When did civic education first start?

Modern civic education actually started in an effort to educate the masses of European immigrants that began to storm American shores in the early 1900s. Educators hoped that an education in American government would help assimilate new citizens into United States culture and help turn the 'salad bowl' of American culture into the 'melting pot'. Many of these early programs were dull lectures about legislative policy, political history, government processes and idealized biographies of American political heroes like George Washington and Ben Franklin. These dry curriculums survived in large part due to the patriotism of both world wars and the defensive mentality of the early Cold War.

When the sixties and seventies came around, those mentalities all but disappeared after events like Vietnam and Watergate crushed many Americans' faith in government. Civic education up until that point was not known for being completely honest about some of the grayer areas of American civic history; it tended to gloss over some of the less appealing elements. Therefore, civic education had to take a new turn toward sparking a healthy respect for the heritage of our country and the never-ending movement to bring the reality of US Government closer to the ideal values that the system is founded on. These are the ideas that civic education is still centered around.

Constitution Day was officially created in 2004 making September 17 a national holiday that celebrates the ratification of the US Constitution. In the event that Constitution Day falls on a weekend, it is then celebrated on an adjacent weekday. Prior to 2004, September 17 was known as Citizenship Day, which was officially created in 1952 by President Harry Truman. As part of the bill that changed the name from Citizenship Day to Constitution Day, all public learning institutions provide education about the signing of the Constitution on the day Constitution Day is observed.