I’ve taught civics for decades. Our kids have lost faith in our nation

You aren’t crazy if you suspect something is deeply broken in American schools. 

I’m a teacher and have been for over 25 years. I’ve never seen apathy and unhappiness like I see in our kids today.

Graduation rates have soared as proficiency scores plummet. Fewer than half of all Americans can name the three branches of government. A sizable chunk of college graduates actually think Judge Judy sits on the Supreme Court.

But ignorance is just a symptom of a much bigger democratic crisis.

The real reason students are more ignorant than ever before is that many now believe the nation, its institutions and our history aren’t just imperfect — they’re beyond redemption.

Why learn about something that isn’t worth saving?

Ignorance can be easily remedied. Cynicism, on the other hand, breeds generational rot.

Sometimes the numbers leave normal Americans agog — one in three view Osama bin Laden’s ideas as “a force for good.”     

I have had students tell me that if they’d faced the choice of serving during World War II, they would rather leave the country than fight. Many of them think that America is uniquely bad on a number of fronts.

For most students, the cynicism isn’t grounded in thought — it’s reflexive.

Over the past few years a decent chunk refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, but they can’t articulate why they refuse.

Here is what my younger teacher self would be shocked to find out: Sometimes it is so overwhelming I am tempted to be complicit. Not because I am cynical, but because I find myself worried about things I never used to worry about.

Should I stop celebrating the achievements of the Founders or Lincoln or other American heroes for fear of offending modern sensibilities?

Should I worry that the framed picture of Thomas Jefferson on my wall might elicit objections?

This isn’t simple paranoia, mind you. Here is a fairly recent development: I have received notes from former students in the past few years, students who I was once close to, softly chiding me for my patriotism, my optimism, my belief that America is more than a place but an idea worthy of perpetuation.

This atmosphere of cynicism has a root cause.

Cynics in high places try to ossify and cement America to a specific moment in time, usually anchored to a moment or event that paints the United States in the worst possible light, like say 1619. Never mind that that was more than 150 years before the Declaration of Independence.

Perpetuating this cynicism to kids is especially dangerous today because it exists in an era of unparalleled American unhappiness, especially in our young people.

The loneliness. The self-harm and digital addiction. The loss of faith in traditional pillars of life — the family, the church, the school.

The worst thing teachers can do is feed this cynicism.

To be clear: This doesn’t mean ignoring American mistakes. Far from it. But we should stop fetishizing cynicism and valorizing national self-loathing.    

And it isn’t just the young people who are suffering. Broad swathes of American adults are experiencing a similar loss of faith in the nation and its institutions.

This is the time — the ultimate moment — when Americans from all walks of life need stirring models from the past, not debilitating pessimism.

This is when it would be beneficial to the body politic and the soul of the nation to remember that liberty requires wisdom and that freedom unmoored from inspiration can descend into frivolity. 

We should unapologetically return to focusing on Americans from the recent and distant past who can demonstrate what it means to use freedom and use it well.

While conducting research for my forthcoming book about these American heroes, I came upon an extraordinary quote from the father of future Sen. Daniel Inouye that he uttered to his son when dropping him off for service: “America has been good to us . . . We all love this country. Whatever you do, do not dishonor your country. Remember: Never dishonor your family. And if you must give your life, do so with honor.”

Tragically, too few think and talk like this anymore.    

As a long-time teacher, as well as a deeply worried parent and citizen, I know there is no question that we learn by example — we are improved or depraved by the examples before us.  

We ignore them at our peril. 

There is so much buried treasure in our past, so many American men and women from our rich history who can serve as moral leaders, political models and guideposts of our inner possibilities.

We just need to start digging and tell their stories.

We can’t do that until we believe in America again. This renaissance can start in the classroom.

Jeremy S. Adams is the author of the forthcoming book “Lessons in Liberty: Thirty Rules for Living from Ten Extraordinary Americas” (HarperCollins).