WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO OURSELVES?
And Sadly, It's Not Like We Didn't Know It Was Happening
We’ve Been Hit By a Figurative “Two by Four”
The events of the January 6th Capitol insurrection continue to impact Americans like a proverbial “two by four” in the face.
Since then, and especially as the Congressional investigation progressed and later criminal indictments into that day’s events were handed down, the direct and indirect cause or causes of this historic watershed event have been offered by many. Kentucky’s former Poet Laureate Richard Taylor proffered what he identified as the cause for this insurrection when he described the January 6th insurrectionists being “…as much victims as perpetrators. They are victims of a national complacency about educating an informed citizenry, a sustaining element in any democracy.”[1] (emphasis mine)
One thing is certain, when it comes to Americans’ civic literacy, we have “seen the enemy, and he is us” (apologies to Pogo, the cartoon character). A real enemy to American democracy that causes democratic erosion emerged from the shadows on January 6th. It is ignorance born out of poor civic education. Just how bad is our national civic illiteracy?
Our Civic Education “Report Card”
Our founders were well aware that a democratic republic required civically educated citizens. As John Adams said,
“Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people, from the frame of nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understanding and a desire to know…”[2]
What happened is, in short, our national collective civic literacy level regarding our own democracy has declined to somewhere between poor to pathetic. Sadly, it is not as if we did not know it had been happening. In recent years several highly regarded foundations and think tanks have identified it and tried to raise the alarm about it.
The Watchman on the Wall
There are many well qualified organizations that have been trying to get Americans’ collective attention about this. In 2018 the Woodrow Wilson Foundation (now The Institute for Citizens & Scholars) issued a report which included test results from a poll they conducted. The poll’s test results showed that only about a third of the Americans they surveyed could pass it.
Where were the test’s questions taken from? They were taken directly from the U.S. Citizenship test for naturalized citizens.[3] Only 13 percent of those surveyed by the Wilson Foundation knew when the United States Constitution was ratified. Most respondents thought the Constitution’s ratification occurred in 1776. Sixty percent of those responding did not know which countries the United States fought in World War II. And even with all the media attention in recent years on the U.S. Supreme Court, 57 percent of those surveyed did not know how many justices serve on the nation’s highest court. Said Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times commenting on these results, “…It’s probably lucky that most Americans are granted citizenship at birth- a new study suggested that they wouldn’t be able to pass the citizenship test if they had to…”[4]
The poll was conducted by a nationally recognized full-service analytic research firm. This survey also revealed an enormous lack of knowledge about historical facts related to the country’s founding[5]:
· that 72 percent of respondents either incorrectly identified or were unsure as to which states were part of the original thirteen states.
· that only 24 percent could correctly identify one thing that Benjamin Franklin was famous for, and 37 percent believed Franklin had invented the light bulb.
· that only 24 percent knew the correct answer to the question as to why the colonists fought the British.
· that two percent responded that climate change was the cause of the Cold War.
Perhaps most alarming were the age gaps in knowledge this survey’s results revealed. Respondents 65 years of age and older did the best. They had a 74 percent score answering at least six in ten questions correctly. Those under age 45 did exceptionally poorly with only 19 percent passing the exam and with 81 percent scoring a 59 percent or lower. Certainly, this gives one pause and gives rise to the question- what is going on today with civic education in our schools?
The News Does Not Get Better
Lest the reader thinks the 2018 Wilson Foundation’s survey results were an anomaly or some type of survey outlier event, they only reinforced the study findings from a year earlier by the Annenberg Foundation. The Annenberg Foundation’s Annual Constitution Day survey that year found[6]:
· More than half of Americans (53 percent) incorrectly think it is accurate to say that immigrants who are here illegally do not have any rights under the U.S. Constitution.
· More than a third of those surveyed (37 percent) cannot name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment.
· Only a quarter of Americans (26 percent) can name all three branches of government.
As to the third point, the 26 percent of respondents who could name all three branches of government was down considerably from the first time this survey was conducted in 2011 (38 percent).[7] Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said, “Protecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution presupposes that we know what they are. The fact that many don’t is worrisome.”[8]
Then Cable News Network’s Editor-at-Large Chris Cillizza commented that the lack of civic literacy this survey displays, “…reveals how shockingly little people know about the most basic elements of our government and the Constitution that formed it.”[9] Cillizza goes on to say:
“What we don’t know about government- executive, legislative, and judicial branches- it’s appalling, it’s funny- until you realize that lots and lots of people whose lives are directly impacted by what the federal government does and doesn’t do have absolutely no idea about even the most basic principles of how this all works. The level of civil ignorance in the country allows our politicians…to make the most common denominator appeals about what they will do (or won’t do) in office. It also leads to huge amounts of discontent from the public when they realize that no politician can make good on the various and sundry promises they make on the campaign trail”.[10] (emphasis mine)
And What About Our Future Voters- Our Youth?
As it relates to young peoples’ lack of civic knowledge, the results of this and the Wilson Foundation study mentioned above prompted Thomas Lindsay, Ph.D. of the Texas Policy Institute to say,
“At a time when both the Left and the Right in this country are decrying “fake news” and voter manipulation generally, there is no better antidote to these ills than to ensure that our future voters, now in high school, emerge not only with a diploma, but also armed with the civic knowledge that is indispensable to their becoming more informed and effective citizens.”[11]
To Lindsay’s credit, he recognizes a major part of the solution lies in the future, with our children. This problem of civic illiteracy did not occur over night, and it will take a generational, long-term perspective and approach to address it. It requires a focus on our schools, just as Noah Webster and Horace Mann had earlier in the history of our republic. Yoni Appelbaum, in Atlantic’s piece “Americans Aren’t Practicing Democracy” reinforces this finding commenting:
“Such a revival will need to begin where the erosion of the democratic impulse has been most pronounced- among the youngest generations. Happily, youth is when new things are most easily learned. The best place to locate new schools of self-government, then, is schools…”[12] (emphasis mine)
According to Rebecca Winthrop of the Brookings Institution, “…to date…civic education experts argue that civic learning is on the margins of young people’s school experience.”[13] Winthrop noted that:
“…The 2018 Brown Center for American Education examined the status of civic education and found that while reading and math scores have improved in recent years, there has not been a commensurate increase in eighth grade civics knowledge…”[14] (emphasis mine)
All of this still begs the question, how and why did this decline in civic literacy occur?
Stay tuned…you might be surprised.
[1] “Ignorance In All Its Strains’ Is Another U.S. Pandemic. It Must Be Overcome”, by Richard Taylor, Lexington Herald Leader, January 21, 2021, 5:13 PM, https: www.kentucky.com/op-ed/article 248662175.html
[2] John Adams, Founding Father Quote #1425, from “Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law”, https://www.foundingfatherquotes.com/quoter, 1765, /1425.
[3] News Release dated October 3, 2018, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, //woodrow.org/news/national-survey-finds-just-1-in-3-americans-would-pass-citizenship-test/
[4] “Most Americans Would Fail U.S. Citizenship Test, Study Finds”, by Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times, October 3, 2018, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/3/most-americans-would-fail-citizenship-test-study/
[5] Ibid, //woodrow.org/news/national-survey-finds-just-1-in-3-americans-would-pass-citizenship-test/
[6] “Americans Are Poorly Informed About Basic Constitutional Provisions”, Posted September 12, 2017, https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org
[7] Ibid, “Americans Are Poorly Informed About Basic Constitutional Provisions”, Posted September 12, 2017, https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org
[8] Ibid, “Americans Are Poorly Informed About Basic Constitutional Provisions”, Posted September 12, 2017, https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org
[9]“Americans Know Literally Nothing About the Constitution”, by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-Large, updated September 17, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13politics/poll-constituion/index.html
[10] Ibid, Americans Know Literally Nothing About the Constitution”, by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-Large, updated September 17, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13politics/poll-constituion/index.html.
[11] “Tackling Civic Illiteracy in America”, by Thomas Lindsay, Ph.D., November 30, 2018, https://www.texaspolicy.com/states-tacking-civic-illiteracy-in-america/, and in Forbes Magazine, November 30, 2018
[12] “Americans Aren’t Practicing Democracy”, by Yoni Applebaum, The Atlantic, October 2018, pg. 8 of 10, Ibid.
[13] “The Need for Civic Education in 21st-Century Schools”, by Rebecca Winthrop, June 2020, Policy 2020 Brookings Institution, https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020
[14] “The Need for Civic Education in 21st-Century Schools”, by Rebecca Winthrop, June 2020, Policy 2020 Brookings Institution, Ibid