This Constitution Day, let’s commit to revitalize civics education in schools

Let’s start with two terrorizing words from school: Pop Quiz! How many of you know that Tuesday, Sept. 17 is a national holiday? It’s Constitution Day (and also Citizenship Day). I am willing to bet that far fewer of you knew that than would have known when it was Independence Day, July 4. Independence Day gets parades and fireworks, Constitution Day is largely lost and forgotten.

Of course, Independence Day is important, celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. But that holiday is mostly about what we as Americans are “free from” — free from King George III with his tyranny and taxes. Even more important to “we the people” today is what we are “free for,” and that is set out in the Constitution, signed on Sept. 17, 1787. Those are the two bookend documents that constitute the founding of our country, one widely celebrated, the other barely noted.

Continuing our pop quiz, how many of you have actually read the Constitution? It’s only 7,500 words, four pages long. Yet, a survey by Marquette Law School a few years ago showed that 57 percent of Americans had never read it. Scores from the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s annual survey about the Constitution suggest that even that score is too low. 

The 2023 Annenberg survey found that two-thirds of Americans cannot name the three branches of government, 17 percent could not name any. Only 5 percent of Americans could name all the rights in the First Amendment to the Constitution, 20 percent could not name any. A survey by Citizens and Scholars showed that only one-third of Americans could pass the U.S. citizenship test (whereas more than 90 percent of immigrants pass).

The problem here is far deeper than our lack of respect for a holiday or the document it celebrates. It is, as Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center, put it, “a crisis of civic education.” We have completely fallen down on what was originally understood to be job one of public schools: preparing students for citizenship. The most recent scores of the NAEP test, better known as the Nation’s Report Card, tells the tale: Only 22 percent of 8th graders score proficient or better in civics while a meager 14 percent scored proficient or better in U.S. history.

Several education “crises” have combined to push the teaching of history and civics out of the center of the school curriculum. The Soviet launch of Sputnik in the late 1950s convinced educators we needed more science in schools. Poor scores on international tests in reading and math resulted in further changes to the curriculum, culminating in the huge regime of testing demanded by the No Child Left Behind Law in 2001. Now STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education to help kids prepare for jobs is the rage. One data point speaks clearly about the current priority: The federal government spends $50 per student per year on STEM and only 5 cents on civics.

We need our own revolutionary moment now about the teaching of civics and history. We must restore the teaching of civics at the elementary and middle school levels where it has all but disappeared. State legislatures and school boards should require a full-year high school course in civics and government. Civics classes need to be about more than memorizing and regurgitating dates and events on tests. Students should be challenged to read primary documents of the period they are studying and engage in deep discussion about them. The question at every turn is:  What does it mean to be an American, and why? How will students come to trust their government, vote and engage as citizens—all current problems—otherwise?

In his farewell message, President Ronald Reagan warned about our failure to convey the story and spirit of America to each new generation, calling for “more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.” Our purpose, he rightly said, was to develop “informed patriots.” That’s exactly what Constitution Day needs to be about this year, rededicating ourselves and our schools to knowing and celebrating the Constitution and developing a new generation of informed patriots. 

David Davenport is a research fellow emeritus at the Hoover Institution. He and Jeffrey Sikkenga are the co-authors of a new book: “A Republic If We Can Teach It: Fixing America’s Civic Education Crisis.”