AMAC Exclusive
Written By: Joshua Charles
Radical Leftism is coming to a school near you under the guise of revamped “civics education.”
But this isn’t the civics of our parents and grandparents. In fact, it’s not like anything prior generations of Americans would recognize as education.
This leftist brand of civics goes by a number of nice-sounding names–terms like “Action Civics,” “New Civics,” “Project-Based Civics,” and even “Civic Engagement.” While you may be tempted to think these describe a good thing—namely, a renewal of civics education in our children’s schools—they are in fact a cloak that is being used to insert leftist indoctrination straight into the school curriculum.
One of the unsung accomplishments of the Trump Administration was the release by a presidential commission of what has come to be known as The 1776 Report, a rousing defense of American history and heritage. The 1776 Report described the left-wing push for “civics” education this way:
New Civics uses direct community service and political action (such as protesting for gun control or lobbying for laws to address climate change) to teach students to bring change to the system itself. Under this guise, civics education becomes less about teaching civic knowledge and more about encouraging contemporary policy positions.
As this description suggests, the basic goal of these left-wing civics programs is to replace learning with activism. The ideal student outcome is not an informed citizen, but an ideological pawn ready to organize on behalf of leftist causes. This approach received tacit federal support under President Obama in 2012 with the release of a White House report called “A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future.”
The report offered a vision for the future of education, in which institutions focused not on teaching young people to love and understand their own country, but to school them in left-wing dogma regarding “inequality,” “sustainability,” and “global citizenship.” None of these concepts have anything to do with the history or nature of the American system, which is supposed to be the purpose of civics education.
Not only does “Action Civics” fail to teach actual civics, but the “values” it promotes will not be your values, and they will not be American values. They will be the values of the extreme left, which seeks to remake the world in the image of the so-called “woke.” As such, this radical break with traditional civics education is a grave threat to the American Experiment which we must confront head-on.
To understand why, we can look back to the wisdom of a now-famous Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville. Tocqueville came to visit the United States in the 1830s to figure out what made America tick. His famous work, Democracy in America, was the result of that visit. Tocqueville recognized that the American Constitution was not a simple document. Rather, it incorporated a variety of critical features, namely a mixed government that includes elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. With this in mind, Toqueville observed that the U.S. Constitution relies on ordinary American citizens being well-educated in true civics, and devoted to rational thinking.
In other words, he observed that for our constitutional system to work, the citizenry must be knowledgeable. They must be taught how America works, why it works, and what its underlying principles are. If modern schools choose to begin “education” with activism, they skip this all-important step, and instead prepare young people to be unthinking political tools rather than informed citizens.
Genuine civics should first teach rising generations why our Constitution is designed the way it is. Our Founders were among the most well-educated generations in human history. They read widely, and learned many lessons from the histories of Greece, Rome, and Europe. They incorporated these lessons into our constitutional framework. Understanding those lessons, and how they informed our system, is vital to any genuine civics education.
From there, true civics education should teach young people how our system actually functions. What are the powers of each branch? What are their limits? How have those evolved over the last two centuries? How does our system distribute sovereignty?
Only once young people understand and appreciate these fundamentals can they assume their proper role responsibilities as educated citizens. But “Action Civics” reverses this. It takes young, uninformed minds, preys on their idealism, and transforms them into foot soldiers for leftist causes. All the while, they are left ignorant of their country, and taught to despise what makes it unique.
Such mis-education not only fails to instill a sense of patriotism in the young, it amounts to outright indoctrination. Why would future generations ever defend or preserve a nation they have been taught is evil?
In the words of Montesquieu, another famous French philosopher–one deeply admired by our founders–“It is not young people who degenerate; they are ruined only when grown men have already been corrupted.”
With the help of several Republican co-sponsors, Democrats are trying to make this corruption of the young permanent with their recent introduction of the Civics Secures Democracy Act.
This cannot be allowed to happen. This will be the subject of ongoing reporting in the days and weeks ahead.
So true! If the younger generations aren’t taught how the structure of our government actually protects our unalienable rights, freedom will be lost.
God help us all
What do you mean coming soon????
In Waukegan, Illinois school names are being done! Daniel Webster Middle School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School are being changed to Barack and Michelle Middle Schools.
I have had TWO US Flags torn down from my front yard….. as a Veteran I am disgusted.
Gangs run wild… this is a BLM and ANTIFA stronghold….
Id, like to share this to fb, is that “not allowed”? I live in Baltimore and have been listening to my 3rd grade grandaughter’s schooling all year and boy do I get upset.We can’t in good conscience leave our kids in these schools. I know private schools are expensive but that’s why we need vouchers!!
So the schools have gone beyond teaching ‘what to think’, instead of ‘how to think’, and are now teaching ‘what to do’, instead of ‘how to act’.
I realize that most people don’t bother to stay informed of what is going on outside their immediate self interests, but just to clarify the left has been undermining history or civics classes since the 1980s in the United States. Just look at Howard Zinn’s “A Peoples’ History of the United States” that has been used in U.S. classrooms, as one of the standard textbooks for history and civics classes, for decades. Radical leftism isn’t coming to your children’s or grandchildren’s classroom. It’s been taught in the public school system for decades. All while the vast majority of the public was either oblivious to what was going on or too apathetic to even care. Neither is an acceptable excuse for what amounts to willful ignorance that has lasted decades. We are now seeing the consequences for that all around the country in Democrat run states and now under the Democrats in control of Washington.
Why do you think a good percentage of adults age 45 and under think America is terrible, socialism is terrific and that we should move as quickly as possible to a pure socialist society where all the ludicrous and unsound policies of the left can be fully implemented? This is what they have been taught for decades. This is what your grandchildren are being taught today. The left has been very active in this country to create a dumbed-down society that is largely ignorant of history, science and the ability for critical thought. A society of easily manipulated drones, who will blindly follow whatever the left says and think it is wonderful. Even as the country steadily declines.
The reason the Democrats are now proposing the Civics Secures Democracy Act is because they have finally reached the point where enough of the American population has been successfully indoctrinated in socialism to support open legislation to codify teaching it into law. The Democrat party no longer fears any potential blowback from the American public, because they finally have the numbers on their side.
Yes I know many don’t want to hear this, but that doesn’t change the reality of where we are today. The left continues to push their agenda non-stop, while the vast majority of our side basically sits by and wrings its collective hands.
Home Schooling !
Home school, reuse Idle Public schools for local home schools if Idle due to teachers strike
More charter & private schools.
Expand nationwide
The question I am asking myself, as a former teacher. Why are teachers teaching this cirriculum? Perhaps they are not true educators in the first place.
Get your kids out of the public indoctrinating system….home school….get into charter schools or online free classes for kids.
Brainwashing by evil. Do nothing and it will spread like cancer.
My mother’s family lost all their so-called wealth in escaping Communist Russia in the early 1900’s to come to America. Today if my grandparents were alive they would escape America!
WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO BE A TEACHER THESE DAYS IS BEYOND ME!
I don’t see why civics has to be in any school. I went through school in a daze. I got bad grades in everything but music and spelling
After I got out and learned a couple of trades to earn a living I then took a little interest in politics mainly who was good and who was bad. So I could vote.
The item I’m seeing right now is fraud and Marxism. Those things arent taught in school. But should be!!!! Being democrat or republican is stupid. They don’t have basic reasons for voting and they e been infiltrated by bad themes and members donT seem to realize..I knew dyed in the wool democrats who thought Reagan was bad ! The man that brought the iron curtain down?!
I am a senior in my 60’s who received a good solid civics education in all levels of my school background. Fundamental civics education made me a better citizen, informed voter, and someone willing to serve. I started as a page in the state legislature when I was in the 7th grade, and I served as a poll worker sometime after the age of 25. I was even a deputy registrar when I was 18, signing up young people who were also going to turn 18 and who going to be able to vote for the first time. To force young people to become activists before really understanding the basics of the government is not sound education. It is manipulation by people who have some leftist agenda. Sound education in how local, state, and federal government works is a key to making people more informed. Political science classes in college along with good American History throughout all education levels should be an integral part of everyone’s background. To short cut the civics education to “activism” is a sham.
Fellow Americans we need to get off our buts and do something NOW. We need Christians on school boards all across this nation and keep this garbage out of our schools. You have a choice. Do the necessary action above or take your kids out of school permanantely. Teach them at home. Get together 10 families, take turns teaching. Each parent take one subject and study up on it. Start an online school in your Church…..do something don’t let you children be brainwashed into this corrupt demo society. Get OFF YOUR BUTTS.
After reading PaulE’s message below I must say that I agree with this person. Take this list exam.
Hand your teen a twenty dollar bill tell them the bill is say $12.67. Ask them to give you change. You’ll verify that school have been teaching by allowing computers in class. No one has to use their brains anymore, we have computers to do that. We need to take back our kids. We allow them to be away from home in the hands of WHO? Teachers. For fifty years we have allowed these people to take our kids and teach them crap like what is going on now……am I a boy or a girl? My God made my girls and made my boys and HE did not make a mistake that the schools think they need to correct. Take your children out of the DEMOS DEN and teach them yourselves.
I feel that we as parents should start teaching about economics at home. I have two daughters and I taught them about work ethics and paying the bills first, putting a little in a savings account, always carry a twenty for a taxi or for that on the spot moment you may need some cash. They know how to count change back from doing the math in their head, they can write in cursive, they can be self sufficient if they need to be. One daughter lives off the grid and the other lives on the grid, but home schools the kiddos. The school system is backed by federal funding…this is why the children in schools are numbers. For each child that completes the school year the school receives about $2000 a child. Do the math…when a percentage of children pass all the tests at the end of the school year the teachers receive a bonus. Welcome to the NEW WORLD ORDER
I saw a good expose over the weekend. This crap started in Germany in the early 1900’s, then progressed to Columbia University some years later. Some jerk named Marcuse wrote books expounding this grievance culture and as someone notes below Zinn wrote a “history” book, which is actually pure Marxist propaganda.
Sane patriots need to run for school board and get the crap thrown out!
We started seeing this Communist Propaganda back in the ’60s, and have been watching it engulf our youth like a tsunami. It started with the attack on Morality and the Nuclear Family. It has only gotten worse for Americans, and will continue to do so, until there is either a complete purge (which will destroy American Values and the American Way of Life), or American Values and the American Way of Life will be overcome by the absolute absurdity of the attacks! And the opposition is using those very beliefs to do it! God help US! God Bless the USA…
I HAVE BEEN TELLING, WRITING, EMAILING AND PHONING MY REPRESENTATIVES, IN CONGRESS, MAYORS, GOVENERS AND PRESIDENTS FOR THE LAST 30 YEARS ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN OUR SCHOOLS AND EVEN FRIENDS WHO HAD CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS, COLLEGES TOO, NO ONE LISTENED AND NOW ALL OF A SUDDEN THEY ARE AWAKE TO THE PROBLEM THAT WAS SO OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WHO HAD A BRAIN !!! TOO LATE !! PRESIDENT REAGAN STATED IT PERFECTLY “WE ARE ONLY ONE GENERTION AWAY FROM LOSING OUR REPUBLIC” WE HAVE LOST THREE GENERATIONS TO THE NEW COMMUNIST PARTY !! BESIDES ME, WHO NOTICED WHAT WAS GOING ON ?? THE IMMIGRANTS COMING TO AMERICA TO ESCAPE TIERNEY AND COMMUNISM THAT CAME HERE LEGALLY ANSD ASKED ME WHY WE WERE GOING TOWARDS COMMUNISWM ! VIETNAM VET 67-68
Under no circumstances should history be eliminated! History happens everyday! History is needed in order to grow and learn along with providing a better today and future!!
Here in Fla., Governor Ron D has said that there is no room for marxist “critical race theory” in our class rooms. From the ny Post he was quoted, “Let me be clear, there is no room in our classrooms for things like Critical Race Theory,” he said to some applause from a group of supporters, “Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money.”
Bravo Ron D!
Who needs schools??————————————–All we need are high powered football and basketball programs to keep some of the gang-bangers off the streets. EVERBODY is going to become a millionaire athlete———————-that is what the news media pushes.
Giving these morons room, board, and an 4-year education is not enough————————-now they want paid as well !!!!!
TOTAL BS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” writer and philosopher George Santayana.
Amen
The enemy, the Left, is at the back door America. Kamila being groomed to lead the charge. Wake up folks.
REPEAT! SAW THIS SEVERAL DAYS AGO. BRAIN POISON! INDOCTRINATION! IT IS THE BORG ACTIVE ON EARTH. THE ENTERPRISE IS FACING A MAJOR AGGRESSOR. DO NOT SUBMIT! CRY OUT BUT FIGHT.
The sad part of all this is that most of us who had true civics courses when we went to school eons ago are generally older and “aging out.” As we die off, there will be fewer and fewer voices to oppose all this dystopian ideology coming from the Left.
Welcome to George Orwell’s 1984! We are closer to existing in the perverted world of 1984 than most recognize. At the current pace, another 20 years or so ought to just about do it. At some point, we will truly exist in a world where the inmates are running the asylum. At that point, only an armed rebellion will have any chance of restoring America to what our Founding Fathers created for us.
i hate to pop your bubble, but the radical left has been entrenched in our school since the late sixties if not longer!
I can not understand how any parent would want to send their child into those dens of intellectual sewage. The sad thing is not all families can afford to give up income and home school. Hopefully enough can, and will carry forward for our posterity the truths that made this country great. They will be like the monks of the middle ages, diligently copying down manuscripts to pass on to the future.
These leftie elitists are worse than infesting cock roaches.
Impervious to history, logic, economics, common sense, and even reality.
No matter what, they are always going to permeate into everything everywhere at all times.
Power for them. No freedom for us.
The silver lining is that young people are not as susceptable to the indoctrination of the left as the left thinks they are. Don’t get me wrong, this is highly dangerous and will cause incalculable damage to America and the world. But when they become young adults and get exposed to “different” (not leftist) ideas, they get a sense that they were lied to; at least the one’s that choose to actually think about things. And the natural rebeliousness of the young sometimes causes them to rebel against the leftist propaganda they were taught. An anecdotal example: my friends school mates will say “that’s racist” in a satirical way when responding to something that everyone knows has nothing to do with racism; so there is a sense that they know that what they are being told is nonsense.
Reset assured, there is one culture that will not be cancelled: “The Culture Of The Jews!” Even though these emotionally charged people try all they might, they will not cancel the culture of the people of God.
So many Americans are either tired of hearing all the democratic, leftist rhetoric, lazy or just plain stupid and really don’t give a rats behind to see what is coming. I have friends that would rather watch the mainstream news on TV than actually hunt for the truth in news. They don’t want to be bothered. Everybody is just content to cash their stimulus checks, not realizing that the “free money” is not really free. It is the beginning of the path to socialism. Your children and grandchildren will pay the price. I urge all Patriots that love our country to resist, resist this socialist propaganda. Remember, the 2nd Amendment was put in place to give us a way to resist a tyrannical government.
I sent my kids to Catholic school. They are Conservative. P S – communist B S. Sacrifice and get those kids OUT of public communist education. If you really care.
Have some bad news for you and that is It’s already here and has been here for years. This is why so many kids are home schooling. They are still core educated at home but at least the parents can guide the children in the proper direction.
The NEA & AFT unions are nothing but communist dumpholes.
If we had a child of school age they would be Home Schooled in a program I could oversee. It would have to be based on true American principles & values! Parents Must speak up and become involved in their children’s Lives & their Education! They cannot safely entrust your child to the Public Education System. It has been infiltrated by Socialist Liberals.
Unfortunately the left does not read or understand history. The great civilizations of the past eroded from the inside, by the exact same circumstances we are seeing today in our country. As a result if this continues are democratic society will eventually be gone as we know it. Very pitiful.
why dont parents home school, if they can or get together and make another type of school. this is terrible and can’t understand how it is allowed. also how can biden and his cronies say they are American
wish i could share to other sites, but there currently a way to do it
This is great article. But I think we saw similar situation in the way that Americans have reacted to 2020 election. There are people that agree election was fair & people that say it was fraud & do not accept results including some of our Senators in Capitol. Both sides did not reach conclusion by going to grade/high school!!! So both sides must have been educated by the media or by Democrat or Republican parties. Now ask yourself, what countries would rather see us united or divided??? We are called the United States of America and we must get back to the united or we will fall.
Would this “Action Civics” be another name for “Community Organizing”?
That little brainwashed global warming twit thunburg must have “graduated” from something like this.
Once again Obama just had to be elected. TWICE no less. He’s a born communist and a liar. Believe the exact opposite of everything he says.
Can these entities be called leftists,or socialists or democrats any more or do we address them for what they really are anti AMERICAN marxists.
The LEFT destroys everything it touches.
When Biden began his puppet dictatorship I immediately bought about 10 American history books before the written history of our nation was destroyed. The books range in age from young child to high school. At the present I only have one infant grandson, but these books are for all my grandchildren and great grandchildren. I made sure that the books contained documented history of the United States. I got a little world history also.
I also bought Mrs Butterworth syrup, Aunt Jemima pancake batter, and Uncle Ben’s Rice; and the empty bottles/boxes have been stored.
Most (if not all) people, families, communities, states, countries, have event(s) in their pasts that are ashamed or have learned were wrong. But do not we all learn from our mistakes? If we hide, cover, or destroy evidence of our past (failures or victories) how will it be possible for the person or the nation to learn and grow?
Our country is composed of many cultures and colors, victories, failures, beliefs and ideals. All of this makes the United States not the disunited chaos of “New Civics”.
Ben. What the ‘F’ is going on in our GREAT Country?
Why is the Left trying their hardest to undermine our Culture? I don’t understand.
The fall of this nation began with NObama!