“The teachers are not OK. Not this year.”
Thus wrote Emma Humphries, CEO for iCivics, a nonpartisan nonprofit that provides free educational games and lesson plans to teach students about U.S. government and citizenship. iCivics was founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor after her retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Humphries made this statement after her interaction with 170 middle- and high school social-studies teachers during a “Constitution Week” professional training.
Humphries asked two questions: “How many of you went into this profession because you are passionate about the Constitution, our founding documents, our system of government and our history?” and “How many of you enjoy sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm?” Every teacher raised their hand.
These were committed civic educators. But these same teachers also expressed hesitancy, nervousness and even fear.
At the same time that teachers are trying to teach our nation’s 250th anniversary, they are also facing opposition to “even the most traditional, previously unobjectionable topics that have filled America’s history and civic textbooks since the nineteenth century — topics such as rule of law, limited government, the separation of powers, and historical themes related to slavery, civil rights, world wars, and more.”
Yet students need to know these things in order to be well-educated members of society who keep our republic strong. Such concepts are included in educational standards in most states.
In Utah, for example, they are part of our core curriculum standards and must be taught. The Civic Thought & Leadership Initiative (CTLI) of the Center for Constitutional Studies at UVU supports the teaching of this civic understanding.
The purpose of CTLI is “to develop the next generation of citizens and civic leaders by cultivating the knowledge, skills, dispositions and virtues necessary for a just, free and flourishing constitutional republic. We do this by educating students and citizens, supporting K–12 educators, conducting research and fostering civil discourse.”
What we can do to support civic education
Civic education helps prepare effective citizens, who are civically well-informed (civic knowledge), productively engaged (civic skills), and committed to democracy (civic dispositions) and self-rule (civic virtues). With students returning to the classroom, perhaps America’s 250th should inspire all of us to review what we can do to support civic education.
First, what can teachers do? Educators can ensure administrators and parents know what concepts they are teaching and why they are teaching those concepts.
Teachers must also cultivate a safe and respectful classroom environment and show students how to discuss issues with others who have different ideas. This is an essential part of our constitutional republic: to embrace rather than flee different ways of thinking, allowing Americans to understand multiple perspectives. Teachers should encourage families to discuss the concepts shared in classrooms.
Teaching techniques must include evidence-based and primary-source materials, enabling students to verify sources of information. Civic content should be connected to students’ lives, regardless of age. We have worked with teachers of even early elementary students to find connections between civics and their own experiences. For example, teachers can explain the rule of law as simply waiting your turn or not taking someone else’s toy.
What can parents do? It is vital in civic education that parents be actively engaged, knowing what and why content is taught. Conversations at home should precede or follow lessons in the classroom. And just as students will need to know how to check the veracity of sources, this skill should be used and modeled by parents in the home.
Teachers, parents and society as a whole must not promote misinformation (false or misleading facts shared without knowing it is wrong), disinformation (false, fabricated or deliberately manipulated content with intent to deceive), or malinformation (genuine information manipulated to cause harm).
Seeing something on Instagram or TikTok and believing it without checking its accuracy creates misunderstanding. Civic knowledge, after all, is “a deep understanding of our history, culture, government, institutions and current affairs from multiple media sources and diverse perspectives.”
It takes a bit of work to be civically well-informed, productively engaged and committed to democracy and self-rule. But it isn’t impossible, and we can do it. If we did this, understanding that our children’s teachers are held to important civic-education standards, we believe that Humphries might change her words to:
“The teachers are OK. Especially this year.”