The Civic Education Crisis: How We Got Here, What We Must Do is a call to action, an effort to save our republic through better civic education.
America faces a crisis in civic education that imperils the long-term health of the country. Too many Americans—especially young people—do not have the knowledge of history and principles necessary to sustain the republic. In what has become a vicious cycle, young people are not learning about their country—its history and how it works—and they grow up disengaged and distrustful.
Recent national test results of student knowledge of US history and government show that the cycle begins with the sad state of civic education in schools. The recent 2020 report of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that only 24 percent of eighth graders tested were “proficient” or better in their knowledge of government and proficiency in US history dropped to an anemic 15 percent.
At a deeper level, the crisis is not simply about facts and information. It is a crisis of understanding and devotion. Too many young people do not understand the principles of self-government on which America was founded. And they do not understand America's history as the story of the struggle to live up to those principles of freedom articulated in documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Instead, too many believe that America's story is essentially one of oppression, not freedom—injustice, not hope.
In the first half of the book, authors Jeff Sikkenga and David Davenport diagnose the problem while proposing solutions in the second half. Truly, America faces a civics crisis and action is needed now to reverse the trend.
