Civic education should supply "what students need to know to be participants in American public life," says University of Virginia professor James W. Ceaser. But that goal is not being met at any educational level today.

At the primary and secondary levels, Ceaser contends that civics mostly "isn't being taught well or isn't being taught at all." Colleges and universities, for their part, "have turned their backs on political science" as it was classically understood, changing the discipline's focus to scientific expertise and mathematical calculations.

Ceaser points to elements in American culture that work against a healthy understanding of civics. He recalls the San Francisco school board's decision to remove Abraham Lincoln's name from a school (a decision since reversed) and "education efforts like the 1619 Project that claim the United States was founded on slavery."

Citing the centrality of citizen education in Aristotle's political philosophy, Ceaser notes that "transmitting to students essential knowledge in civic affairs" is imperative for the future of self-government.