As America celebrates its 250th birthday, attention will rightly be paid to the founders, statesmen, soldiers, activists and reformers who shaped our national story.
But there is another group who deserve recognition during this historic moment, one often overlooked in conversations about the future of our nation: America’s civics and history teachers.
Collectively, about 200,000 secondary school teachers whose primary focus is civics and history serve about 20 million students each year, according to publicly available data collected by the Bill of Rights Institute from the National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data, National Teacher and Principal Survey, Private School Survey and other sources.
Roughly 2 million more elementary school teachers have much less time to devote to civics and history. They offer tens of millions of kids their first school-based opportunity to learn America’s story and its principles.
We should honor them, because they help form citizens capable of sustaining the liberty proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence.
How teachers can encourage a ‘contribution mentality’
Credit: Bill of Rights Institute
Credit: Bill of Rights Institute
The declaration is more than a historic artifact behind glass. It’s the touchstone for the character and civic life of free people. Its principles — liberty, equality, consent of the governed — require each generation to inherit, understand, practice and renew them.
That work does not happen automatically. It happens in classrooms.
Every day, teachers undertake the difficult and profoundly important task of preparing young Americans for self-government. They help students wrestle with enduring questions about justice, equality, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. They teach young people not only what America is, but also what it aspires to be. At a moment of deep polarization and civic distrust, that work matters more than ever.
Much has been acknowledged about America’s divisions. But beneath the noise, Americans remain far more united around our founding principles than we often realize. Large scale national surveys find that most Americans still believe in liberty and equality. Most still believe students should learn about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and agree we have a responsibility to learn from our past while working to build a better future.
The challenge is not that Americans have rejected our founding principles. It’s that too few Americans have had the opportunity to seriously engage with them. That is why strong civics and history education are essential to the next chapters of the American experiment.
Civics equips students to understand multiple perspectives, disagree civilly and participate constructively in community life. It helps young people see one another as fellow citizens rather than just strangers or political opponents. Research consistently finds that students who experience a high-quality civic education are more likely to vote, volunteer and engage in their local communities as adults.
More than that, great teachers help young people develop what might be called a contribution mentality. In an age that often encourages passivity, cynicism or performative outrage, teachers challenge students to ask a different question: What can I contribute? To my neighbors. To my community. To my country.
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
Freedom rests on rights, but also character
Self-government depends on citizens who see themselves as more than consumers of rights or observers of public life, but as participants with responsibilities toward others — and a role to play in the American future.
That idea sits at the heart of the declaration itself.
Throughout our history, generations of Americans have appealed to the declaration’s principles to call the nation to live more fully according to its ideals. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, suffragists and civil rights leaders all understood that the declaration contained what Douglass called the “saving principles.”
But those principles survive only if they are passed on, and it is teachers who are among the principal stewards of that inheritance.
They cultivate civic knowledge, disposition and virtues — the habits of courage, prudence, respect and responsibility that self-government requires. They help young Americans develop the capacity to deliberate rather than demonize, to listen as well as argue, and to recognize that freedom depends not only on rights but on the character of citizens themselves.
As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, we should remember that our republic is sustained by citizens over time. And the people doing much of the civic formation are teachers. At a time when nearly 70% of new teachers leave the profession or consider leaving within five years, recognizing and supporting those who remain committed to this work itself is an investment in our nation’s future.
Long after the fireworks fade and the celebrations conclude, civics and history teachers across America will continue the quiet, often underappreciated work of preparing the next generation to inherit the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
For that, and for the American future itself, we owe them our thanks.
David Bobb is president and CEO of the Bill of Rights Institute and author of “Divided Over the Declaration: How An Enduring Debate Sustains the Vision of America.”
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