Welcome to the American Story. Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful

and worthy of our love. This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute.

I call this one.

What's love got to do with it?

We hear a lot about the crisis of American civic education.

Every year around the start of the fall semester,

I hear reports about another study demonstrating again how ignorant

American high school graduates and even college graduates are

about their country's history and government.

Most of us can cite examples that make you laugh or weep depending on your mood.

People don't know how many senators there are from each state or what the Bill of Rights is.

One recent study alleged that 10% of college graduates, not high school

graduates, college graduates, thought Judge Judy was on the Supreme Court.

And it is true that our schools and colleges have was on the Supreme Court.

And it is true that our schools and colleges

have been failing for many years

to teach American history and government adequately.

This is a very serious and a very important failure.

But I think that our crisis, which we do have, is not essentially a crisis of information or a crisis of factual knowledge.

It seems to me it is more a crisis of understanding and disposition.

Even, as odd as it sounds, a crisis of love.

Civic education by definition is not about mere accumulation of knowledge, however important that is.

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