Save America, Bring Back Civics

How can we make good citizens, when we ignore good civics?

American eagle

Think back to your school days. Did you have a thorough education on the United States Constitution? How about the Bill of Rights? The various amendments? Or, to get more esoteric, the Articles of Confederation?

If you are like most Americans, including members of Congress, you received at most just a bit of information about these seminal documents before graduating from high school. Don’t feel too bad. In a recent survey, most respondents could not name a single Constitutional right. Not even the freedom of religion or freedom of the press.  Just one in four of us could describe the separation of powers. Only one in three could name a single branch of the federal government.

I believe our ignorance about the formation of our republic is one reason why we argue so much about basic things. If a majority believe illegal immigrants have no rights (in fact, they have the right to ask for asylum) then how can we debate and address the problems at our border? An even bigger challenge, affecting more issues, is our general lack of knowledge about the Constitution and the context of all the founding documents.

There are exceptions, of course. I was able to study government in a high school elective course, and all students the the state of Illinois, where I spent nearly all my school years, must take a test on the Constitution in junior high or middle school. However, I wouldn’t call either experience true civic education, where lessons in history, government, politics, and the responsibilities of citizenship are given comprehensive attention.

It didn’t use to be this way. Indeed, for most of the 20^th Century public schoolchildren across the country received comprehensive mandatory lessons in civics. In some places, as reported in 1929 by the authors of the famous Middletown Study, civics was taught as early as elementary school and continued every year through high school.

Through civics education, students learned to appreciate the ingenious checks-and-balances system created by our founders. They learned to take pride in the patriots who fought for independence and a government, for, of, and by the people. They came to feel grateful for the successful defense of our unity accomplished by the North’s victory in the Civil War and aware of the country’s transition to superpower status, with all the responsibility that comes with it.

As students became adults, the success of civic education could be seen in the stability of our democracy and the respectful quality of our politics. The status quo came under criticism in the 1960s when first, the civil rights activists and then antiwar protesters argued that too many courses omitted the ways the original Constitution made many people into second-class citizens as well as the legacies of slavery and racism. As parents and teachers rallied against traditional civics many teachers found they just couldn’t please all sides and gave up. The death knell came for civics when, in the late 1970s, a backlash arose as conservatives declared that courses and teachers were too liberal. By 1990 compulsory civics courses had essentially disappeared. (Not coincidentally, in my opinion, a long-running survey found that high school students who once said they hoped to become upstanding members of a community, said their primary ambition was to be rich and famous.)

I can understand both sides of the 20th-century debate.  The negatives in our history, placed in the context of the times, should not be denied. But I also think that given our status as the world’s first modern democracy and long-standing beacon for the world, the negatives should never outweigh the positives. I even see some room for the old-fashioned folklore – George Washington and the cherry tree – even though it may be offered with disclaimers. 

The benefits of reviving civics education would be seen immediately, as our children come home from school with a newfound appreciation for America, and in the long run, with more respect for each other as citizens who value the great experiment about our country. And who knows, the number of people who run for local offices, show up for public meetings, and vote in our elections might rise.

Of course, it would be not easy to bring civics back. It would likely require lots of discussion, debate, and maybe even conflict, in school districts. But consider where we are today in our politics and I think you would agree the effort would be worth it.

And oh, about those Articles of Confederation. They set the structure of our national government from 1781 to 1789 when they were superseded by the Constitution. You probably know this. Here’s hoping that soon American kids will too.