On the 250th anniversary of American liberty, we may well take a good, hard look at ensuring that the coming generation has a better grounding in how this country works, how it’s supposed to work, and perhaps more important, why it works the way it does. That means teaching civics, something the American education system isn’t doing much anymore.
The Trump administration may be changing all that by bringing a new emphasis on civics to our schools.
As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Department of Education and a coalition of organizations launched a nationwide initiative to strengthen civics education amid concerns about students’ understanding of American history and government.
The America 250 Civics Education Coalition, led by the America First Policy Institute in partnership with the Education Department and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, officially launched on Sept. 17, Constitution Day, commemorating the document’s signing on Sept. 17, 1787.
The coalition’s mission is to strengthen civic literacy and encourage greater understanding of the nation’s founding principles through educational programming leading up to Saturday’s celebration of the nation’s Independence Day.
Watch:
That’s a good idea.
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The current state of affairs in civics education, it seems, isn’t encouraging.
“One of the first things we did was kind of a diagnostic on where we are in civic education, and that was kind of the sobering news,” said Michael Shires, vice chair of education opportunity, higher education and senior policy officer at America First Policy Institute. Shires talked to The Center Square during an exclusive interview.
What’s more, there’s nothing wrong with touting America’s successes. We used to; I remember my own classes in Civics, back in the early 70s, and we did so then. What changed? Well, the left, as part of the long march through the institutions, has taken over our school systems. That, too, needs to change.
Shires pointed to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which found that only 23% of eighth graders scored at or above proficiency in civics education.
“The numbers would say that we’re not doing a very good job of passing that along to the next generation,” Shires told The Center Square.
He argued civics instruction has increasingly emphasized the nation’s shortcomings while overlooking the many positives of U.S. achievements.
“A big part of how we got here is we just stopped telling the stories of what was good about America,” Shires said. “We’ve gotten much more proficient at telling the negative stories and forgotten to tell many of the positive stories.”
As you might expect, I have some ideas.
If the government is going to be involved in education, why not at least use that involvement to effect some positive change? It seems a good place to start would be with the Constitution, how it came to be, and why the Articles of Confederation that preceded it were overwritten. Move on to the Bill of Rights, what each one means, and why the Founders put them in place. Had I my druthers, students would also read and discuss the Federalist Papers, as well as the less well-organized Anti-Federalist Papers.
It doesn’t seem enough to know how the country works. Students should learn why it works the way it does.
The left will dismiss this as propagandizing. It’s not. It’s history. It’s how we got to where we are today, and what has happened along the way. Students should know where we are and what the original intent was. If we are going to involve government in education – a questionable notion, but that’s where we are at the moment – then we may as well push to have that involvement actually result in some improvement. Strengthening our nation’s civics education would be a decent start.
Editor’s Note: President Trump is fighting to ensure America’s kids get the education they deserve.
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