America's Founders placed great confidence in schools, which they believed would teach young people to understand our political system and to engage in reasoned political debate as adults. Yet today, when virtually all Americans graduate from high school, we remain stunningly ignorant of history and government.
In The Cradle of Citizenship, James Traub chronicles his year of observing public schools across the country, talking to teachers, scholars, and curriculum designers. He finds teachers in Florida who are afraid of discussing topics that might be seen as "woke"; a red-blue war incarnated in the 1619 Project and 1776 Report; a profound disagreement over what exactly civic education means; and, most dismayingly, ever-diminishing expectations of students with ever-dwindling attention spans.
Yet The Cradle of Citizenship also finds sources of hope. Traub learns that virtually all social studies teachers keep their personal views to themselves and encourage students to develop views of their own. He describes the extraordinary collaboration between liberal and conservative scholars that led to the creation of "Educating for American Democracy," a roadmap for the teaching of civics. Finally, Traub describes the "classical school," a traditional model based on the study of great books and the conscious molding of character.
