Since the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001, our nation has experienced a renaissance of patriotism. Nearly everywhere you look, four years after the fact and nearly three years after the invasion of Iraq, you will see the Stars and Stripes being proudly displayed. American flags and yellow "support the troops" ribbons are a common site.

When I attended the 59th Annual All-State Concert in Ames Nov. 19 to see my daughter perform, I sang the national anthem with everyone else in attendance. I thought little about singing the anthem, since it is a ritual observed at many public gatherings. What took me aback was the explanation of why we were singing this time.

There is a national movement to teach the anthem and other patriotic songs to our children. According to a poll conducted by the Harris group, over half of Americans (61%) don't know all the words to the Star Spangled Banner. The National Association of Music Educators (MENC) launched The National Anthem Project (www.the nationalanthemproject.org) to teach the anthem, as well as highlight the effects on our society of cuts to music programs.

According to the Harris survey, more than 70 percent of Americans learned the National Anthem in school music class, five percent of respondents reported learning it at sporting events, and 13 percent can't recall where they learned it.

ABC News polled teens and found the following:

* One in three (38%) don't know the official name of National Anthem (Star-Spangled Banner)

* Less than 35 percent of American teens can name the author of the National Anthem (Francis Scott Key)

* As few as 15 percent of American youth can sing the words to the anthem from memory

Included inside the program at the All-State concert were the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner. I must admit some ignorance here, as well. I did not know that there were four verses to our national anthem. Did you? In doing some research for this article, I perused the MENC's website. I found a couple of interesting items. In 1918, after the end of World War I "The war to end all wars, " Peter W. Dykema, who was president of MENC at the time, suggested that the final verse be sung on occasions when only one verse was sung. If only one stanza is sung, Dykema thought it should be the one that set forth the aspirations of the American people as well as embodied the principles of the then newly founded United Nations.

I also found this quote: "For those of us whose days are spent surrounded by youth and music, the way lies clear ahead. Our music must be more plentiful and more generally beautiful than ever before, because the need for healing and the need for inspiring are greater. And we must help make more opportunities for participation, more opportunities for listening. These are days in which we must think clearly and act vigorously, if we are to meet the challenge to education implicit in the current challenge to democracy." Helen C. Dill wrote those words in February of 1942. Funny how history has a way of repeating itself, isn't it?

I hope this project gains momentum. It is truly a sad commentary on our nation and society when we don't know the words to our national anthem. It's also sad that music educators have to use this issue to draw attention to importance of music education in our every day lives.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.

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The Star-Spangled Banner

O say! can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen, thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the mornings first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream;
'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner: O long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that has made and preserved us as a nation.
Then conquer we must, when for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Francis Scott Key