How Can We Talk to Kids About Patriotism?

With the Fourth of July and America’s 250th birthday just around the corner, how should we talk to children about patriotism at a time when many adults feel conflicted about it? Recently, Professor Danielle Allen, author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, which was reissued this year, and founding director of the Ed School’s Democratic Knowledge Project, shared her thoughts on kids asking questions, what she calls reflective patriotism, and how she’s been talking about the country’s 250th for the past five years.

To start, what does it mean to you to be patriotic? 
Let me talk a little bit about the Educating for American Democracy Initiative, which I'm co-author on the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy. We put at the center of that roadmap a concept called reflective patriotism. It was funded by both the first Trump and the first Biden administrations. So, it was a genuine cross-partisan effort. The idea that it's possible to blend love of country with clear-eyed reflection on both its strengths and its shortcomings and with a view to identifying opportunities for improvement. There is always a tension between love of country and then the kinds of emotions that come with recognizing your country's wrongs. And so, educators have the hard job of helping students pull those tensions into an experience of what we call reflective patriotism, where you can both be honest and appreciative of all the good the country has achieved and also be equally honest about, as I said, the shortcomings.

What are some ways that adults, especially those not feeling particularly patriotic, can have these honest talks with kids?
There are many different ways educators approach doing that. I would open up space for conversation. What are you excited about? What do you love about your country and what are some ways where we think our country maybe could be better? Just having those two kinds of basic questions — what do you love about your country and how do you think your country maybe could do better — is a start.

Does age matter? Are the questions different for first graders versus high schoolers?
Our roadmap goes from K through 12 and we think it could be used in pre-K. There are questions at every grade level and the whole thing is structured as questions. That's our basic mode of operating: Excellent civic education is inquiry-driven civic education. What you're really doing is inviting kids into the same kind of hard, deliberative experience that citizenship consists of. The point is that educating for American democracy is really bringing kids into that kind of practice of asking questions and deliberating with others who may have different answers, too.

But, for younger kids, we don't start with country. We say, what do you love about your neighborhood, your town, your city? The younger they are, the closer you start. When you look at the Educating curriculum, the trajectory from K to 12 is like concentric circles to help kids bring their attention to ever wider sphere of application. Honestly, I think a lot of young people haven't ever been given the opportunity to ask the question, "What do you love about your state, about your country?" I think, especially for kids who haven't had that opportunity, even for kids who aren't young, starting local is better because love of country starts from love of your own immediate community.

Why is it important to have these conversations?
We have had such a negative discourse at the national level that reminding people to pull back and consider what are you getting is valuable. I mean, democracy is not a practice that people exactly come by naturally; you have to learn it. Just think about kids on a playground. It's not as if they start out as democratic citizens willing to deliberate together without using their fists and so forth. It's learned art to be a democratic citizen, and it requires elements of head, heart, and hand — all three of those things.

Explain those three things.
The head: You have to understand how institutions work. You have to understand the constitution, the rule of law, your state constitution, and how your municipal government is organized. The patriotism conversation is the heart part of the conversation. You have a connection to your community, a connection to your country, a desire to get through hard times together, not split up. And then the hand is just the actual doing of it. Citizenship isn't something you know. It's a thing you do. You go vote, you serve on a jury, you talk to your neighbors, and you identify a shared problem in your community and take that issue to your city council, for example.

What should parents and educators avoid saying to kids about being patriotic?
You should avoid saying that it was all to be condemned and you should equally avoid saying the founding of America was all nothing but a perfect human triumph. It's also important to look away from the politicians and look to the people. And that's what it means to consider, what do I love about my neighborhood, about my community, about my city? It reminds you that it's not really about politicians. At the end of the day, it's about us. And we are pretty awesome people, actually, and we have done great things. Our institutions of self-government have enabled that, and that’s worth understanding. … There's this very famous saying by a German-American statesman journalist and Civil War general: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” And that's sort of the attitude we're trying to cultivate with the reflective patriotism concept.

How are you feeling going into the 250th?
Well, it's funny. I wrote my book on the Declaration of Independence 12 years ago and I’ve been writing so many pieces over the past few years. I was joking to somebody that I've been doing 250th stuff for five years at this point already. So everybody else is just getting going, but I'm done. I don't mean that in a negative way. I mean, I'm excited. I'm going to be at Independence Hall in Philadelphia as a speaker for the Museum of the American Revolution and I'm looking forward to that. But I did the 250th already. I'm done.

Questions to ask young people about civic participation from Roadmap for Educating for American Democracy:

Driving questions (broad):
•    How have I helped my class or family? (K–2 grades)
•    How have people made our community better? (K–2)
•    How has civic participation changed throughout American history? How has it stayed the same? (6–8)
•    What matters to me and why? How can I make what matters to me be about more than myself? (6–8)
•    How have changes in the media affected American civic experience? (9–12)
•    What is “civil society”? (9–12)

Guiding questions (targeted):
•    If I disagree with a decision, how do I help change it? (K–2)
•    Who has the power to make changes in my community? (K–2)
•    What is the virtue or value of civil disagreement? (6–8)
•    How can I investigate my issue and find high-quality information? What are the root causes of the problem I am investigating? (6–8)
•    How can people in the United States be civic friends across divergent views of principles and values? (9–12)
•    How can we be reflective patriots, seeking reform while still loving America, its complex forms of politics and civic life, and its still-unrealized ideals? (9–12)