About the Grateful American™ Book Prize
David Bruce Smith’s Grateful American Foundation was founded on President’s Day 2014, with a mission to restore enthusiasm in American history for kids—and adults. The organization seeks to provide interest, insight, and to increase awareness about the people and events that influenced the founding of the United States. Smith has boundless enthusiasm for American History and a limitless longing to share it with America’s schoolchildren. So, it’s no wonder that the author and publisher co-created the Grateful American Book Prize the following year.
The Prize
The Grateful American Book Prize was co-founded by David Bruce Smith and Dr. Bruce Cole, the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in 2015. It is awarded annually to the authors of books for children, ages 11 to 15; they can be works of historical fiction, fiction, non-fiction, and biographies. “We are looking for excellence in writing and storytelling.”
The Prize consists of a $13,000 cash award in commemoration of the 13 original Colonies, and a lifetime membership to The New York Historical. In addition, the winner receives a silver medallion designed by Smith’s mother, the renowned artist, Clarice Smith. The two “Honorable Mentions” get $500 each and the silver medallion.
“Our objective is to emphasize the importance of American history—no matter your nationality or what part of the country in which you reside. Many history books are regional or ethnic in their approach; in some cases, they seem to serve a personal interest that distorts the way kids are educated. Our intent is to ensure that facts are presented accurately and not based on a biased interpretation that inhibits understanding—rather than—promoting it,” according to Smith.
Grateful American Book Prize Submission Form
This literary award is David Bruce Smith’s way of recognizing authors who create absorbing works of literature for 7th to 9th graders about American events and personalities—an idea suggested to him by the late Dr. Bruce Cole, the former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Dr. Cole and Smith had long shared their concern that history has been subjugated by science and math.
“Over the past several decades schools have gradually de-emphasized history in the classroom with the result that kids today do not know who George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were,” Smith is quick to note.
In fact, he cited an Internet history survey of about 1,000 Americans conducted by the American Revolution Center. “A shocking 83% of those who took the test failed miserably. Half of them did not know that the American Revolution took place before the Civil War. It was an extremely embarrassing way to prove how little people know about even the most basic facts of the country’s past.”
Cole said that one reason “practical” subjects are stressed in our schools today is because math and science are the cornerstones of the high-tech world in which we live. But, he added, “I’m not so sure that having a degree in a technical subject offers easier access to a job than a degree in history.”
A Grateful American
Smith had a close relationship with his grandfather, real estate developer and philanthropist Charles E. Smith, a Russian immigrant who came to America in 1911; he was the one who influenced David’s interest in history.
His father, Robert H. Smith, who assumed leadership of the Smith family real estate concerns, and his mother, the renowned artist, Clarice Smith, reinforced David’s love of history. “They believed in education and felt very fortunate to be able to live in a country where you could say and think anything you wanted.”
“I was energized by their enthusiasm,—and, from the time I was in third grade I became an eager reader of books, especially biographies. As a matter of fact, once I was criticized by an English teacher for reading too many biographies and not enough fiction,” David recalled.
His father often referred to himself as a “Grateful American;” that was a sentiment; after he passed, Smith named “The Grateful American Foundation” after him—”that’s a noun, and now, his son, who is in the military, defending the country is the “verb.”
‘Historical Amnesiacs’
Dr. Cole has described the U.S. as “a country of historical amnesiacs” and the surveys and statistics bear him out. Kids today are hard pressed to describe key historical documents such as the Bill of Rights or to identify important historical figures, including our Founding Fathers. Many don’t know the roles George Washington, Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson played in the founding of America.
In fact, the National Assessment of Educational Progress Report of 2010 revealed that less than a quarter of fourth grade students knew that George Washington was the first president of the United States. Another study of children in elementary school showed that 25% of the kids they asked said Columbus sailed not in 1492, as the old rhyme has it, but sometime after 1750.
As Bruce Cole put it: “…we’re not united by blood or by land or by common religion, but by ideas and ideals. And if we don’t know those, then our democracy is imperiled. And tests and polls and studies have shown that our citizens, but especially our young people, don’t know enough about where we’ve come from and how the past informs the present and has some bearing for the future.”
Dr. Cole believes that the Grateful American™ Book Prize for factual children’s books on history will make a significant contribution to fulfilling the need for young learners to understand their past, present and future. And, he said, it will encourage established authors and writers who are just getting started to write good, readable books about American history.
History provides logical context
An Associated Press analysis concluded that history teaches us “how to become better citizens.” It reinforces the notion that students, especially those in grade school, need to know why historical events and the people who helped build the country are so important to us today and in the future.
Former Secretary of Education, Dr. Rod Paige, has always been a proponent of history as part of a well-rounded education: “History is an important and integral part of the foundation upon which our education system is built. It provides a logical context for our lives as Americans. It offers an understanding of how to overcome adversity and how to learn from our mistakes. It teaches us about ourselves—who we are, how the U.S. came to be a model for democracy in the world and why our melting-pot population has played and continues to play such an important role in the country’s development and success. If we don’t teach our children these things, they will be doomed to a lifetime of doubt and struggle.”
Another former Education Secretary, Senator Lamar Alexander, stressed the importance of unity derived from diverse cultures in the teaching of history. He said: “From the founding of our country, we have always understood how important it is for citizens to understand the principles that unite us as a country. Other countries are united by their ethnicity. If you move to Japan for example, you can’t become Japanese. Americans, on the other hand, are united by a few things in which we believe. To become an American citizen, you subscribe to those principles. If there were no agreement on those principles, as Samuel Huntington has noted, we would be the United Nations instead of the United States of America. Still, many children are growing up as ‘civic illiterates,’ not knowing the basic principles that unite us as a country.”
