Which American president is known as "the Father of his country"? Not long ago, every American child of 10 could promptly fire back, "George Washington." These days, however, young people are more likely to scratch their heads.

There's growing evidence that contemporary Americans know little about the most important leaders and events of our nation's history. This spring, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) announced new evidence of this disturbing trend. NAEP's nationwide test of fourth-, eighth-and 12th-graders revealed that 57 percent of high school seniors do not have even a basic grasp of American history. Among fourth-graders, only 7 percent could identify "an important event" that took place in Philadelphia in 1776.

No American hero has suffered more from this historical amnesia than George Washington -- our nation's first president, and traditionally its most revered leader. Indeed, historians have begun to warn of something that our forebears could scarcely have imagined. In the course of a single generation, they tell us, George Washington has essentially vanished from our national consciousness.

It is hard to exaggerate the significance of this development for our national self-understanding. For Washington -- more than any other public figure -- was the progenitor of our heritage of freedom and self-government. As general of the ragtag Continental Army, he secured America's independence. As presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention, he skillfully piloted our nation's Constitution into being. During his presidency, his wise and prudent leadership demonstrated to a doubting world that self-government could work. Finally, in a supreme act of statesmanship, he ensured America's republican future by relinquishing his presidential power to return to private life.

Today, over 200 years after Washington left office, historians still regard him as our nation's greatest president. (In a 2000 survey of scholars conducted by the Wall Street Journal, Washington won top honors.) Until recently, ordinary Americans heartily concurred. They understood Washington's accomplishments because they had studied them in detail in school. They had also regularly seen his portrait on classroom walls; celebrated his birthday as a national holiday, and read or recited his celebrated farewell address.

These things are no longer true. The result? In 2001, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll asked ordinary Americans to name America's greatest president. Only 5 percent chose Washington. Most respondents believed that recent officeholders, like Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy and Bill Clinton, had made greater contributions to American democracy than Washington did.

The decline in knowledge about Washington may be most evident at Mount Vernon, the first president's Virginia home. Until recently, say staff members, visitors knew a good deal about Washington, and made the trip to Mount Vernon because they wished to see where the great man had lived.

Today, things are different. A recent New York Times article about Washington reported the following exchange between two teenage visitors to Mount Vernon. Washington?, said one: "He did something about an apple tree." Her friend made a suggestion. "He cut it down," she said.

Why are Washington's great achievements fading from our memory? In part, it's because of changes in the way our schools teach history. Since the 1970s, political history -- which focuses on notable statesmen and important national events -- has fallen out of favor. Increasingly, many schools stress social and cultural history (so-called "history from the bottom up"), which tends to focus on daily life and the roles of women and ethnic minorities. Social history has a place, of course, but too often it crowds out vital lessons about major American leaders.

But there's something more at work in the demise of Washington's memory. American society today is uncomfortable with the idea of heroism. We willingly pay tribute to the firefighters of Sept. 11, for they were ordinary people, like ourselves, who met a crisis with great courage. But we find it harder to acknowledge true greatness -- the sort exhibited by men and women whose towering achievements set them far above the common plane. Indeed, as dyed-in-the-wool egalitarians, we are often happiest when probing to find great men's feet of clay.

Mount Vernon researchers say that they have noticed this phenomenon in current textbooks about Washington. They offer this example from a high school text: "Was [Washington] simply a symbol, or was he a real hero?" the book asks. The answer? "Americans saw in Washington what they wanted to see . . . . Praise for Washington was partly a kind of self-congratulation for their own brilliance in choosing a president who would lead them to success."

In the end, does our collective amnesia about Washington really matter? Obviously, if we are to expand and defend American democracy, we must understand its roots. Washington's role here is central.

But there's another reason. George Washington is arguably the greatest hero America has produced. Our society -- which generally finds it hard to distinguish between a celebrity and a hero -- can learn much from studying his character and achievements. John Adams, our second president, put it succinctly: "Washington's example is complete; and it will teach wisdom and virtue to Magistrates, Citizens, and Men, not only in the present age, but in future generations."

-- Katherine Kersten is a senior fellow of the Center of the American Experiment in Minneapolis.