Nearly half of Americans surveyed don't know what America 250 commemorates

[Ponietz]

https://www.npr.org/2026/07/03/nx-s1-5881451/cato-institute-250th-july-4th-constitution-declaration-of-independence-

This civic ignorance extends to basic governance: Nearly 60% do not know the main purpose of the U.S. Constitution is to limit government power, and do not know why the colonies declared independence from Great Britain.

Furthermore, the report highlights deep anxieties about the future of American liberty.

The majority of those surveyed believe the country has strayed from its founding principles, and more than half fear the U.S. could cease to be a free country within the next 50 years, citing corruption and the abuse of power as primary threats. The majority of both Republicans and Democrats share these fears.

The concerns are especially pronounced among Gen Z respondents, who exhibited both the lowest levels of civic knowledge and the least favorable views of the nation's founders. The majority of Gen Z failed to cite the adoption of the Declaration of Independence as the source of the 250th anniversary.

[Cheezoholic]

1. Civics classes no longer required but they want the Bible to be required...... Idiocracy n/t

[Igel]

4. I'm assuming that you're talking Texas.

Social studies gets the Declaration and Constitution worked in with history classes in middle school. Then HS is world geography, world history, US history, and for seniors a half-year of basic economics (complete with supply-demand graphs, playing a faux stock market, learning about stock trades and even shorting a stock) and the other half-year is Government, where they go through not just the Constitution, title by title, then amendments from first to last, structure of government, separation of powers, and major SCOTUS cases.

Thing is, since the students don't think any of that shit is worth really learning, they cram for the test if not just cheat their way through it and otherwise have what one master teacher called a 'flash drive memory'--turn off the power and the data are lost.

I will say, sadly, that some of the Gov teachers love their topic and really do try to teach it. But some of them are coaches and consider all the classroom crap to be a distraction from their real full time job, coaching--whether football, baseball, wrestling. (And the footballers have the same attitude--they'd sit and watch football plays, of their team or others, all day because they're all NFL bound.)

[Biophilic]

2. That's just crazy.

I curious, why did the educators decide civics was no longer needed? What were they thinking?

[dave99]

3. it WAS NOT educators.... look to your local Republican representatives