Civic Education Extends Beyond Schools

By John Hood

RALEIGH — We’ve played the music, shot the fireworks, and recited the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence. But our commemoration of America’s semiquincentennial has only just begun.

There will be 250th anniversaries of other key events. The creation of new state governments and charters, such as North Carolina’s first state constitution (ratified on December 18, 1776). Revolutionary War victories at such places as Trenton (December 26, 1776), Saratoga (October 7, 1777), and the Carolina battles of Ramseur’s Mill (June 20, 1780), Kings Mountain (October 7, 1780) and Cowpens (January 17, 1781). Diplomatic breakthroughs such as France’s formal entry into the war (February 6, 1778) and the Treaty of Paris ending it (September 3, 1783). And, of course, the creation of the United States Constitution in 1787 and its ratification the following year.

That the semiquincentennial is far from over is a historical observation. America was “conceived in liberty,” as Abraham Lincoln famously put it. Unlike an infant, however, a country can have no single birthday. The Declaration of Independence was just that, what its primary author called “an expression of the American mind,” but the United States as we know it today was not yet a fully formed and independent reality. Years of hard fighting lay ahead, as did many decades of construction and legislation, expansion and assimilation, conflict and conciliation.

That our semiquincentennial is far from over also happens to be a Godsend — because our commemorations have, to date, lacked the clarity and enthusiasm they deserve.

While many communities across the country — including many here in North Carolina — staged wonderful events, concerts, parades, and shows, America 250 hasn’t lived up to its potential. Rival organizations squandered scarce time and resources fighting over turf. Politicians attempted to hijack the project for partisan purposes. Radicals and revisionists within the Progressive Left and Populist Right decided not to tie their ideological programs to the Founders, as previous generations of activists did, but rather to denigrate the Founders as nasty bigots, grasping plutocrats, or deluded acolytes of John Locke (the Enlightenment philosopher who espoused the classical liberalism both progressives and populists disdain).

The good news is that it’s not too late to fix this. The better news is that the general public remains receptive to learning about and celebrating the American experiment.

A new YouGov survey for Catawba College’s Center for North Carolina Politics and Public Service underscored both the challenges and opportunities. The vast majority of its thousand respondents embraced the celebration of the Declaration of Independence, with 84% describing its principles as “extremely important” (56%) or “very important” (28%) in our present day.

At the same time, the survey found partisan differences about whether the nation is living up to the Declaration’s ideals. Overall, 40% said the country is close to fulfilling those ideals, while 55% said it isn’t. Six in ten Democrats said the nation is not close to achieving the Declaration’s ideals, while 58% of Republicans said the nation is close to fulfilling them. “North Carolinians largely agree on the ideals themselves,” said the center’s director, Michael Bitzer. “That distinction helps explain both the enduring power of the Declaration and the continuing debates over what it means in modern America.”

I think North Carolinians should take the lead in commemorating the American experiment and educating ourselves and others about it. Policymakers should strengthen our civics curriculum, to be sure, and reinstate a rigorous high-school exam to measure how well North Carolina students understand the history, principles, and enduring relevance of the American Founding. But civics education should extend far beyond the classroom.

Let’s double down on the semiquincentennial. Let’s have more concerts and parades, yes, as well as more publications, readings, public lectures, and private conversations. Let’s run ad campaigns, produce documentaries and shows, and post viral content. Let’s reflect on America’s imperfections and unrealized potential, sure, but let’s also celebrate its historic accomplishments and revolutionary legacy.

“America remains mankind’s best hope,” said Ronald Reagan. Fact check: true!

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).