Editorials & Other Articles

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(128,010 posts) Mon Sep 1, 2025, 01:39 PM Monday

Do Schools Still Teach Civics?

The kids are heading back to school as the Trump administration threatens criminal charges against our state and city officials and broadcast his eagerness to bring federal troops to our streets. So it is not a coincidence that I get asked this question by friends and neighbors who know I study civic education in schools.

The question comes wrapped in hope and fear. We know that education is the lynchpin of democracy, a thin rope holding up our fragile political system. We know that new forms of ignorance are loudly on the march today. And we know that demagogues rely on popular ignorance to turn resentment into “solutions,” which are then used to end the democracy that got them elected. It’s an old story.

The founders of our politics knew this—they had read the Greeks, Locke and Montesquieu. They knew, as Madison wrote in the Federalist, that men are not angels. Accordingly, they built structures into the Constitution in hopes of preventing tyrranical concentrations of power: the checks and balances and separation of powers you probably learned initially in school. Is this curriculum still taught?

The short answer is Yes, schools in Washington and across the US do still teach civics but not as much as they used to and not as much as they could.

https://www.postalley.org/2025/08/31/do-schools-still-teach-civics/

7 replies

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Highlight:

Do Schools Still Teach Civics? (Original Post) Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Monday OP

Where i substitute teach rhe 4&5th graders learn civics kimbutgar Monday #1

Many do not. Others do not teach it consistently. It contributed to where we are now politically. CousinIT Monday #2

I really have to wonder Jilly_in_VA Monday #3

I dont think they do. drray23 Monday #4

I think some of what you're talking about comes from utter frustration... slightlv Monday #5

I can understand this viewpoint. drray23 Monday #6

The number of civics objectives in the curriculum has been significantly reduced. lees1975 56 sec ago #7

kimbutgar

(25,908 posts)

1. Where i substitute teach rhe 4&5th graders learn civics

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Mon Sep 1, 2025, 01:42 PM

Monday

California standards

CousinIT

(11,819 posts)

2. Many do not. Others do not teach it consistently. It contributed to where we are now politically.

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Mon Sep 1, 2025, 01:43 PM

Monday

This article refers explicitly to North Carolina, but the issue is nationwide. Civics education is not prioritized and therefore not funded. Plus, there are no national standards for a civics curriculum, so it's just whatever sad coverage individual teachers feel like giving.

https://carolinapublicpress.org/72172/nc-lags-in-civic-engagement-gaps-in-civics-learning-part-of-the-problem/

While there could be a host of reasons for North Carolina’s relative disengagement, one factor is at the center of it all: civic education, or the lack thereof.

Civic education teaches students how their government works, and their place in it. If done well, it arms them with the knowledge, confidence and motivation to participate in their local communities, and demonstrates the influence they can have in governmental decision making.

But too often, civic education is pushed to the side to make way for other priorities, and what instruction remains may be watered down to avoid conflict.

This article is the first in Civics Unlearned, a three-part investigative series from Carolina Public Press that explores how, and to what extent, a deprioritization of formal civic education has led to a generation of disengaged and polarized North Carolinians.

This article discusses the problem — civic engagement is relatively low in North Carolina, particularly among youth, and formal civic education doesn’t appear to be doing its part to bolster participation. As a result, public policy only represents a portion of the populace, and a generation of North Carolinians are growing up unprepared to work with each other and their government to solve community problems.

The second article explores how conflicting priorities and inconsistent delivery have hamstrung quality civic education. The final article suggests ways to bolster civic education and engagement, both within and beyond the formal education system.

Jilly_in_VA

(12,862 posts)

3. I really have to wonder

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Mon Sep 1, 2025, 02:03 PM

Monday

since so many (supposed) adults are completely ignorant of the way government works. I still think that we should require the same test that immigrants take in order to become citizens should be a requirement for all students to take and pass in order to graduate from high school, and should also be a requirement for all candidates for public office, from local right on up to president of the United States, before they can even file papers to run for office. It's a good bet that the orange dumptruck could not pass it and neither could at least half of his cabinet or advisors.

drray23

(8,355 posts)

4. I dont think they do.

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Mon Sep 1, 2025, 03:20 PM

Monday

Heck, even on DU, where people are following politics more than the average citizen, we still read completely delusional proposals on how to approach a particular issue, completely oblivious to how Congress, the courts, or the judiciary work. Usually along the lines of why don't democrats pass this bill or impeach this guy or subpoena that one with no obvious idea of what the actual mechanism to do so is.

slightlv

(6,501 posts)

5. I think some of what you're talking about comes from utter frustration...

Reply to drray23 (Reply #4)

Mon Sep 1, 2025, 03:57 PM

Monday

when one side insists on playing by rules in a gamebook that was thrown away decades ago. Is it right? Is it "pure"? Is it ethical? Who the hell can tell in today's world. But we want scrappers who throw away the rulebooks and do unto them what has been done unto us. Try as I might, I can't find fault in that. Losers never win simply by being nice. (shrug)

drray23

(8,355 posts)

6. I can understand this viewpoint.

Reply to slightlv (Reply #5)

Mon Sep 1, 2025, 04:13 PM

Monday

However, there is a difference between pushing the envelope and being able to do things like passing a law if you do not have the vote. No amount of scraping is going to accomplish this.
I think focusing on regaining control of messaging, including pushing back against the media bias and both-siderism, would go a long way. Democrats do a lot of things, have policies that are clearly favored by the majority (countless polls have proven this), yet because of a combination of gerrymandering and inability to push their message, we keep losing. We do not have a Fox News equivalent. Most MSNBC news hosts are practitioners of both-siderism.

lees1975

(6,759 posts)

7. The number of civics objectives in the curriculum has been significantly reduced.

Reply to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)

Wed Sep 3, 2025, 04:06 PM

56 sec ago

It's about half of what it was when I started teaching in 1979.

It's been crowded out by increased math and science objectives. Not a problem, as far as I am concerned, except that I think we need to lengthen the school day and make sure the civics and history doesn't get crowded out.

Lots of Red states gut education budgets and it becomes a quality of instruction issue as well.

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