Dear John,
After spending time with 200 civics advocates, leaders, and funders at the Jack Miller Center's recent National Summit on Civic Education, I am feeling hopeful about the way forward for American education.
At the Summit, we discussed some of the most promising solutions in the world of civic reform, including new Schools of Civic Thought at public universities, national and state efforts to improve K-12 curricula, expanded professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers to study the subjects they teach, and enhanced collaboration between civic education practitioners, advocates, and investors.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of our country, we have an opportunity to build unity around our shared history and values. Still, though, there is a lot of work needed to help all Americans understand and embrace the American dream.
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To get there, the Jack Miller Center believes our country needs:
- More professors of American history and political thought to create a deep roster of mission-aligned scholars to advance the American political tradition on campuses across the country.
- Enhanced K-12 teacher training, ensuring that our educators are equipped with the knowledge and tools to impart core texts and ideas from the American political tradition, moving beyond textbooks.
- More Schools of Civic Thought to give civic education a stable home on college campuses and help public universities fulfill their civic missions.
- Access to free primary sources that promote classroom usage of significant documents, encouraging student interest and engagement.
- Principled American history and politics courses at community colleges, achievable through professional development training and investment in community college faculty.
- Balanced law school curricula to emphasize the political, historical, and philosophical traditions that inspired our novel Constitution.
- Reformed colleges of education that empower teachers to master the subjects they teach, not solely the pedagogy of teaching them.
For nearly twenty years, the Jack Miller Center has been at the forefront of this civic revival. We have built a vast network of over 1,030 college professors who are committed to teaching American ideas and history.
To date, our professors have taught over 33,000 courses on 332 college campuses in 48 states. At the K-12 level, we've helped 2,000 middle and high school teachers across 10 states, including 500 teachers in the summer of 2023 alone.
All together, these programs and courses have reached over 1.65 million students from middle school to college.
Now, we’re ready to reach millions more.
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On this Giving Tuesday, please consider investing in this critical effort to advance the American tradition in the classroom. The future of our self-governing nation depends on it.
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