In the opening of Federalist 1, Publius makes clear to his countrymen the great question that Providence had placed before them. Americans, he said, have the opportunity to decide “whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”

This was the momentous question that underlay the American Founding. Now, 250 years after the American Revolution, we face the same one today.

A self-governing people must cultivate the habits that make responsible public action possible. They must learn to connect principles with practice, to deliberate about the proper ends of political action, and to judge wisely among the means available to achieve those ends. This is the work of civic education: forming citizens capable of exercising prudence to pass on the blessings of liberty we received to future generations.

The study of history is an essential preparation for that work. By learning the stories of those who have gone before us, we acquire knowledge and experience that help us deliberate well about the questions before us. This formation in knowledge for the sake of prudence is the purpose of history and civics education—and we are in dire need of it today.

On the most recent Nation’s Report Card, only 22% of eighth graders scored at or above proficient in civics, and 40% could not demonstrate even partial mastery of basic U.S. history. This means that four in ten young American citizens likely cannot identify simple historical concepts in a primary source.

History scores have been declining since 2014, falling back to levels last seen when the test was first administered in the mid-1990s. Civics scores fell for the first time in the 25-year history of the assessment. Perhaps most disheartening is that these are not difficult standards. Passing a typical standardized history and civics assessment requires little more than rudimentary knowledge of major historical events and the basic structure of our government.

Children who don’t know American history and civics become adults who don’t know American history and civics.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that 60% of college undergraduates did not know the term lengths of members of Congress. A 2024 survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found that 70%—a supermajority—of registered voters failed a basic civics literacy quiz covering topics like the three branches of government and the number of Supreme Court justices.

We are now observing the consequences of this educational failure all around us. As the years go by, fewer people can read and evaluate a sustained argument, make sense of a complex text, or respectfully disagree and refine their opinions in response to a compelling argument. These are not abstract virtues suitable for academic seminars—they are the practical requirements for life in a free society, and they are disappearing.

Our educational institutions are producing an unrooted, ill-informed people who are easily inflamed and easily manipulated. In Publius’s terms, we are creating a nation of people destined to be governed by accident and force.

The Conditions of Liberty

The founders knew that self-government could survive only where there was a vigilant and enlightened citizenry. That is the reason why the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, passed under the Articles of Confederation and reaffirmed by the First Congress in 1789, stated that “religion, morality, and knowledge” were “necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind,” and that therefore “schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” Land grants were set aside to support public schools that were developed and administered locally.

This great project of public education was driven by the conviction that citizens were not born but made.

The founders recognized that the only way to establish a self-governing citizenry is through intellectual and moral formation. In other words, the only way to preserve our republic is through education.

To this end, Hillsdale College has relaunched its K-12 American History and Civics Curriculum, complete with a full teacher’s guide and video training course featuring teachers and students from Hillsdale’s affiliated classical schools. The curriculum, a companion to Wilfred McClay’s landmark history textbook, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story, is available at no cost to any teacher in the country who wants it, just in time for the start of the 2026-27 school year.

The curriculum is structured to teach American history four times across a student’s K-12 years—in grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Returning to the same historical terrain at greater depth each time, with more advanced questions and a greater level of analysis, helps students retain and understand the information they learn rather than merely memorizing it.

Central to the curriculum is the cornerstone of the American regime: the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration makes an argument about the nature of man, the nature of God, the nature of government, and the proper relationship between them. It articulates, as Abraham Lincoln wrote, “the economy of the universe” and serves as a touchstone to which free people must return for guidance. The Constitution, as Lincoln would later call it, is the “frame of silver” meant to protect the “apple of gold,” the Declaration and the truths it asserts.

In short, students must understand that America is guided by the philosophy of the Declaration of Independence, which is secured through the Constitution.

Understanding America means seeing these documents not as museum pieces but as containing ideas and forming institutions that apply just as much to us today as they did over two centuries ago. As the curriculum notes in its teacher guidance for Unit 2, the founders “intended to speak to [students], to posit truths for their consideration and ultimate judgment.” The Declaration was not merely an argument about 1776. It was addressed to the “opinions of mankind” in all times—including our own.

But it is not enough that students know our founding documents. They must know how our nation grew, developed, and worked through the practice of liberty in each generation.

America in Practice

In Hillsdale’s curriculum, students begin by studying the British colonies and the conditions that made revolution possible. Then, they turn to the founding itself—the Declaration, the War of Independence, and the Constitution. After that, they work their way through the early republic, the Civil War, the turn of the century, the World Wars, the postwar era, and recent history.

In each historical period, primary sources remain the focus, so students can engage with the period on its own terms.

We can see this in Unit 2 of the grade 9-12 curriculum. In four lessons spanning 45–50 classes on the American Founding, high school students read Richard Bland’s Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies, John Adams’s letters, Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!” speech, and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. They read the Declaration of Independence in its entirety, including its first draft, noting where the Second Continental Congress made changes and why. They learn by heart not just the famous phrases but the first two paragraphs and the final paragraph—the parts that make the argument, not merely the ones that get quoted.

In a seminar-style setting, they address the nuances of the arguments they encounter and wrestle with hard questions: What does it mean that “all men are created equal” when some who wrote that line held slaves? How did the Northerners who opposed slavery reason about compromise? Was independence inevitable, or could it have been prevented?

The purpose of Hillsdale’s curriculum is not merely to raise adults who can describe how our government is structured, but also why it was designed that way and how each part interacts with the others.

This is what distinguishes an honest approach to history from an ideological one. Hillsdale’s curriculum does not condescend to students by simplifying what serious people in the past disagreed about. It weighs competing claims and invites students into the great debates that have characterized our past. As students learn about America, they will come to love our nation—not because it is perfect, but because it’s their history.

Ultimately, this kind of education is essential to the formation of citizens who can think deeply about what self-government requires and are prepared to embrace the duties and blessings of liberty.

As America enters its 250th year, the question Publius posed at the founding remains just as pressing. Can we have good government built upon reflection and choice? The answer depends entirely on whether we are willing to form citizens with the capacity to reflect and the habits necessary to choose.