If you were born in this country, there is a high probability that you know less about the Constitution and American history than do immigrants who become citizens. And various studies indicate that you might also flunk the citizenship exam.
Many of us can name the family members of the cartoon Simpsons, but struggle to name the three branches of government, according to the Annenberg Public Policy Center. And when it comes to First Amendment freedoms, many of us are doing well to remember one of the five — speech, religion, press, assembly and petition of the government — and not invent a couple that fit our worldview.
A nation is bound together by a common understanding of citizenship and civic responsibility. This is why we are excited that Educating for American Democracy — the brainchild of the Education Department and the National Endowment for the Humanities — is proposing a new road map for teaching social studies, history and civics.
The project’s goal is to thoughtfully invest in teacher training and curriculum to inspire K-12 students to be constructively involved in their communities, embrace compromise, promote civic honesty and patriotism as guiding principles, and teach history and civics through timelines and themes of our history.
The moment is right for this investment in ourselves. Distrust of government runs dangerously high, conspiracy theories proliferate social media, alternate facts are considered facts and disagreements become an excuse for violent resolutions.
Enough of us don’t understand or appreciate the importance of checks and balances, separation of powers, federalism, equal protection, due process and the protection of minority rights. In many ways, the attack on the U.S. Capitol highlighted the stunning disconnect between core constitutional principles and those who have their own twisted understanding of what democracy and patriotism mean.
America has thought and implemented big ideas before. In the 1950s, the Cold War-era space race led to improved science education, technological breakthroughs and an American on the moon in 1969. And nearly 40 years ago, a landmark report called “A Nation at Risk” argued that “a high level of shared education is essential to a free, democratic society.” That report spawned an overdue refocus on math, science, English, and foreign languages that unfortunately came at the expense of civics, history and social studies.
This worthy effort must not disintegrate into factious disputes as did the controversial Common Core State Standards Initiative, which attempted to set unified expectations for what students should know and be able to do at each grade level in preparation for college and the workforce. For one, this civics initiative does not establish a national curriculum, or a set of instructional standards, a level of flexibility that hopefully will reduce friction and specious arguments about indoctrination and mandates that dogged Common Core.
Refocusing educational time on civics reinforces the importance of engaged citizens in our system of government. We can’t protect our fragile freedoms if we are ill-equipped to honor our responsibilities to each other, our institutions and ourselves. A republic that has enough self-respect to teach itself civics is a republic that will long endure.
