WASHINGTON – A concerted grassroots movement is making headway in state legislatures across America to consider and pass bills mandating that their schools teach American history and the U.S. Constitution. At the same time, this movement is prepared to clash head-on with the left-wing education establishment.

Dubbed "Operation Enduring Patriotism," plans were outlined by speakers at a We The People Foundation conference at the National Press Club. One participant after the other reminded their followers that the wave of patriotism in the war against terrorism must be more than "flag deep."

"These people in Hollywood who keep saying ‘God bless America’ – this is the first time many of them have uttered the word ‘God’ in years, except for their cursing," said radio talk show host and former ambassador Alan Keyes.

"We know it won’t last," he added. "You cannot trust government to educate your children the value of being free. You have to do it yourself."

Government, unless bound by the curbs of the Constitution, inherently wants to abuse power, he said. "So why would you expect them to be anxious to teach your kids about freedom?"

The state of America’s schools – where American history, American principles of freedom, and America’s heroes are all downgraded or ignored – is "no accident," Keyes said.

"It is an intentional result," the 1996 and 2000 GOP presidential primary candidate added.

"These people [government officials, in and out of education] don’t care for self-government," he warned.

Others on the panel expressed similar sentiments.

Gayle Ruzicka, head of the Utah Eagle Forum, is a home schooler. This mother of 12 and grandmother of eight took her children out of a government school when she realized she was fighting an uphill battle.

"What a difference knowing of the impact our Founding Fathers can make in our lives," she told the gathering. Holding up a copy of the Constitution, Ruzicka said she long ago vowed to see to it that her children would grow up knowing of the "sacred documents" that provided the foundation for our country.

"They [the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence] are the hooks from which we hang our entire history," agreed Ann Douglas Landsberger, an eighth-grade teacher from North Carolina.

Devvy Kidd, president of the Wallace Institute, outlined the necessary careful planning that is being carried out in the neighborhoods across America, not only to get the state lawmakers to enact the enabling legislation to bring back the teaching of American principles in government schools, but to follow up and make certain that the new laws are actually enforced.

"Politicians will ignore the law," she warned.

That prompted a question to the panel from NewsMax.com: It was based on Keyes’ admonition to face the fact that the steady deliberate downgrading of Americanism in schools had been going on "for 40 or 50 years." (Some would say it goes back 100 years to the early 20th-century Fabians who set out to propagandize American children against patriotism.) How, then, is "a well-organized campaign at the grassroots" (Kidd’s wording) to counteract a hostile long-entrenched education establishment?

Bob Schulz, chairman of the We the People Foundation for Constitutional Education Inc., replied that "popular sovereignty" can and will replace the "sovereignty" of government power. "There are enough of us in America" to make the necessary changes, he asserted.

Schulz knows something about popular sovereignty. Earlier this year, he went on a hunger strike that ultimately forced a congressional hearing, now scheduled for February, on the legitimacy of the federal income tax.

A collective determination to make changes from the ground up has a power that is "greater than people think," said Keyes.

Kidd, who works constantly with grassroots efforts in the movement, related a story about a school in Santa Fe, N.M., which sanctioned a textbook containing "language that would make a sailor blush."

"The arrogant school board," she said, refused to listen to popular outrage. Ultimately, the people won and the school board had to back down.

In Rockland, Calif., Kidd went on, the words "God Bless America" were placed on the marquee of a school after the Sept. 11 attacks.

American Civil Liberties Union, of course, protested. But again, determined grassroots Americans who would not back down won the day, and the sign remains.

One other questioner said: "We may lose a battle, but we won’t lose the war. Only by fighting the battles can we achieve victory."

During the seminar, We The People's Web site, displaying a U.S. map, was up on a wide screen. In the mere two hours the discussions were going on, four more states, shaded in blue, were added to those where lawmakers had been convinced to introduce legislation calling for the teaching of Americanism in the schools.

Right now, as the nation is coming together, Keyes told the group, there may be some children who denigrate patriotism "because they have been taught there is no moral clarity." In the past, that has had "disastrous consequences for other societies," he cautioned.

To sum it up: This is a movement that is well-organized, is gaining clout, knows who its powerful enemies are, and is not deterred by the challenge of bringing patriotism back to America’s schools.