NC’s civics education should be revolutionary

As the nation marks the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, it’s worth asking whether today’s students truly understand the principles that built the republic. In last week’s Carolina Liberty Conference, this issue came up often among the college students in attendance and expert policy speakers.

It is clear that civics education too often focuses on memorizing branches of government or the Bill of Rights without teaching why these institutions matter or how North Carolina and its citizens shaped them. Tracking and measuring our students’ civics knowledge, much like we do math and reading, could change that. North Carolina’s revolutionary legacy offers a perfect blueprint.

Consider the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge in 1776. In a brand-new film out from the John Locke Foundation, we see how this pivotal clash ended British authority in the colony and helped push North Carolina toward independence. Ordinary citizens risked their lives to protect liberty, demonstrating that civic engagement requires action, courage, and community commitment.

Similarly, Penelope Barker and the 51 women of the Edenton Tea Party showed that civic activism wasn’t just for men or elites. Their organized protest against British goods exemplifies how ordinary people can shape politics and policy.

Another one: England’s insistence that marriages in the colonies be performed exclusively by the Church of England caused friction in dissenting communities, particularly the Quakers in the Triad and other Protestant churches across the state. Families without access to Anglican clergy faced disputes over property, inheritance, and legitimacy. While not a cause of revolution itself, this conflict illustrates a timeless lesson: Citizens must understand their rights and know how to assert them.

We North Carolinians have a long history of turning seemingly mundane regulations into high-stakes civic matters. Teaching students about such everyday struggles would show that civic engagement isn’t abstract. It starts with the freedoms that affect daily life.

The urgency of civics education is unmistakable. Surveys show a rising interest in socialism among teens and young adults, often fueled by incomplete understanding of American history and government. Many cannot fully explain why the US Constitution emphasizes limited government, private property, and individual liberties. Without historical context, alternative systems may seem attractive, even though real-world examples tell a starkly different story. In Venezuela, decades of socialist policies produced economic collapse, shortages, and political repression. Cuba continues to struggle with energy and food crises, while citizens protest restrictions on basic freedoms. Understanding these outcomes and the reasoning behind America’s system is critical for informed citizenship.

More than 250 years ago framers of the US Constitution urged colonies to ratify the document, assuring that it outlined a limited government. (Don’t miss Carolina Journal’s weekly posting of the Federalist Papers to see how they marketed ratification.) North Carolina was famously suspect and held out on ratifying it until a Bill of Rights guaranteed protections for citizens’ freedoms. As a result, we were the 12^th colony to sign on. It is a lesson for today; safeguard liberties, even when government officials want to move quickly.

Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin have all instituted some version of the US citizenship test to graduate from public high school. North Carolina requires all public high school students to take and pass a full‑credit civics and citizenship course called Founding Principles of the United States of America and North Carolina as part of the standard Social Studies graduation requirements. A passing grade in this course is required to graduate. DPI directs students to pass a standardized end-of-course (EOC) test, though it does not require students to pass the USCIS naturalization test.

Even with the required Founding Principles class, we don’t systematically measure civic knowledge, like we do reading and math, using the benchmark NAEP assessment. Given the state’s rich history from the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge to our insistence on a Bill of Rights it makes sense to treat civic literacy as seriously as core subjects. By assessing civics statewide and tracking progress with a standardized benchmark, we could ensure students understand how our history equips them to be informed, engaged citizens.

“NC’s civics education should be revolutionary” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.