In fall 2022, the Philadelphia-based Jack Miller Center commissioned a national poll to ask parents about their expectations for their children’s civic education. Expecting to find more evidence of declining interest in civics, the Center’s team was encouraged to find that parents across all racial and political backgrounds overwhelmingly agree that civic education should focus on our country’s founding principles. Despite inflammatory rhetoric and posturing in much of our public discourse, there is much common ground on the essentials of American civic education.
The Jack Miller Center is committed to staking out this common ground through a courageous appeal to what unites us. They are solving the national crisis of uninformed citizenship by teaching our nation’s founding principles and history. By building a movement of civic educators to reach the next generation with the principles of equality, liberty, and opportunity that lie at the heart of the American political tradition, their programs are making a difference, from colleges to elementary and secondary classrooms to kitchen tables.
From the Center’s point of view, four key projects are required for broad-scale change:
- A deep roster of scholars who teach and study the American political tradition
- Widely available, content-based civics teacher education
- A national forum for civic education leaders and funders
- A more informed public
Importantly, the mission begins with the formation of scholars. Over the past twenty years, JMC has helped thousands of skilled scholars advance civic education in colleges, K-12 schools, and beyond. Thanks to donor support, Jack Miller Center’s scholar network has expanded to forty-eight states and become a leading voice in the movement for a first-principles civic education. As many Impact Fund donors have found, this focused ambition leads to some wonderful returns.
Civic education—the study of the rights and duties of citizenship—is essential to a free, functioning democracy. Sadly, much of our education system has lost sight of its central purpose—preparing the rising generation of citizens.
With the Miller Fellowship, JMC is identifying, training, and supporting emerging scholars to advance the American political tradition. The Fellowship begins with the JMC Summer Institute, a rigorous, two-week annual conference for a cohort of twenty to twenty-five talented young scholars to gain a profound understanding of American political thought and history and build a rich professional network to further their intellectual growth. Fellows are nominated by members of JMC’s scholarly network and selected based on their academic achievements, teaching experience, and research interests. At the conclusion of the Summer Institute, JMC continues to invest in Fellows throughout their careers by providing ongoing networking opportunities, supporting their leadership in new campus programs and events, and offering invaluable research assistance.
Schools of Civic Thought are new, independently run centers placed at public universities across the country to address a gap in the teaching and study of civic thought, the liberal arts, and the Western tradition in higher education. Built to fit the unique needs of their state and home institutions, each center creates faculty positions in previously declining fields, fostering high-level civil discourse on campus, and enhancing K-12 civics education in their states. The positions are often filled by Miller Fellowship scholars and participants in other JMC programs, showing how this strategic investment is creating a talent pipeline to meet the hiring needs of these institutes.
With programs that include ongoing academic career support and networking, research workshops, and post-doctoral fellowships, this mission-focused community and partners who see its potential are advancing the American political tradition and the restoration of rigorous civics education in academic settings.
And with its Constitution Day Initiative, JMC is promoting constitutional literacy to a much broader audience through campus lectures, public events, and popular media, engaging students and the public in the meaning and role of the U.S. Constitution. The Jack Miller Center honors this important national holiday by funding educational lectures nationwide, furthering its mission of civic literacy, and encouraging citizens to learn about the nation’s origins.
