The Republic Is Asleep The civic ignorance of American young people is vast, but the tide may be turning. By Larry Sand
https://amgreatness.com/2024/07/17/the-republic-is-asleep/
The scale of America’s civic ignorance is staggering. In June, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) conducted a national survey of college students that delved into their basic knowledge of American history and government and found that significant numbers of college students graduate without even a rudimentary grasp of America’s history and political system.
For example, 60% of college students could not correctly identify the term lengths of members serving in U.S. Congress, and 63% were unable to identify the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Importantly, these were multiple-choice questions. Hence, students didn’t have to recall John Roberts’ name, only recognize it. The same is true for the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, whose name was only known to 35% of students. More than two-thirds didn’t know that impeachment trials occur before the Senate. A majority of students believe that the Constitution was written in 1776 rather than 1787.
On the other hand, 89% know that Jeff Bezos owns Amazon, and 75% are aware that Jay-Z is married to Beyoncé.
While the above numbers are distressing, they are not surprising, as fewer than 20% of American colleges and universities require a course on U.S. government or history to graduate, according to ACTA.
The ACTA report is hardly a one-off. The Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey, released late last year, found that 34% of Americans could not name all three branches of government, 10% could name just two, 7% knew only one, and 17% didn’t know any. Additionally, when respondents were asked to name the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, 77% named freedom of speech, but just 40% knew that freedom of religion is included, 33% named the right to assembly, 28% knew freedom of the press, and a paltry 9% mentioned the right to petition the government.
As Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, points out, a U.S. citizenship test has been in place since 1986. The exam consists of 100 questions about American history, our system of government, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Pondiscio explains, “Immigration officials administer the test orally, asking would-be citizens seeking naturalization 10 of the 100 questions; they must answer at least six correctly to pass. The questions aren’t particularly difficult. They consist of things like naming any one of the three branches of government, how many U.S. senators there are, and naming a right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment. Rock-bottom, basic stuff.”
Interestingly, while 96% of immigrants seeking naturalization pass the test, a 2018 survey revealed that just 13% of Americans at large knew when the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Amazingly, a majority couldn’t say which countries the U.S. fought in World War II, and only one in four could say why American colonists fought a war against Great Britain.
Older Americans did better, with 74% answering at least six in 10 questions correctly. Pondiscio notes, “But among those under the age of 45, only one in five passes, which says a lot about the state of civics in U.S. schools, whose founding purpose once upon a time was to prepare the citizenry for self-government.”
Our civic ignorance is not solely due to our colleges. The latest NAEP U.S. history and civics test, taken in 2022, reveals that just 13% of eighth graders meet proficiency standards for U.S. history, meaning they could “explain major themes, periods, events, people, ideas and turning points in the country’s history.” Additionally, about 20% of students scored at or above the proficient level in civics. Both scores represent all-time lows on these two tests.
Public schools earn their due when it comes to teaching other things, however. On anything related to cultural Marxism—Critical Race Theory (CRT), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), etc.—they do an exceptional job! If you want to expose your kid to gender fluidity quackery, government schools are the place to be.
The rot has even spread to the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) or “Pentagon schools.” According to a new Open The Books report, teachers at Pentagon schools push DEI on teachers and promote materials that train students to be social justice activists.
Open The Books CEO Adam Andrzejewski explains, “These military service members are deployed abroad to defend and embody American ideals on the world stage. Yet their children are being indoctrinated with a philosophy that places complex racial and gender identities over national pride. In fact, pushing students toward activism and teaching them that their relative privilege dictates their life experience can actually alienate them from the American dream.”
The DODEA, for instance, recommends that its employees embrace strategies to talk about “race, power, and systems of oppression” in ways that lead to changes in teaching behavior, as laid out in the book “Coaching for Equity,” according to documents obtained by Open The Books. “Coaching for Equity” criticizes capitalism, Thanksgiving, and patriarchy while claiming that America was founded on stolen land, according to the report.
It’s important to note that private schools outperform public schools in civics. Patrick Wolf, Professor of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas, and M. Danish Shakeel, a professor at the University of Buckingham, UK, headed up a research team that dug into the issue and found that “private schools outperform public schools in forming citizens, particularly in promoting political tolerance, political knowledge and skills, and voluntarism and social capital.”
The good news is that there are seeds of pushback. Legislatures in Indiana, New Hampshire, and Utah have enacted new K-12 civic education requirements.
Additionally, Hans Zeiger, president of the Jack Miller Center, reports that groups such as the Bill of Rights Institute, the National Constitution Center, iCivics, and the American Legion “are drawing on the abundant resources of American civil society to give civics the attention it deserves.” Lawyers’ associations like the Indiana Bar Foundation, business coalitions like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Business for America, and philanthropic foundations like the Daniels Fund of Colorado and the Robert McCormick Foundation of Chicago “are taking leadership roles in this burgeoning movement.” In higher education, schools in eight states are offering “coursework on the intellectual foundations of American civic life.”
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a woman asked Ben Franklin, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?”
Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
We are two years out from the 250th anniversary of American independence, and the battle to keep it is mounting.
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