Sustaining an American National Identity Requires Civic Education

A s Aristotle explained more than 2,000 years ago, political communities are not merely a group of human beings who happen to be living together in the same geographic area. Rather, they come into being “for the sake of living” and “exist for the sake of living well.” And to succeed — to live well together — each political community needs a shared civic identity. Some countries find it easier to identify their shared goods than others. Citizens of Saudi Arabia share a love for the same religion. Icelanders share the Icelandic language and the sagas that form their national identity. Japanese citizens share a love for their deep and comprehensive tradition as a way of life. Each of these shared loves serves as the basis for a cohesive political community that operates, in part, on the good that is shared. In fact, this has been the story of most political communities throughout human history: Most civilizations start with basic unifying love for shared goods — like religion or stories or traditions — that form the foundation for the political community.

But the United States has followed a different path. Americans do not share a religion, or a language, or a set of stories, or a comprehensive tradition. This was true at the beginning of the Republic and has since become even more so. The Founders recognized this challenge and knew they needed to cultivate a national identity.

This pluralism has been a defining characteristic of America. Think about how the Framers approached religion. Many early Americans had fled from intense persecution. In light of this, the Constitution institutionally separates religion and government on the federal level, while also preserving a wide variety of approaches to religion on the state level. Relatedly, the Founders chose a federal system that allowed the growing number of states the freedom to select the best form of corporate life for their citizens. American states possessed and continue to possess different cultures and ways of life. At the same time, there needed to be national shared goods that formed the foundation for our American political community.

One strategy employed by the Founders was to form a common American identity through a shared civic tradition. But there was a catch: Unlike ethnic heritage or innate communal identity, the civic tradition had to be taught; it had to be handed on. And the Founders were clear-eyed about this. Washington’s Farewell Address explicitly named the promotion of “institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge” as indispensable to republican government. Many efforts were made to cultivate civic education in primary, secondary, and higher education, in order to teach Americans about the shared goods of American civic life. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 explicitly encouraged primary and secondary “schools and the means of education” throughout the vast territory. George Washington led national leaders to found a national university whose purpose would be to form and transmit a national identity, especially to future public officials.

Though the proposal for a national university was never fulfilled institutionally, over the course of the 19th century, in primary, secondary, and institutions of higher learning, citizenship education became a leading goal of American education. In this “education for citizenship,” the study of history, moral philosophy, government, and the great texts of Western and American political thought made up the core of higher education.

While civic education was the heart of 19th-century education, American universities moved away from it between 1870 and 1970. This was the time of the great American research university and the demise of the liberal arts college, particularly colleges with denominational commitments to individual formation. While the focus was on knowledge production, the roots of a shared American civic identity began to decay. The modern research university elevates technical expertise and disciplinary fragmentation over broad civic formation. Students can — and do — leave prestigious universities without reading the Constitution, encountering great works of American literature, or learning about — and embracing — America’s story.

Losing this focus on the formation of citizens has resulted not only in Americans’ lack of knowledge of our shared American civic tradition, but it has also deepened polarization across the nation. Historically, Americans debated and conversed about major issues. They understood the guiding principles — like liberty and justice — and engaged in robust self-government. Now the American people, by ignoring civic education, are losing our shared civic identity. To lose this completely is to lose the basis for a cohesive political community and the national identity that connects us all. If educators continue to ignore our civic tradition, Americans will wander further from cohesion in the community toward polarization.

Increasingly, people are starting to notice this trend. In response, a growing number of universities and states are reemphasizing civic education. They are facing the problem at its core: Our civic identity must be taught. One promising avenue being pursued by dozens of states and their universities is through schools of civic thought. For example, The Ohio State University’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, where I work, and other schools of civic thought enhance the capacity of their universities to teach our shared American civic identity.

At their core, these institutions exist to ground students in traditional education and bring intellectual diversity into higher education. These schools not only provide uniquely intensive civics programs for university students, but they also assist in reinvigorating civic engagement in the community at large. Students enter into conversation with the greatest thinkers in the Western tradition that influenced America’s Founders; they are formed in the virtues needed to bear the responsibilities of self-government, and they learn to cherish the virtues of the American system of government. The centers also assist primary and secondary education through specialized programming for educators, training graduates who enter the workforce, and produce other downstream effects from the upper echelons of academics. All these elements work toward the same end: reintroducing Americans to the shared goods of our American civic tradition.

This renewed commitment arrives at an important moment. As the United States continues to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Americans today, like Americans in the past, face a choice about the future of our Republic. We can continue drifting toward mutual distrust, civic ignorance, and tribal polarization, or we can recover the knowledge, habits, and institutions necessary for continued constitutional self-government. If we can rekindle Americans’ ownership of our common civic tradition, the American people can ensure that the American political community will thrive not just today, but for the next 250 years.