Civics

Decades of neglected civics education have resulted in widespread ignorance of America’s history and founding principles.

Margaret Thatcher once said, “European nations were made by history. The United States was made by philosophy. Unique among all nations, the United States knows precisely when and exactly why it was founded.”

Today, that may be changing. Survey after survey shows that Americans have a dismally poor understanding of the founding principles underpinning our nation.

Normally, the annual report from the nation's chief justice doesn't receive much attention. But John Roberts' relatively short missive released on New Year's Day has set off, if not a firestorm, then at least a conflagration of response. And it's all over the map.

Roberts, who last year devoted his report to the treatment of law clerks, focused this year on the role the court plays in promoting civic education. He argues that "we have come to take democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the wayside."

Is access to education a right guaranteed by the Constitution? A federal case in Rhode Island, brought by parents and students, tests the ideals of equal opportunity and participatory democracy.

Last Thursday, the same morning that Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the U.S. House of Representatives would draft articles of impeachment, a federal judge began considering another matter with deep implications for the democracy: whether students have a constitutional right to an adequate public education to prepare them for civic life.

When Congress weighs whether to impeach the president, it is a question of national urgency.

Teachers can help their students understand the impeachment hearings by cultivating the skills required to consider the evidence. They can also help young Americans understand why people see this process in different ways – often based on their political views. Many teachers do this by devoting some time every week to helping students make sense of what is happening.

As we watch young people around the country stand up for climate change, it is impossible not to consider the power of young people to change our world.

Flawed education leaves young Americans clueless about threats to freedom. “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction,” President Reagan once said. One can only imagine how he would have reacted to the first “Annual Report on U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism,” a recent poll by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOCMF).
I know some people like to pile on millennials. But when one third of these young Americans say they believe more people were killed under President George W. Bush than under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, it’s hard not to speak up.

The American Civics Education Initiative is simple.