Civic Education Deficiencies Weaken Social Fabric

Glenn Ricketts

Amid the current fierce congressional debate over immigration reform, AEI resident scholar and long-time NAS member Christina Hoff Sommers discusses the sorry state of civics education in the U.S. At one time, she argues, knowledge of American history and the constitutional system which grew out of it was a powerful national unifier and assisted many new immigrants in becoming knowledgeable, full-fledged members of the body politic.

That’s far from the case now, and not only for new immigrants. As Sommers notes, a long series of empirical studies, including this recent NAS survey of the curriculum in Texas colleges and universities, thumpingly documents the extent to which U.S. history is not taught nowadays. And if students do take a history course, it’s likely to be narrowly focused on social class, race, ethnicity or gender, from which you won’t learn a whole lot about the Constitution, the Civil War or any of the central shaping events unique to U.S. history.

Instead of learning why the framers of the Constitution believed so passionately in the need to separate governmental powers at all levels, students will more likely hear that slavery wasn’t abolished and women couldn’t vote. Both of those statements are accurate, of course, but possibly you’ll agree that there’s a bigger picture in which they need to be situated. 

Right now, that’s not being done very well. And often not at all.

  • Share

Most Commented

January 24, 2024

1.

After Claudine

The idea has caught on that the radical left overplayed its hand in DEI and is now vulnerable to those of us who seek major reforms. This is not, however, the first time that the a......

February 13, 2024

2.

The Great Academic Divorce with China

All signs show that American education is beginning a long and painful divorce with the People’s Republic of China. But will academia go through with it?...

October 31, 2023

3.

University of Washington Violated Non-Discrimination Policy, Internal Report Finds

A faculty hiring committee at the University of Washington “inappropriately considered candidates’ races when determining the order of offers,” provided “disparate op......

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

July 8, 2011

3.

Ask a Scholar: What Is Structural-Functionalism, Conflict Theory and Symbolic Interactionism?

Professor Jonathan Imber clarifies concepts of sociologocal theory....