Here is an interesting blog post that provides some informative links. I think the following observations need to be added, however.
1. The Declaration of Independence is our nation’s founding document. This document explains why it necessary for to have a government. Unless we read The Declaration of Independence and documents like The Federalist Papers, we cannot understand the Constitution as well as we need to understand it. We won’t understand the purpose the Constitution is supposed to serve. The Preamble does not come close to providing an adequate explanation. The Preamble was not supposed to do that.
2. We need to examine why we are failing to provide our children an adequate civics education. The answer, I think, is that we expected government-run schools to educate our children, and education is a task for which the government is ill suited. What is the problem? Whenever we delegate the task of education to the government, we give those with an axe to grind the opportunity to foist their beliefs upon other people using other people’s money. Hence, we should only allow the government to educate people when government is the only practical alternative. For example, when we need trained soldiers, we need to let our military services do their job and keep extraneous ideologies, CRT and the transgender nonsense out of it.
3. Who should be providing instruction in civics? That is something for free enterprise to resolve. That is, the real issue is who decides who teaches our children. Currently, politicians largely decide who teach our children in K – 12, and they also provide much of the funding for our colleges and universities. Unfortunately, we have allowed our political leaders to foul up our education system with political strife. We are not supposed to use our government to force our beliefs upon each other, but that is what happens when we put our government in charge of our education system. Therefore, we need to put parents need to be put back in charge. WE NEED SCHOOL CHOICE!
4. Are you a parent? If you want your children to grow up to be good citizens, then you need to take charge of both their religious education and their civics education. Does that sound like an odd juxtaposition? What does religious education have to do with civics? Well, look at the Bible. The Bible is the story of how Jesus redeemed us, but much of that involves the story of how Israel governed itself. Even the New Testament involves government. Jesus, for example, was executed by soldiers, not a mob. Jesus is our King. If we wish to be good citizens in His Kingdom, then we must learn how we are supposed to relate to each other and to Him.
Jesus is God. The Great Commandment calls upon us to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. God is our King.
Our neighbors are not God, but God commands us to love our neighbors as we love our self. Like our self, our neighbors belong to God, and He is their master. Therefore, we need a government to protect each other from each other, and that is what our Constitution was designed to do.
In the last few decades the American people have lost the knowledge of civics….and our elections and government illustrates what happens when this knowledge is lost.
I say this because of this type of report….
A recent survey found America may need to go back to civics class.
Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Civics Knowledge Survey found only 2 in 5 American adults – or 39 percent – could correctly name the three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. That figure was the highest in five years, up from 32 percent last year.
One in five adults couldn’t name any branch, the study showed.
“A quarter of U.S. adults can name only one of the three branches of government and more than a fifth can’t name any. The resilience of our system of government is best protected by an informed citizenry. And civics education and attention to news increase that…
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Citizen Tom
Citizen Tom 
Thanks for the reblog!
Our Founding Fathers were avid readers of contemporary political philosopher Charles de Montesquieu. He is the one who discovered the principle of divided government to check and balance itself. Recently, Charlie Kirk had a Hillsdale College political science professor on his podcast. He spoke of the importance of Charles de Montesquieu. Talk about forgotten civics and lost knowledge!
Sounds like a good podcast. Have you ever read The Spirit of Laws by Charles de Montesquieu. See https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/montesquieu/spiritoflaws.pdf.
I have not yet read the Spirit of the Laws. Thanks a million for the link!
Tom,
I frankly don’t understand why parents and educators choose and teach subjects based on priorities needed to provide straight paths to benefit themselves and their Nation both practical, moral, and spiritual in life.
Practical to train a child to make a career choice.
Moral to understand that if they shoot someone, they should experience some emotions of personal guilt and grief.
Spiritual so they are taught the philosophical purpose of life that has been proven to provide joy, satisfaction and happiness to understand serving God, family, and community has always been proven to provide the straight path and priority in their lives.
Sad.
Regards and goodwill blogging.
I think it is difficult to accept the fact that people are essentially not good. That is what makes Romans 3 so shocking. Even parents and educators can fail in their duties because they don’t love God and their neighbors. None of us are born loving God and our neighbors. None of us ever love God and each other the way we should.
Many become educators just because they want a paycheck. Many parents never accept the responsibilities of parenthood. So they take their children to school and expect a system run by politicians to raise their children. It really is a dumb idea.
We are not supposed to use our government to force our beliefs upon each other, but that is what happens when we put our government in charge of our education system.
And this is why we homeschooled our daughters for just about the entirety of their grades 1-12. Fully on board with being exposed to diverse ideologies….but when both usual suspects seek to groom and indoctrinate…..we opt out.
I may or may not agree with what you teach your children, but, baring child abuse, I think parents have both the right and the responsibility to educate their children as they think appropriate.
In an open society filled with people who have a diverse ideas and beliefs, all children will constantly be confronted with ideas and beliefs that differ from what they were taught. That is the way it should be in a republic, but some people do not want a republic.
It is thoroughly uncomfortable to have our personal beliefs challenged. Nevertheless, if we want to understand the truth as best we can, we need to accept the right of others to their own beliefs. That is what the First Amendment defends. The cancel culture rejects the First Amendment.
Complete agreement.
My sister and progressives like her are the result of our education system that has systematically and intentionally “miseducated” Americans for decades about our founding, our history and our founding documents.
I too have siblings who were miseducated. I became Conservative in 30’s and 40’s and Christian in my 50’s. Takes time for experience to undo bad instruction, particularly with the mass media constantly propagandizing us.
Thanx for the re-blog…..chuq
You are welcome.