Pete Hegseth’s one-vote Senate confirmation as Secretary of Defense highlights yet again the question of the connection between private morality and public service.
Once upon a time, the answer was clear. George Washington, our founding president, chopped down a cherry tree, but he did not tell a lie about it. Young “Honest Abe,” our greatest president, read a book on a plow while horses rested in the fields. Civic texts used to encourage young people to be honest, helpful, and supportive of their community and country.
Today’s civic texts are less sure. Worthy public actions are not necessarily rooted in private virtue, they seem to say. Whatever the truth of the allegations about Hegseth’s domestic affairs, the matter is irrelevant to Senate confirmation, if one believes the guidelines set forth in today’s civic texts.
Civic education has become a matter of increasing public concern. According to the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 22 percent of 8th graders are proficient in social studies, well below the percentages in math or reading. Only one out of three 8th graders “correctly match each of our three branches of government to its core function.” Student performance in civics has not budged from levels attained a quarter century ago.
Commentators attribute civic inadequacy to the Covid pandemic, declining trust in government, and excessive priority given to math and reading. Each of these factors could be part of the story, but judging by the condition of the civic texts, a driving factor may be simple, adolescent boredom. Students have high ideals and worthy aspirations. When civic education lacks a moral purpose, students’ minds wander.
One idea is to turn students into political activists. Teach them how to write letters, organize petition drives, mobilize the vote, and demonstrate on behalf of their rights. That works for the politically active few. But most young people, like most adults, are more concerned about their friends, families, and futures. For them, the civic message is better fashioned by connecting private morality to public virtue. If schools find it awkward to teach personal responsibility in their civic courses, it would be better to dispense with social studies courses altogether. Time in school would be better spent learning more about U.S. political history and its governing institutions.
These thoughts came to mind after reading a recently released report, A Century Plus of Civic Education, by Jed Ngalande at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He and his team analyzed 87 civic textbooks from the Institution’s rich archives between 1885 and 2000. The earliest texts explain the distribution of powers across branches and tiers of government, but they also incorporate a clear moral message: student self-reliance and personal responsibility are key to citizenship. The oldest text declares interpersonal honesty and respect to be “foundational to labor and society.’ A later text, published in 1898, includes a chapter headed “The Government of Self.” The author concedes that “sometimes . . . wicked and violent men seem to prosper and even to be happy.” But, he says, “they are not really happy. . . . They have not their own self-respect, and no one can be truly happy without this.” From this verity, the author concludes, “[I]f all the families of a town or a state were well governed, there is no doubt that the town or the state itself would be well governed.” Similarly, a 1910 text predicts, “If a man is a good husband, a good father, a good son, or a good brother, the probability is that he will also be a good citizen in the community.”
