Weâve let the meaning of America be reduced to guesswork. It might not be too late.
Our democratic republic is failing, and it shouldnât be a surprise. We canât fly a plane without training; we canât practice medicine without attending medical school. And yet we expect the American people to wield the full power of their citizenship, the product of the most revolutionary governmental thinking in human history, without any education.
We no longer teach our children the Bill of Rights or Constitution. We donât teach the Enlightenment values that underpin them. We donât teach the critical thinking skills and mental agility necessary for our own sovereignty. Weâve stopped teaching civics, and now we canât have a civil political discussion. The American experiment may fail if we donât act.
Richard Dreyfuss is a forceful advocate for civic education. His latest work, One Thought Scares MeâŚ, explains how the lack of civics education in American education for the last fifty years has led to the deterioration of all aspects of the lives of us, the people. And it shows us the path to reclaiming our American ideals.