March 24, 2020 by Philip Lewenstein

Developing Unity out of Diversity: A Lesson from My Uncle 62 Years Ago

One day, when I was about ten years- old, a package arrived at our house in Duluth. Inside was a new high-school textbook, Our American Government Today, coauthored by my uncle, Morris (Morrie) Lewenstein, then an assistant professor of social sciences and education at San Francisco State College.

The book is a comprehensive overview of all level and branches of government. Occasionally, I would refer to the book as I developed an early interest in government.

A few weeks ago, 62 years later, I came across the book as I was preparing a blog on Morrie’s wife, Ida, and her success as a writer/poet. The book had landed on my bookshelf after many years in my late mother’s house and apartment.

As I scanned the book, I was struck by its theme, Our Unified Diversity, found in the preface to Unit 1.This theme is in stark contrast to our current government and its leadership that engenders division, devalues diversity, and enacts policies to limit many people’s rights.

Following are some excerpts from the Unit 1 preface:

The United States is a nation of great variety. Its resources are varied, making all kinds of occupations available to citizens. There are many kinds of people in the country. These people have many talents and skills. They earn their living in many different ways. They or their ancestors came from many countries all over the world. They follow many different religions. Some are rich; some are poor; most of them are somewhere in between. A great variety of cultural activities carried on in the country give Americans a wide choice.

The government plays a very important role. Unity is being achieved through a democratic government, one that is bound to promote both individual and group interests. In a democracy people respect one another’s rights and privileges. Rights are guaranteed to all. Citizens share in the responsibility of maintaining those rights. Shared respect and shared responsibility are the foundations of our government. They are gained under a republican federal government based on democratic principles. Government officials are chosen by the people. Their power is limited.

Americans have many different interests. Under a democratic government they are free to follow their own interests, but they must protect the interests of others. The responsibility rests largely upon the citizens themselves. They have it in their power to make the American brand of government really live. We can develop unity out of diversity, a united people with many and diverse interests.

From Our American Government Today

The textbook focuses on people because people are the government, and the book recognizes and respects differences. With these differences, sometimes conflicts arise between individuals and groups. Yet as the diversity has grown with the country, so has the tendency to work together, the book concludes.

These values and principles have been diminished in recent years, particularly by the attitudes and actions of the Trump administration, whose officials could benefit from the lessons of this 1950s textbook. Morrie, who died in 2003, would be appalled and distressed by much of what is occurring today.

Morrie cowrote the textbook early in what became a 40-year career at San Francisco State, where he influenced generations of high-school social-studies teachers.

Born in Duluth, he grew up in the small Minnesota Iron Range mining town of Marble with my father, Irv, and another brother, Harry. He began his education journey at a local junior college. He earned a scholarship to the University of Chicago, where he earned BA and MA degrees, then earned a PhD from the University of Illinois. He taught high-school social studies in Illinois public schools.

Morrie founded San Francisco State’s first social-science program. In 1963, he wrote Teaching Social Studies in Junior and Senior High Schools: An Ends and Means Approach. Morrie helped design the university’s nationally recognized general-education program. A veteran of the Peace Corps, he co-directed the Peace Corps training for Chad and Niger and traveled to those countries to oversee the project. Morrie served as secretary of the Academic Senate and as legislative chair of the California State University Retired Faculty Association.

In memory of Morrie, a beautiful granite bench was installed on the main campus quad of San Francisco State University in 2004. Last year, in honor of Morrie’s lifelong passion for learning, Ida funded a new scholarship, the Professor Morris R. Lewenstein Memorial Scholarship.

“With the establishment of this scholarship, I am honoring him and his devotion to social science,” Ida said. “He wanted to make it realistic and give students a better understanding of what’s out there in the world and what is expected of them. I think it’s time to honor him again, and this is the place to do it because he taught there for so long.”

Although separated by two thousand miles, I always enjoyed and valued my visits with Morrie, either on his occasional trips to Minnesota or my visits to his home in Burlingame, California.

He was not a sports fan, but he knew I was. Twice, he surprised me by taking me across the bay to Oakland to watch the A’s baseball team. Another time, he took me to Berkeley for a preseason game at the University of California between my beloved Minnesota Vikings and the Oakland Raiders. I recall these games on sunny, summer afternoons, which provided perfect settings for our conversations on government, politics, and higher education.

Morrie was the greatest conversationalist I have known. He could talk to anybody, including strangers, about anything. He always sought information in his conversations, and he visibly expressed delight when he learned something new. After he learned Spanish in retirement, he thought nothing of striking up a conversation with a stranger if an opportunity to practice Spanish arose, according to Ida.

I enjoyed discussing political issues with him—what was going on in Minnesota and in California. In today’s political climate, he would have a lot to say, and he would be dismayed by what’s happening, so much in contradiction to the values he laid out so articulately 62 years go in his high-school textbook.