Tag Archives: civic education

It’s Time to Make Civics Great Again

BY Louise Dube’ and Shawn Healy, Ripon Society Forum  |  APR 19, 2025 

The Founders would be appropriately bewildered by many facets of modern life in year 250 of the American experiment, but they’d probably be downright shocked by how far we have let our approach to educating young people stray from their original vision.

They believed unequivocally that the point of education in America should be to impart knowledge to young people that would help them be responsible citizens, contributing members of their communities, and ultimately, defenders of constitutional democracy. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison extolled civic learning as a bulwark against tyranny. And President George Washington, in his final Annual Address to Congress in 1796, said that the “education of our Youth in the science of Government” would prepare them to be “future guardians of the liberties of the Country.” Continue reading →

Introducing A Civic State of Mind

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JAN 30, 2025

A new year has dawned and so will a new opportunity to reshape the way we are governed and clean up the way we conduct our politics.

There is hope among many Americans that the new Congress will be better than the one just concluded, which had among the worst records in history.

The reason for the optimism may be grounded in pessimism: How can it get any worse? Public trust in government is in the tank.

The governing crisis we are in is not new, of course. The crisis has been creeping up on us like nasty vines that wind their way around the tree, in this our body politic, grown from roots dating back almost a half century. Continue reading →