Many American students learn little or nothing about our institutions throughout their education. Worse yet, the progressives who dominate our faculties tend to teach them that our institutions are bad. If students hear anything about the Constitution, for example, they’ll probably be told that it was written by racists to protect their power.
We need to do far better with civics education, and in today’s Martin Center article, Richard Johnson and Thomas Lindsay discuss a good program in Texas that is hoping to make a difference.
They write:
At a time when we Americans routinely worry about the health of our civic culture, the U.S. Department of Education has made a notable investment. Earlier this month, the department approved a $1.9-million grant for The American Civic Tradition at 250, a joint initiative of Texas Southern University and West Texas A&M University aimed at improving civic literacy in underserved communities.
Students will study the primary documents — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers — to learn what the Founders sought to accomplish and why.
Johnson and Lindsay continue, “The goal is neither to sanitize history nor to reduce it to an indictment. Instead, the curriculum emphasizes how constitutional principles created the framework for reform and expanded inclusion over time — a view famously articulated by Frederick Douglass, who described the Constitution as a ‘glorious liberty document.’”
Read the whole thing.