America’s 250th birthday is a time for celebration. But now that the fireworks and parades are over, it’s also an opportunity for national reflection about how to prepare for the next 250 years. As Benjamin Franklin alluded, keeping the republic isn’t easy. Every generation inherits the responsibility to sustain our form of government and to remember its purpose: the protection of our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This requires citizens who know America’s history, respect its institutions, and embrace its ideals.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, civic stewardship is not passed down in the bloodstream. It must be handed on to the next generation—deliberately through a civics education steeped in “reflective patriotism.” This uniquely democratic form of attachment, first articulated by Alexis de Tocqueville, doesn’t insist that America is perfect. But it recognizes the exceptional advantages that American citizens derive from our particular form of government. In recognizing their blessings, reflective patriots develop gratitude for constitutional institutions, appreciation for liberty and self-government, and confidence that free citizens can improve their country.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, civic stewardship is not passed down in the bloodstream. It must be handed on to the next generation—deliberately through a civics education steeped in “reflective patriotism.”
Abraham Lincoln’s words in the Gettysburg Address embody reflective patriotism. He reminds us that our new nation was “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” And that these ideals obligate all Americans to work towards their realization:
“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Federalism, an important feature of our republic, can help fulfill that mission. Already, states have begun experimenting and innovating to provide civics education to students from kindergarten through college. Some examples include civics requirements for high school graduation, general education reform in public universities, teacher preparation programs, and new schools of civic life at universities nationwide. Many of these efforts, some of which are examined in this issue, have become models that are now emulated across the country. One legislative example is the REACH Act, passed in South Carolina in 2021. The legislation requires all public university undergraduates to take a civics course based on primary documents.
Higher education has a special responsibility to renew civics education. Universities educate the people most responsible for shaping our institutions and our civic understanding, including teachers, judges, journalists, legislators, and business and civic leaders. Our future leaders must understand how our constitutional republic functions and the ideas and practices that allow it to thrive. This includes not only understanding the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but also important concepts like separation of powers, federalism, individual rights, and civic responsibility.
This semiquincentennial moment is an opportunity for all of us to practice reflective patriotism.
This semiquincentennial moment is an opportunity for all of us to practice reflective patriotism. As we celebrate America’s 250 years of accomplishments, we can also renew our commitment to the type of civic education that the next 250 years will require. We must resist both the uncritical nationalism and the reflexive cynicism that dominate our national discussions. The best tribute we can give to our Founding Fathers, and to the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence, is to preserve and pass on their greatest ideals.
George Washington said it best: “In a republic what species of knowledge can be equally important and what duty is more pressing…than to patronize a plan for communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”
Jenna Robinson is president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.