Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on Sutherland Institute on July 02, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission.
In his recent piece in Education Next, my American Enterprise Institute (AEI) colleague Frederick Hess offers a crucial corrective to the prevailing winds in civic education. He calls for a “post-BS civics”—one grounded not in protest theatrics or shallow feel-good campaigns, but in a robust understanding of rules, processes, and institutions. He’s exactly right. But if we as a society want this kind of education to stick and truly be effective in our world of unending digital distractions, we must start far earlier—before high school. In fact, we should begin in elementary and middle school.
Contrary to the belief that civics is best reserved for teenagers or college students, there’s growing evidence – and a deep intuitive logic – that young children are primed to learn the habits and structures of democratic life. From learning how rules are made to understanding the importance of fair processes, kids as young as five can begin internalizing civic norms and ideas about fairness and participation. Developmental psychologists, such as Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg for instance, have long emphasized that moral and social reasoning begins early. For example, Piaget observed that children in the “concrete operational stage”—ages 7–11—begin to understand rules as flexible and based on mutual agreement, a foundational civic insight.
As the Sutherland Institute has argued in its call for civics education in every grade, we need to treat civics the way we treat math or reading: as a foundational skill, built step by step from the earliest years of schooling. This is not partisan, it’s deeply American.
When we treat civics as an optional high school elective or a senior year afterthought, we all but guarantee an electorate that is poorly informed, distrustful, and easily manipulated. Political scientists such as Diana Hess and Paula McAvoy have shown that consistent civic instruction correlates with higher levels of political knowledge and engagement later in life (Hess & McAvoy, The Political Classroom, 2015).
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From Classroom to Citizenship
Elementary civics doesn’t require political controversy or protest simulations. It starts with the basics: Why do we follow rules? What does a mayor do? How do we make decisions together? These are civic questions, and they are age-appropriate. As Sutherland notes, early civic learning can provide a “scaffold” that helps students make sense of more complex civic ideas later, much like phonics before essay writing and building foundations of reasoning before mathematics operations.
More importantly, this instruction provides a foundation of trust—in institutions, fair play, and norms of compromise. That trust is in peril today. A recent EdWeek survey found that students’ faith in government efficacy is at an all-time low, with many seeing the system as rigged or irrelevant. But cynicism is not innate. It’s learned and socially conditioned—and, fortunately, it can be unlearned if we teach early and teach wisely.
Modeling Matters – Including at the Ballot Box
My focus here on early instruction isn’t limited to curriculum; it’s far broader and extends well beyond schools and classrooms. Children learn civic habits by watching and engaging with the adults in their lives. While parents, teachers, and adults more generally may not have the ability to tone down our polarized and divisive discourse, we still have control and influence over how we present and frame the world. We should maximize what we can meaningfully teach and exemplify to our children, and, as I’ve written in Take Your Kids to the Polls, Please, one of the simplest yet most powerful methods is to take children with you to vote.
Notably, parents who bring their kids to the polls aren’t just fulfilling civic duty – they’re creating living, real-world, concrete examples for their children. Voting becomes concrete, normal, and expected. Children absorb that democracy is communal and participatory. They see neighbors, volunteers, ballots, and civic engagement in action. Voting becomes more than a word; it becomes a value.
Every voter line is an educational opportunity. This behavior modeling doesn’t wait for school – it starts in the car and continues at the kitchen table when discussing why each vote matters. It’s the kind of civic immersion that textbooks can’t create. I watched my grandmother work the polls when I was a little boy, and I couldn’t wait to be old enough to vote; norms and traditions around civic life can be hugely powerful and influential.
Schools can reinforce this approach through democratic simulations: holding student council elections, mock debates, and classroom rule-making. These are not partisan activities—they’re foundational. They teach children that democracy is practiced, not just preached.
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The Hidden Opportunity: Teens Are Ready for Respectful Engagement
Here’s the great news: despite adult anxiety and political sorting, young people remain open-minded.
According to a 2020 study by the Springtide Research Institute, young Americans aged 13–25 overwhelmingly support open dialogue:
- 84 percent say it’s important to educate themselves about people with different views.
- 81 percent believe it’s essential to try to understand both sides of a political issue.
- Just 32 percent would stop talking to someone with strongly opposing views.
These are astounding figures. They signal eagerness – not apathy – for informed political engagement. People aren’t pushing back – they’re open, they’re listening, but they need models.
However, Springtide also found a generation struggling with loneliness and alienation, and lacking trusted adults with whom to engage in thoughtful dialogue. That emptiness breeds distrust and division – not because young people are broken, but because they’ve been let down.
That’s why early interventions matter. Young children are naturally curious and eager to belong. Early, caring, structured civic instruction can channel that desire into stable civic character. Research by developmental scientists such as Mary Helen Immordino-Yang shows that emotional connection significantly enhances learning, including moral and civic development (Immordino-Yang, Emotions, Learning, and the Brain, 2015).
Enter Generation Alpha
Even younger still—today’s elementary schoolers—demonstrate enormous civic possibility. In my piece for Real Clear Education, “Alphas Have a Chance,” I have argued that “Alphas are overwhelmingly interested in being engaged socially and politically and want to improve the world.”
The empirical reality now is that Generation Alpha is a “generation of possibility,” one that may “find balance and positivity” and “work through differences.” These are not just tech-native kids – they are civic-ready candidates, brimming with energy and ideals if given direction.
Generation Alpha is digital-first and socially aware. Their innate inclinations—curiosity, fluidity, community orientation—are exactly the traits civic education should amplify. As the Pew Research Center notes, younger generations show strong support for diversity, inclusion, and dialogue—values that align with a vibrant democratic culture.
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Virtue, Inclusion, and the American Story
Early civics opens an ideal moment to enrich students’ sense of American identity with stories that elevate both institution-building and moral progress – from the Founders to suffragists, from civil rights heroes to immigrant innovators.
Civic literacy and pluralism belong together. Only those who understand our system can transform it. Only those who feel seen in it can feel invested in its future.
A Roadmap Already Exists
Amazingly, we already have the tools to help our republic:
- iCivics, Justice O’Connor’s platform, offers games and modules for 3rd graders and up.
- New York State’s Seal of Civic Readiness brings real-world civic projects into school culture.
- The Sutherland Institute provides a K–12 civic curriculum framework that builds in history, practice, and moral discussion.
- Springtide Research highlights the importance of relational approaches – trust, mentorship, and emotional safety alongside curriculum.
Scholars such as Peter Levine of Tufts University and Meira Levinson of Harvard Education have long argued for the benefits of “action civics,” where students learn democracy by doing democracy. These programs are only a sampling and form a blueprint for layered, lasting civic literacy.
Why This Matters by July 4, 2026
This July 4th marks 249 years of American self-governance. In just one year, on our sesquicentennial, we’ll celebrate 250 years of democracy.
We can’t just commemorate this milestone—we must reinvigorate it. Investing in early civic formation is not a ceremony—it’s a necessity. It ensures that the promise of democracy is carried forward by citizens who both know how it works and believe it matters. We have two years to really make an impact now, and with so much political change currently happening, there is no reason not to aim high here.
Conclusion: Civic Formation Before the Fray
Frederick Hess absolutely got the diagnosis right: our civic education must prioritize institutions, process, and practice. But the real challenge lies in when and how we do it.
If we want children to respect institutions, engage meaningfully, and disagree civilly, we must begin before adolescence, and we must model that engagement every day. From the classroom to the kitchen table, from the polling place to the playground, we need consistent, inclusive civic scaffolding.
When America turns 250 on July 4, 2026, let it be marked not only by ceremony but by renewal—renewal rooted in civic formation. Let’s not just teach civics; let’s live civics with kids at every step. If we do, we’ll graduate a generation that doesn’t just talk democracy—they do democracy—with curiosity, courage, and care.
Image by Syda Productions on Adobe Stock; Asset ID#: 88681735
You would have to replace at least 90% of the K-12 teachers and 100% of the administrators for this to work.
Let me explain JUST.HOW.LITTLE they know. I once convinced an education major, 6 months shy of being a classroom teacher, that Reconstruction “was the portion of Lincoln’s Presidency after his assassination.” Thinking that she might not know what the word “assassinate” meant, I went on and said “after three days, he rose from the dead and went down to the south to ensure that they were treating the freed slaves decently” — and she BELIEVED me….
Seems she learned about reconstruction around Easter and had commingled it with the Resurrection. I’ve seen women’s suffrage confused with violence against women, and conscription confused with subscription — and confusing Martin Luther with Martin Luther King Jr. is a given.
One was adamantly opposed to guns but when I asked her why, the best she could do was to say that “guns are yuccky.” It’s an open secret that they have no idea *what* river or *which* sea they are chanting about– when a friend of mine drove his own car (with Maine plates) down to Fort Bliss in Texas for training, they wanted to bunk him with the Canadians “because Maine’s part of Canada, isn’t it?”
We haven’t taught geography or civics in 50 years and you can’t teach what you don’t know — they are no more capable of teaching civics than quantum physics — they’d probably do better with quantum physics because they’d realize they don’t know that…