“By its very definition, civic responsibility means taking a healthy role in the life of one’s community. That means that classroom lessons should be complemented by work outside the classroom. Service-learning does just that, tying community service to academic learning.” – John Glenn, astronaut and senator
“Our children should learn the general framework of their government and then they should know where they come in contact with the government, where it touches their daily lives and where their influence is exerted on the government. It must not be a distant thing, someone else’s business, but they must see how every cog in the wheel of a democracy is important and bears its share of responsibility for the smooth running of the entire machine.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Civic education reform is, literally, essential to the continued vitality of American Constitutional government as we know it.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter (retired)
“If you look back in history, you will find the core mission of public education in America was to create places of civic virtue for our children and for our society. As education undergoes the rigors of re-examination and the need for reinvention, it is crucial to remember that the key role of public schools is to preserve democracy and, that as battered as we might be, our mission is central to the future of this county.” – Paul D. Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators
“To me, history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn’t just part of our civic responsibility. To me, it’s an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is.” – David McCullough, author
“I have in mind the Founding Fathers’ idea of an informed citizenry. This is the basic principle that underlies our national system of education in the first place – that people in a democracy can be entrusted to decide all important matters for themselves because they can deliberate and communicate with one another.” – E.D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know
“It’s just critical that if we are going to survive as a nation, that all our citizens know and understand the fundamental beliefs that caused the formation of this country and stand at the bottom, the bedrock foundation, for the things in which we most strongly believe. So you have to start at the beginning – and that means the Declaration of Independence.” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (retired)
“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“Let’s be clear, elections aren’t just about who votes, but who doesn’t vote. And that is especially true for young people like all of you.” — Michelle Obama
“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.” – James Madison
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” – James Madison
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
“The philosophy of the schoolhouse in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.” – Abraham Lincoln
“America’s future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.” – activist Jane Addams
“… the educated citizen has an obligation to uphold the law. This is the obligation of every citizen in a free and peaceful society – but the educated citizen has a special responsibility by the virtue of his greater understanding. For whether he has ever studied history or current events, ethics or civics, the rules of a profession or the tools of a trade, he knows that only a respect for the law makes it possible for free men to dwell together in peace and progress.” – John F. Kennedy
“Democracy cannot endure if ignorance prevails.” — Diane Ravitch, educator and author
“Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.” – John Adams
“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.” – John Adams to Abigail Adams, May 12, 1780
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” – Thomas Jefferson
“There is an old saying that the course of civilization is a race between catastrophe and education. In a democracy such as ours, we must make sure that education wins the race.” – John F. Kennedy
“No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline.” – U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
“Third, and finally, the educated citizen has an obligation to uphold the law. This is the obligation of every citizen in a free and peaceful society but the educated citizen has a special responsibility by the virtue of his greater understanding. For whether he has ever studied history or current events, ethics or civics, the rules of a profession or the tools of a trade, he knows that only a respect for the law makes it possible for free men to dwell together in peace and progress.” – John F. Kennedy
“Every country that aspires to become a nation needs its heroes, its eminent civic and moral leaders, and if it doesn’t have them, it’s our duty to invent them.” – Rosario Ferre
“The most important thing an institution does is not to prepare a student for a career but for a life as a citizen.” – Frank Newman, American education reformer
“[American citizenship] captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations.” – Barack Obama
“When a person becomes conscious of responsibility and participates in social issues with the aim of improving the overall condition, then we can say that we have achieved civic learning.” – Donald Bodzo, Executive Director of paNhari, a nonprofit educational organization