a whole other discussion.
"Overall, it's an opportunity to connect students with the foundational principles of freedom and independence upon which the nation was built, while fostering a sense of patriotism and encouraging active participation in their democracy."
The Declaration is a goal rather than a statement of fact
The ideals of the Declaration should be seen as a "goal that we shoot for as a nation, the best angels of our nation," Wiley said. "Not to say that we hit the mark. To suggest so is asinine. History doesn't bear out that we hit the mark by any stretch. But the goal should remain unchanged — that the aim should remain true."
Jillian Mors, a teacher at Hanes Middle School, said teaching the Declaration goes beyond facts.
"It's really about breaking down what the document means, the events that included specific grievances, and outlining the future goals of the people of the United States of America," she said.
lodonnell@wsjournal.com 336-727-7420 | @lisaodonnellWSJ
