It’s time to get serious about civics. States must require that it be taught and learned. Teachers must be deeply grounded in it and prepared to teach it. Schools — elementary, middle, and high schools — must make time for it in their schedules. We need top-quality curricula that contain essential knowledge, impart vital skills, and don’t shy away from what Alexis de Tocqueville termed “reflective patriotism.”
Yes, this has all been said before, but far too little has been done to put all those parts in place.
That’s why, for example, the Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Good American Citizenship reports found that just four states — Idaho, Louisiana, Virginia and West Virginia — insist that their high schools teach a full year of civics and that their students
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