By Mike Sabo, Editor, RealClear American Civics
October 1, 2020
Surveys about the state of civic literacy suggest that America is failing to convey essential knowledge about our nation’s government and history. According to the Annenberg Civics Knowledge Survey, in 2019 only two in five Americans (39%) could name all three branches of government, while in 2017 more than a third of those surveyed could not name any of the rights protected by the First Amendment. A 2020 survey by the American Bar Association found that only 36 percent of respondents knew what the Constitution said was the supreme law of the land. A national survey commissioned by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that 63 percent did not know the term lengths of U.S. Senators and Representatives.
In response to the poor state of civic knowledge—and coinciding with the widespread embrace of online learning—RealClearFoundation, a nonprofit working in partnership with RealClearPolitics, this spring launched a project on American Civics.
Part of this effort has been to provide students, parents, teachers, and citizens-in-the-making with access to free educational resources. While there is a robust marketplace of organizations working in civic education, that marketplace is decentralized and, therefore, difficult to consume. The purpose of our online library has been to bring together, into one convenient place on the web, the best videos, primary sources, curricula, podcasts, interpretive essays, and more.
As Washington, D.C., bureau chief Carl Cannon wrote surrounding the launch of the American Civics site:
These pages won’t present a sanitized version of America. Lady Liberty is sufficiently beautiful that her blemishes needn’t be powdered over. On the other hand, modern revisionists mainly present a warts-only view of the United States. “American Civics” will do neither. The reigning ethos here will be that the country has nothing to hide and much to be proud of.
So too, under the auspices of this effort, the RealClearFoundation has commissioned original content to fill in gaps in public understanding. Our 1776 Series of essays has invited scholars to explore such questions as the form of popular government provided for by the Constitution and the legacy of figures such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr. And this past Fourth of July, with America experiencing deep divisions, RealClear invited a baker’s dozen of public intellectuals to reflect on the meaning of equality in the Declaration of Independence as a source of civic unity and friendship.
There is much that we hope to do in service of improving civic knowledge. Please consider helping these efforts by supporting the RealClearFoundation.
