Civics Curriculum Statement & Open Letter

The teaching of American civics in our schools faces a grave new risk. Proponents of programs such as action civics seek to turn the traditional subject of civics into a recruitment tool of the progressive left.

We write to express our objection to this subornation of civics education and to dedicate ourselves to joint work to restore true civics instruction, which teaches American students to comprehend aspects of American government such as the rule of law, the Bill of Rights, elections, elected office, checks and balances, equality under the law, trial by jury, grand juries, civil rights, and military service. American students should learn from these lessons the founding principles of the United States, the structure of our self-governing republic, the functions of government at all levels, and how our key institutions work.

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Education issued A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future (2012), a report which called for a “New Civics” to replace the traditional approach. This new form of civics sidelines instruction on the responsibilities of American citizenship, and instead emphasizes identity politics, highly contestable forms of environmental activism, and a commitment to global citizenship. The New Civics, or “action civics,” replaces classroom civics instruction with political commitment, protest, and vocational training in progressive activism. It does so with the support of the Federal Government and through a host of private organizations such as Generation Citizen and iCivics.

Since 2019 the New Civics advocates have become much bolder. In August 2019, the New York Times launched “The 1619 Project,” which called for “reframing” all of American history (and civics) as the story of white supremacy and black subjection. The 1619 Project’s advocates brag that tens of thousands of students in all 50 states have used its curriculum resources and that “five school systems adopted the project at broad scale.” Not every advocate of action civics supports the 1619 Project, but the 1619 Project Curriculum already promotes action civics lesson plans. Action civics is taking over our K-12 civics and history classrooms. Activists in states such as Massachusetts and Illinois now seek to impose action civics on teachers and students by state law and through mandates by state departments of education.

We oppose all racism and support traditional American pluralism, e pluribus unum—out of many, one. These beliefs are not those of the radical New Civics activists, which espouse identity politics with overlapping ideologies of critical race theory, multiculturalism, and so-called “antiracism.” Unfortunately, these dogmas would ruin our country by destroying our unity, our liberty, and the national culture that sustains them. They have replaced traditional civics, where historical dates and documents are taught, with a New Civics based on the new tribalism of identity politics. Their favored pedagogy is service-learning, alternately called action civics, civic engagement, civic learning, community engagement, project-based civics, and global civics. These all replace civics literacy with a form of left-wing activism that adapts techniques from Alinsky-style community organizing for use in the classroom.

The New Civics has already advanced in America’s education system to a far greater extent than most people realize. It has succeeded partly because it has received unwitting support from those who fail to see the many wolves in sheep’s clothing. Well-intentioned reformers must not collaborate with those promoting an ideology that would destroy America. They should not endorse supposedly nonpartisan New Civics education that is really left-wing activism in disguise. They must instead work for true civics education that explicitly excludes the imposter New Civics and its favored pedagogies.

We endorse the general principles of the Civics Curriculum Statement below and we ask our fellow citizens to join us in working to restore American civics education according to its principles. Some of the signatories prefer different programmatic specifics, such as curriculum standards and testing controlled at the local level rather than the state level. Independent commissions are favored by some but not others. We endorse the Civics Curriculum Statement as a series of exploratory options designed to inspire initiatives by states, local communities, schools, and patriotic citizens, rather than as a binding legislative program. The concern that unites us is the need for legislation that prevents New Civics from retaining any power within America’s schools.

Whereas

• Ever shrinking numbers of American high school graduates and college graduates know crucial facts of the history of the American republic, such as the date of our nation’s founding with the Declaration of Independence, the date or context of the Emancipation Proclamation, The Gettysburg Address, or the speech, I Have a Dream;
• Ever shrinking numbers of American high school graduates and college graduates know the framework of the United States Constitution or principles such as federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, or the Bill of Rights; and
• Instead of this factual and historical knowledge, American students are being subjected to a relentless form of anti-American propaganda teaching that the United States is a uniquely evil and racist country, by means of deceptively named theories and pedagogies such as Action Civics, Anti-Racism, Critical Race Theory, Globalist Civics, and Neo-Marxist forms of “Social Justice” Activism;

We call on all Americans to insist that their local institutions of public education adopt real and rigorous civics education, in both K-12 schools and state universities, and to exclude from these institutions the pseudo-civic education that instills hostility to America and its heritage.

This real civics education will be based on instilling knowledge of historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution and will teach foundational principles of our limited and representative government such as federalism and the separation of powers. It will ban the teaching of political activism and will prepare our young people to become informed citizens in a self-governing republic who respect the differing political viewpoints of fellow Americans.

The 9-12 Civics Curriculum should include:

1. a one-year course on the history and structure of the American government. This course should include and test for knowledge on documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, extracts from the Federalist Papers, and the Emancipation Proclamation.
2. a one-year course on American history from the Mayflower to the present. This sequence should include significant material on the War of Independence and the Constitutional Founding. Throughout, it should be designed to include significant biographical material on exemplary Americans—civic heroes—and to provide both our constitutional history and its historical context. For example, materials and teaching on slavery should situate the American practice of slavery within the pervasive practice of slavery throughout human history and mention how exceptional was the American abolitionist movement.
3. A ban on political activism. The 9-12 Civics Curriculum should contain exclusively academic instruction and should ban any form of political activism, with no credit for and no encouragement of service-learning, civic engagement, action civics, or any cognate activity.

Each state should integrate a college civics curriculum into their public university General Education Requirements. The College Civics Curriculum should include:

1. two semesters of European history, from Periclean Athens to the present, which highlight the historical development of republics and democracies, and the intellectual, social, and cultural developments that have sustained the birth of free nations in Europe. These courses should also fulfill distribution requirements in the Humanities.
2. two semesters of United States history, providing an undergraduate-level survey. These courses should also fulfill distribution requirements in the Social Sciences.
3. two semesters of United States government, fostering students’ ability to engage in intelligent discussion and argument about the core political texts of our republic, and to integrate associated historical material as a supplement (but not a replacement) to close reading of these texts’ actual words. The two courses in the United States government sequence should consist of:
   1. The American Founding. This course should focus on the texts and debates of the period between 1763 and 1796. It should include extracts from philosophical inspirations, such as the works of Locke and Montesquieu; revolutionary polemics by figures such as John Adams and Thomas Paine; close discussion of the work of Thomas Jefferson, including the Declaration of Independence and the Notes on the State of Virginia;the Constitution; the Federalist Papers; the Bill of Rights; and George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796).
   2. The American Debate. This course should focus on the political debate among the different heirs to the Founding Fathers, and the debate’s institutionalization in the party system. This course should include material on the Jacksonian challenge to the remnants of social and political deference in America; the crisis of slavery and secession that led to the Civil War and reshaped America’s constitutional order; the Progressive and New Deal re-modelings of the constitution; a survey of contending philosophies of constitutional interpretation; and a parallel survey of notable judicial decisions from Marbury v. Madison (1803) to District of Columbia v. Heller (2008).

These courses should also fulfill distribution requirements in the Social Sciences.

This College Civics Curriculum should contain exclusively academic instruction, with no credit for and no encouragement of service-learning, civic engagement, action civics, or any cognate activity.

The civics curriculum throughout should emphasize tensions among ideals within the constitutional system—how different liberties can conflict, how some may be irreconcilable, and how some are subject to compromise that leaves mutual dissatisfaction among contending parties.

The civics curriculum, in other words, should teach students to understand their opponents, to live with their political to-do lists unfulfilled, and, most importantly, to understand that true civic engagement includes an appreciation for the constitutional order, whose preservation should be deemed a virtue outweighing any substantive political goal—save only the imperative to preserve every American’s inherent and inalienable liberties, which the Constitution is intended to secure, but did not create.