This week, we will consider the subject of civics, which is the study of the rights and responsibilities of citizens.  It is not just for people who are into politics or philosophy.  You all will study civics in your time here at CCA, because you all are citizens. 

Of course, civic education is not unique to America.  Every society and nation, in some fashion or another, instructs its young people in their rights and responsibilities.  And that civic education is defined by what the society itself values. 

Civics in ancient Sparta was about preparing obedient, warrior citizens.  As Lycurgus describes it: “Reading and writing they gave them, just enough to serve their turn; their chief care was to make them good subjects, and to teach them to endure pain and conquer in battle.”

In ancient Athens, civic education had the aim of personal freedom.  Pericles wrote that in contrast to Sparta’s pursuit of discipline and manliness for battle, “in education…at Athens, we live exactly as we please.”

According to Marcus Aurelius, ancient Roman civic education was primarily to maintain the right of free speech and to detect the dangers of tyranny, all with an eye to the preservation of the Roman republic.

And the American Founders understood that education in knowledge and virtue was necessary to preserve American liberty.  James Madison wrote that “a diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty,” and Sam Adams observed that “if virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslav’d.  This will be their great security.”

If you ever wonder why you even have to go to school, or why we bother so much about teaching you knowledge and insisting upon virtue, the answer is liberty.  We—your parents, teachers, school leaders—all enjoy the right to liberty in America, because someone passed on knowledge and virtue to us.  It is now our responsibility to pass it on to you.  And one day, that duty will become yours. 

Have a wonderful day.