9/11/2023

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal starts off with Thomas Kelly’s latest op-ed at RealClearEducation. Kelly, the Vice President of Civics Initiatives at the Jack Miller Center, highlights the success that JMC is seeing with their Founding Civics Initiative, a teacher education program that immerses high school social studies and history teachers in the American political tradition. “In just eight years,” he notes, “nearly 2,000 teachers have participated in this initiative.” In fact, FCI just had its most successful summer since it was founded, training nearly 500 teachers in nine states. “Our scholars have the expertise teachers need to navigate our current divisions and build trust,” Kelly writes. And they can provide teachers with the ability to “understand the contours of our most fundamental debates and squarely address the failures in our nation’s history while fully appreciating our achievements.” “Improving K-12 teachers’ knowledge of America’s history and its founding will help preserve” our “nation’s ideals” for posterity, Kelly concludes.

Also at RealClearEducation, former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings argues that, in light of the recent NAEP findings of a dearth of civic learning in the U.S., there needs to be a “national renewal of civics education to provide our citizenry with the knowledge and critical thinking skills necessary to engage in our democracy in a meaningful and constructive way.” The explosion of civics bees in the states, with over 50 now established in nine states, has the chance to turn things around. She urges local public officials to “be a judge at a local or state competition” and call “your local chamber to host a local competition.” She calls parents to “take a proactive role in encouraging your son or daughter to participate in next year’s competition.” She ends by contending that “we can equip all Americans with the knowledge and resources needed to bridge our divides,” a project on which “America’s future depends.”