If students are to fulfill their obligations and rights as U.S. citizens they must develop the ability to make careful judgements, based on a reasoned historical perspective and a meaningful conception of the basic democratic values underlying citizenship in our constitutional order. To this end, an agenda of 12 core civic values that are…

This paper discusses the current status of civic education in the United States and the place of civic education in the current movement to establish national goals and standards for education. Most current reform efforts (e.g., America 2000) approach civic education by means of increasing the role of history and geography in the curriculum.…

In order to understand the context of the role that human rights should play in civic education in the United States, the era in which those rights were first debated (1789-1790's) must be examined, as well as contemporary political and education trends in the United States and the world. Human rights were at the heart of the democratic…

To provide an understanding of the current controversial issues about civic education in U.S. schools, the historical interrelationships of schools, communities, and families and their bearings on civic education revolve around three basic themes in U.S. history. These themes are: (1) the cohesive value claims of a democratic political community;…