by Jason Bedrick
As we celebrate our independence on July 4, Americans should reflect on what is necessary for a nation born of liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal to long endure.
A free nation needs an education in civics and the virtues necessary to maintain freedom.
In his 1838 High school addressYoung Abraham Lincoln, then a state legislator in Illinois, pondered the “perpetuation of our political institutions” after the murder by a bloody mob of Elijah Lovejoy, an outspoken abolitionist who ran an anti-slavery newspaper.
Lincoln warned that while no foreign power could conquer us, destruction could come from within if the rule of law were replaced by mob rule.
Lawlessness breeds anarchy, he observed. If “the malicious part [the] the population will be able to gather in groups of hundreds and thousands, burn churches, plunder and rob grocery stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn disgusting persons at will and with impunity… this government cannot last forever.”
The solution, Lincoln argued, is a commitment to the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law. Nurturing this commitment would be the highest duty of every citizen who has the ability to influence others, including parents, educators, preachers, and politicians:
Let respect for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping child that babbles on her knee. Let it be taught in schools, seminaries, and colleges. Let it be written in primers, spelling books, and almanacs. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in the halls of the legislature, and enforced in the courts.
Unfortunately, the American education system currently fails in this duty. But there is hope.
1) Americans are failing at civics
Public schools are supposed to prepare students for their responsibilities democratic self-government. At a minimum, this requires knowledge of how our system of government works and an understanding of the principles that animate it.
Unfortunately, the level of civics in America is pathetic.
According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center Annual surveyOne-third of American adults cannot name three branches of government—and 17% cannot name any branch. Similarly, only 5% of Americans can name all five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. Twenty percent cannot name any.
It’s getting worse.
AND questionnaire earlier this year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that more than 70% of Americans failed a basic civics test on the “core functions of our democracy.” Only half correctly identified the branch where bills become laws. A third didn’t even know there was If three branches of government.
America’s schools bear much of the blame. In the latest National Assessment for Educational Progress, the performance of American students in history has reached an all-time low. Only 13 percent scored at or above the proficient level, while two-fifths of eighth-grade students scored below basic proficiency—meaning“they probably cannot identify simple historical concepts in primary or secondary sources.”
American students also performed poorly on the NAEP social studies exam, with only 22% of American eighth graders scoring at or above proficient. Nearly one-third “cannot describe the structure or functions of government.”
2) Schools do not teach founding ideas
Students cannot learn what they have not been taught.
Unfortunately, as Dan Currell and Elle Rogers detailed in National Affairs“The ideas that underpinned American history – equality, natural rights, consent of the governed – have disappeared from U.S. history textbooks.”
“America’s History” ranks among the leading textbooks for Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH), a rite of passage that half a million newborn Americans undergo each year. “America’s History” is 1,035 pages long, but its discussion of the Declaration of Independence totals 344 words. …
Apart from a few scattered references, this is how the student ends his encounter with the most significant political document of our country – and perhaps the world – until it appears in an appendix 858 pages later.
“American History” is not uncommon. The most widely used APUSH textbook is “The American Pageant,” another thousand-page doorstop coauthored by historians from Stanford and Harvard. It, too, subordinates ideas to the history of identity groups and factions vying for power and economic advantage. For example, the “Road to Revolution” chapter contains 16 test questions, nine of which deal with trade, taxes, and budgets; five deal with military squabbles; one deals with Republican and Whig ideologies; and one asks about the material conditions that gave rise to revolutionary ideas.
The latter textbook also makes a cursory omission of the United States Constitution, devoting “slightly more space to it than [“The American Pageant”] attributes to transcendentalism.” The handbook devotes about twice as much space to Charles Beard’s 1913 “Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States,” “a discredited conspiracy theory about the financial motivations of the Founding Fathers in writing the Constitution,” as it does to the Federalist Papers, in which prominent Founding Fathers presented their arguments for the Constitution.
If American students are not learning the principles of the American Revolution, what are they learning?
3) Schools indoctrinate leftist activists
The vacuum created by the lack of teaching the ideas and ideals of the American founders is being filled by a growing emphasis on left-wing activism.
Instead of classic civics that focuses on the knowledge and virtues necessary for self-government, too many American schools now promote “civic action.”
What’s the difference? As David Randall of the National Association of Scholars said explain:
[I]In history and government classes, “action civics” students spend class time and receive credit for work with “nongovernmental organizations.” This substitution lowers teachers’ and students’ respect for classroom instruction, which in itself lacks sufficient civic purpose. It limits the restricted time available for students to actually learn about their country’s history and the nature of their republic.
Most importantly, it introduces a pedagogy that makes it easier for teachers to impose their personal preferences on students by influencing the process by which students choose the “social partners” with whom they want to work. It also facilitates peer pressure to impose group preferences on individual, dissenting students. We can see that proponents of “active citizenship” clearly distinguish this activity from volunteering: dynamic citizenship aims to change the political system, not to support civil society.
In other words, “civic action“focuses less on understanding how our system of government works or the principles on which it is based, and more on training activists for leftist ideas.
In Citizenship in Action courses, students receive credit for participating in protests or supporting progressive organizations. For example, “Teacher Resources“the website of Educating for American Democracy, a group promoting civic action, has links to resources from left-wing organizations such as Southern Poverty Law Centerwhose “Learning for Justice“the curriculum includes lessons on “intersexuality concepts, privilege, and oppression.”
It is no wonder that today’s university campuses are flooded anti-American protestswhere students are more likely to defile american flag than defend This.
4) Hope for renewal: Classical education is gaining popularity
But there is still hope for the nation Lincoln called “the last best hope on earth.”
American parents are currently experiencing a great educational awakening in which they are rediscovering the form of education –classical education—so appreciated by us Founding Fathers.
Classical education focuses on shaping the minds and hearts of students through the pursuit of goodness, truth, and beauty. It takes seriously the formation of the human person morally, intellectually, and aesthetically.
In classical schools, children are introduced to the Great Books – the best ever conceived and told – in order to develop a deep understanding of the foundations of our civilization.
The classical approach to civics places a hefty emphasis on primary sources, such as the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Federalist Papers. A classical education emphasizes the importance of civic life, but students are taught to understand it before they are encouraged to act.
Parents are massively choosing classic schools. According to a recent analysis According to data from Arcadia Education, more than 677,500 students attended 1,551 classical schools in the 2023–2024 school year.
Classical schools are growing at a rate of about 5% per year. In the last four years alone, more than 260 fresh classical schools have opened. Arcadia predicts that by 2035, more than 1.4 million students will be enrolled in classical schools or will be receiving a classical education at home.
“Classical education gives us a chance to rekindle the flame of the West before it goes out” noticed Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters. “To have a future, we must begin to learn from our past.”
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Jason Bedrick is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Education Policy Center.
