Civic education that prepares students for principled civic participation is vital to democracy. Schools face significant challenges, however, as they attempt to educate for democracy in a democracy in crisis. Parents, educators, and policy‐makers disagree about what America's civic future should look like, and hence about what schools should teach. Likewise, hyperpartisanship, mutual mistrust, and the breakdown of democratic norms are perverting the kinds of civic relationships and values that schools want to model and achieve. Nonetheless, there is strong evidence that young people want to be civically engaged and are hungry for more and better civic learning opportunities. Reviving the civic mission of schools is thus a win‐win‐win. Adults want it, youth want it, and democracy needs it. We propose three means by which educators and the public can reconstruct our common purpose and achieve civic innovation to help democracy in crisis: support action civics, strengthen youth leadership outside the classroom, and engage both students and adults with “hard history” and contemporary controversies.

中文翻译：

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我们的学校能帮助我们维护民主吗？规范转变时期的特殊挑战

让学生为有原则的公民参与做好准备的公民教育对于民主至关重要。然而，学校在尝试进行民主教育时面临着重大挑战。危机中的民主。父母、教育者和政策制定者在美国公民未来应该是什么样子以及学校应该教什么的问题上存在分歧。同样，超党派、相互不信任和民主规范的崩溃正在歪曲学校想要塑造和实现的公民关系和价值观。尽管如此，有强有力的证据表明，年轻人希望参与公民活动，并渴望获得更多更好的公民学习机会。因此，重振学校的公民使命是双赢的。成年人需要，青年需要，民主需要。我们提出了三种方式，教育者和公众可以通过这些方式重建我们的共同目标并实现公民创新以帮助危机中的民主：支持行动公民，加强课堂外的青年领导力，让学生和成年人参与“艰难的历史”和当代争议。