Solving the Citizenship Deficit: Restoring the Intended Vision for American Civic Education

Active and healthy citizenship in America has diminished greatly in recent decades. On the whole, Americans do not have the relevant information for participating in civic life while symptoms of a declining American political society, such as heightened polarization and declining community engagement, have become widespread. These trends highlight the failure of American civic education and formation in recent years. This paper argues that American civic education was originally intended to be an enterprise focused on fostering quality citizenship, utilizing both academic instruction and social and political institutions to instruct and shape Americans, and proposes returning to this model to address the adverse trends currently affecting citizenship and civic life.