NCoC: Civic Common Sense: Restoring the Civic Mission of Schools

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Civic Common Sense: Restoring the Civic Mission of Schools

Guardian of Democracy

September 15, 2011

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While many of the statistics about civic knowledge are gloomy, there is reason for hope. There is no problem faced by Americans that is not being solved by Americans somewhere in the country. We today know more than ever before about what policies and practices are effective for passing along civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions to the next generation. Improving civic learning demands a
collective effort by education stakeholders at every level, from the schoolhouse to the White House. The final section of this report includes a comprehensive agenda for policymakers at the national, state, and local levels.

Civic learning is, at its heart, necessary to preserving our system of self-government. In a representative democracy, government is only as good as the citizens who elect its leaders, demand action on pressing issues, hold public officials accountable, and take action to help solve problems in their communities. Our founding fathers, the founders of American public education, and generations of leaders have all recognized the centrality of civic learning to American democracy and to an active civil society upon which it depends.

To neglect civic learning is to neglect a core pillar of American democracy. Our commitments to civic equality, democratic accountability, public deliberation, and a political culture based on shared values all depend on widespread civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions. We face dramatic challenges as a nation, and overcoming them requires revitalizing our government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

The Founders of America were uniquely concerned that in creating a nation expressly founded on rights—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and those many rights guaranteed in amendments to the U.S. Constitution—future generations that were distant from the struggles of the Revolution and its aftermath would need to be reminded of their duties of active citizenship. They made civic education central to that realization.

Civic learning is the tool by which individuals living here become Americans, equipped with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to participate in the life of their nation. Without civic learning, we cannot hope to preserve the republic born over two centuries ago. With it, we can unleash generations of Americans who are prepared to address our greatest challenges and leave future generations with the true blessings of liberty to continue to create a more perfect union.

Civic Common Sense: Our Civic Shortfalls • Benefits of Civic Learning: Promoting Civic Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions

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