Self-government depends on our accepting electoral outcomes or court decisions even when we disagree vehemently with the result. It depends on presidents and voters understanding that the executive branch isn’t empowered to spend billions of dollars (on a border wall or a student-loan jubilee) without a law that empowers them to do so. It depends on respect for due process, free speech, canvassing boards that faithfully review vote tallies, independent courts, responsible legislators, and limits on executive authority. That’s the stuff that should be at the heart of civics education.
Today, civics education has strayed pretty far afield from such notions. Heck, in 2022, the RAND Corp. reported that, when asked about the purpose of civics education, more K–12 teachers emphasized environmental activism than “knowledge of social, political, and civic institutions.” Teachers who say they’re more concerned about environmental activism than civic institutions when asked about civics education are probably not focused on exploring why things like federalism or the separation of powers might be good (especially when they impede one’s preferred environmental agenda).
As I see it, the critical part of civics education isn’t students learning how to be heard; it’s their learning to be responsible, reflective citizens. And voting doesn’t require that voters be either responsible or reflective. Rather, it’s mostly an opportunity to tell office-seekers, “This is what I want.” That may be a crucial part of citizenship, but it’s also the easy part.
I’ll go further: The hard part is understanding why we shouldn’t always get our way. That applies equally to Trump backers who refuse to accept that he lost in 2020 and student-loan borrowers who want the Biden administration to ignore all those legal niceties and just “forgive” the hundreds of billions they owe the U.S. Treasury. In these cases (as in many others), the guardians of self-government have not been the voters. Civic education should help students grasp the role of institutions and norms in safeguarding self-government and checking illiberal impulses, whether those are found on the right or the left.
