The “Civic Connector” is a daily online forum during the 66th Annual National Conference on Citizenship. Each day, NCoC.net will feature commentary from a civic sector leader. These discussions will contribute to conversations throughout the Annual Conference Events.

The September 17 commentator is U.S. District Court Judge Frank Damrell. Judge Damrell’s “Civic Connector” question was “Are our schools doing their part to fulfill the promise of the Constitution?” September 17 is Constitution Day.
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In January, the United States House of Representative commenced the 112th Session of Congress by requiring each Member to participate in the recitation of the United States Constitution in its entirety on the floor of the House chamber. While some praised this as a refreshing acknowledgment of the primacy of the American Credo contained in the Constitution, others complained that these were really obscurantists using the Constitution to trumpet their own political agenda; and yet others just ignored it as political grandstanding. Whatever your views are, at least the U.S. Constitution was talked about for a few days outside of a Supreme Court opinion. Maybe we should count that as progress of sorts.

Unsurprisingly, since that public recitation, the Constitution has been returned to the partisan quiver to be used only as political ammunition against one’s opponents. While the Constitution has been a weapon of choice since 1787, it does seem that for the first time since the Civil War period, many have lost sight of the common ground it provides all Americans.

With the seeming national metastasis of civic illiteracy those enduring values embedded in the Constitution are facing unprecedented threats. For when civic illiteracy is coupled with unblinking partisanship our common ground not only erodes but in some ways it disappears entirely; and when coupled with old fashioned indifference, civic illiteracy becomes the fertile soil which nurtures old antagonisms and fears and hatreds that tear at the fabric of The Union.

History teaches that civic education is the only lasting antidote to civic illiteracy. We desperately need to relearn that lesson today and require our schools to teach students the vital story of our history and our Constitution. So when I see a question that asks whether our schools are doing their part to fulfill the promise of the Constitution, I believe we need to step back and first ask ourselves if we are doing our part to help our schools to fulfill that promise. If schools are failing their promise (and many seem to be) it is because we are failing our schools. It is our failure of political will to establish a curriculum that recognizes the essential requirement of civic education that imperils the promise of the Constitution.

Perhaps, just perhaps, when the President of the United States stands before Congress and delivers the next State of the Union Address he will declare that government at all levels must restore the civic mission of education to our schools, and in response to that declaration, the Members of Congress will stand as one and cheer and cheer and cheer. Now that would truly be refreshing.

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You’ve read what Judge Damrell has to say, now we want to hear from you... “Are our schools doing their part to fulfill the promise of the Constitution?”