A Modest Proposal, 2025

As we face an incoming administration determined to alter if not destroy our institutions and system of checks and balances, our failure to teach civics confronts us.

According to the 2022 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey, fewer than half of U.S. adults (47%) could name all three branches of government, 9 percentage points less than  in 2021 and the first decline on this question since 2016. (www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org)

According to a summer 2018 report from American Educator:

Only nine states and the District of Columbia require one year of U.S. government or civics, while 30 states require a half-year and the other 11 states have no civics requirement.No state has experiential learning or local problem-solving components in its civics requirements.While nearly half the states allow credit for community service, only one requires it.Nationwide, students score very low on the AP U.S. Government exam. (www.aft.org)

Is it any wonder that Americans do not seem to see the perils facing our democracy? If we do not understand the rule of law, our system of checks and balances, majority rule and minority rights, and the responsibility of citizens to participate, how can we even recognize what’s at risk?

I cannot match the satire of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, but I, too, make a proposal to seek urgently needed change. If we are to protect our democratic form of government, we must resume providing civics education in all our schools. The privileges and responsibilities that our form of government supports demand no less.