A Republic, If We Can Teach It: Fixing America’s Civic Education Crisis
By Jeffrey Sikkenga and David Davenport.
Republic Book Publishers, 2024.
Hardcover, 250 pages, $28.
Reviewed by Hans Zeiger.
Last year’s dismal eighth grade scores on the history and civics exams of the National Assessment of Student Progress are not the only warning sign of a civic education emergency. According to a recent survey from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, a third of American voters surveyed don’t know that there are three branches of government, and most Americans don’t know the number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Even so, 95 percent of survey respondents say that understanding America’s governing system is important to the nation’s future, while less than half think that we’re measuring up.
In such a time, we could use a serious book to lay out the case for civic education. Thankfully, Jeffrey Sikkenga and David Davenport have provided such a book, entitled A Republic, If We Can Teach It. “It is surprising that there is not a major campaign to improve civic education nationwide,” they write. Funding for STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math) far outweighs funding for civics and history. And few major philanthropists and foundations have rallied behind civics “in a bold way.” Nevertheless, they see “a kind of slow awakening to the problem.” They argue it is time now for a “Sputnik Moment” to galvanize a movement for civic education.
Sikkenga and Davenport are leading authorities on civic education. An accomplished scholar of American political thought, Sikkenga serves as executive director of the Ashbrook Center, which exists “to educate students, teachers, and citizens in the history and founding principles of America and the habits of reflection and choice necessary to sustain the republic.” Davenport served as president of Pepperdine University for 15 years, launching its School of Public Policy with a distinctive focus on the intellectual foundations of a free society, before holding administrative and research posts at the Hoover Institution.
A Republic, If We Can Teach It is a well-crafted argument for the kind of civics education a self-governing constitutional republic needs. First and foremost, Sikkenga and Davenport contend civic education should equip students to understand what it means to be an American. This goes far beyond what the authors call “education as information.” The “most serious problem with ‘education as information,’” according to the authors, “is that American history and civics become so boring that teachers do not have the opportunity to cultivate the kind of engaged citizens needed for our republic.” Civics must be more than rote memorization of facts for an industrial economy, they argue. “Learning facts by themselves—for example, about how government works—is of limited usefulness in forming citizens if it is disconnected from the ‘why’ of America.”
The key to effective civics is for teachers to engage students in “conversations based on primary sources.” Immersion in such conversations, the authors contend, “makes us feel part of the story, making it ours too.” Teachers of earlier grades can lay the foundation for text-based conversations by presenting selected stories and lessons from history. Civics ought to be presented like a “layer-cake” throughout a student’s educational journey—all designed to help students think about the “why” of their country and its civic institutions.
Sikkenga and Davenport part ways with supporters of “action civics,” who respond to the boredom of “education as information” by turning their attention away from the classroom, encouraging students to get involved in community service, lobbying, or activism as tools to learn about democracy. The authors assert that an emphasis on understanding America’s governing principles and history should come before civic action, though they concede that “limited use of civic projects could be a helpful supplement to civic knowledge.”
The authors sharply critique Howard Zinn’s popular history, A People’s History of the United States. They also comment on the advantages and limitations of Educating for American Democracy, a federally funded comprehensive framework to guide history and civics standards and curricula throughout the states. In addition, they proffer suggestions for navigating the federal government’s role in civics funding and the state governments’ options for implementing wise policy. On federal funding, they prefer targeted investments in civics teacher training over broad funding with curricular strings attached. Concerning state policy, the authors push back on proposed bans on ideas such as Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project, favoring a positive focus on stronger graduation and course requirements and teacher preparation instead.
Though the authors are careful not to turn their book into a promotional piece for the Ashbrook Center, led by Sikkenga, it is worth remarking here on the good work that Ashbrook is doing to equip outstanding civics and history teachers. Ashbrook is making a difference through its graduate programs at Ashland University in Ohio and its growing workshop programs throughout the country. The educational venture I lead, the Jack Miller Center, has been pleased to collaborate with Ashbrook and the Bill of Rights Institute on a multi-state civics and history initiative. Other key players, such as new schools of civic thought at public universities that are designated by legislatures as training centers for K-12 teachers, are stepping up to do their part.
A Republic, If We Can Teach It is a must-read for educators, policymakers, and any citizen who wishes to join this campaign for “informed patriotism,” a phrase Ronald Reagan used in his 1989 Farewell Address and echoed throughout the book. In fact, the book includes “to-do lists” for both teachers and policymakers as they consider how they might do their part in this critical movement. Sikkenga and Davenport are key leaders in that cause, and they have provided a wonderful service to the country through their important and timely book.
Hans Zeiger is president of the Jack Miller Center (www.jackmillercenter.org), a nationwide, nonpartisan educational venture to advance the history, documents, and ideals we hold in common as Americans.
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