News
How to Teach What It Means to Be American
2+ hour, 56+ min ago (272+ words) Rick:We're celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary at a time of intense polarization and distrust. What's this mean for schools? Rick:Both left and right blame the other for education's raging culture clashes. How do you apportion responsibility here? Rick:Young…...
Do Students Still Need to Learn Geography?
1+ mon, 4+ week ago (319+ words) Ashley, what's your take on all this? Ashley:I couldn't agree with you more. My dad used to say, "If you don't know geography, you can't know history. And if you don't know history, you don't know anything." That's true!...
College Is Too Late to Teach Civic Courage
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (1069+ words) If we want less panic on campus, less censorship by administrative reflex, and less polarization masquerading as moral clarity, the solution will not begin in college. It will begin earlier; when students are first learning what it means to disagree…...
The Wrong Kind of Civic Education
5+ mon, 1+ week ago (257+ words) There's a lot of handwringing about what the hell America's young people are thinking. They're'deeply anxious'about the future. They're'shockingly comfortable'saying that it's okay to use violence to stifle speech. They're skeptical of democracy. They exhibit a'disturbing affinity'for socialism. This isn't…...
Indiana’s Push for American Values Is Right—but It Must Strengthen, Not Politicize, Civic Education
3+ mon, 4+ week ago (230+ words) But good instincts can be undone by poor execution. Civic education cannot be propaganda. It must be demanding and honest. It must allow students to confront America as it is, as it has failed, and as it strives to be....
Teaching Democracy, One Walk at a Time
5+ mon, 2+ week ago (598+ words) Last week my son came home from school with an unusual request: He asked me for money. This isn't his norm, so I pressed him. It quickly became clear that he wasn't asking for himself at all. It turns out…...
When Students Refuse to Be Friends, Our Republic Is at Risk
5+ mon, 2+ week ago (244+ words) Two-thirds of liberal students now say that someone who thinks differently politically is unworthy of friendship. That isn't just campus polarization; it's a sign of a generation being formed to see political opponents as enemies rather than neighbors. If almost…...
Teaching Civics Without Cynicism
6+ mon, 2+ week ago (244+ words) By Samuel J. Abrams Matt Reed's recent column in Inside Higher Ed captures a profound challenge: how to teach American Government in a moment when so many students arrive in the classroom deeply skeptical of politics and the institutions that sustain…...