Civic Learning Week 2025: Building Civil and Just Communities

Civic Learning Week—a nationwide effort to highlight the importance of civic learning—is coming up the week of March 10-14. This annual event brings together students, educators, policymakers, and leaders in the public and private sectors to highlight and further energize the movement for civic education across the nation. During the week, thousands of schools and organizations across the country will celebrate by providing positive and engaging civic learning opportunities across all grade levels and subject areas, as well as integrating student voice into the fabric of school activities and decision-making.

Civic Learning Week is also an opportunity for all of us to raise awareness about the aims of civic learning, to illuminate the central elements of history and civic education, and to share stories about the meaningful impact^1 2 civic learning has on young people and our communities. We have a long tradition in the United States—dating back to America’s founders and the inventors of public education—of relying on our schools to prepare the next generation of informed and engaged community members to uphold democratic values and participate in democracy, yet³ civic education is funded at 5 cents per student versus $50 per student for STEM education.⁴ In this turbulent time, “reimagining and reinvesting” in civic learning in nonpartisan ways is more important than ever.

Facing History’s organizational vision is to strengthen democracy by preparing the next generation to build more civil and just communities based on knowledge and compassion. We are deepening our civic education work and supporting teachers in offering civic learning opportunities that cultivate a strong sense of civic responsibility and engagement in their students. Our approach to civic education includes opportunities where students explore, learn, and participate and, ultimately, develop informed civic responsibility. We invite you to draw on our approach and join us in celebrating Civic Learning Week from March 10-14 through our Civic Learning Playlist outlined below:

Facing History’s 2025 Civic Learning Playlist

EXPLORE: Centers students’ identities, voices, and lived experiences as they develop civic agency and responsibility.

• If you only have part of a class period, develop or revisit your classroom contract to create a community of mutual respect and inclusion.
   
• If you have 1 class period, use identity charts to help students consider the many factors that shape their own identity—including their civic identity—and that of groups, nations, and historical and literary figures.
   
• If you have multiple class periods, help students understand that their voices are integral to the story of the United States with six lesson plans focused on My Part of the Story: Exploring Identity in the United States that investigate individual and national identity.

LEARN: Builds students’ civic knowledge and understanding by engaging them in inquiry, analysis, and discussion of the complexities of history, human experience, and societal issues.

• If you only have part of a class period, draw on our guide to Fostering Civil Discourse: Difficult Classroom Conversations in a Diverse Democracy to help you prepare students to engage in difficult conversations on topics that matter to them, to their communities, and to our world.
   
• If you have 1 class period, utilize our Assessing the Strength of Democracy in the United States mini-lesson that provides students with an opportunity to deepen their understanding of democracy and reflect on the strength of our democracy.
   
• If you have 1 or more class periods, explore our Political Polarization Activities designed to help students understand political polarization, reflect on its causes and consequences, and imagine potential solutions.

PARTICIPATE: Create opportunities for students to learn how to share their perspectives, exercise their voice, and raise awareness in informed and ethical ways using a variety of formats and media.

• If you only have part of a class period, read this piece focused on How to Be an Upstander: How to Find Your Civic Superpower and, with your students, draw on the ideas for getting involved in one’s community and beginning to pinpoint areas where we are each best poised to make an impact.
   
• If you have 1 or more class periods, explore our From Reflection to Action: A Choosing to Participate Toolkit, which contains a flexible collection of activities, readings, lessons, and strategies designed to help you develop a meaningful civic education experience in your classroom.
   
• If you have multiple class periods, dive into this unit that draws on the 10 Questions for Young Changemakers framework to explore two examples of youth activism: the 1963 Chicago schools boycott and the present-day movement against gun violence launched by Parkland, FL students.

In addition, there are a number of professional learning opportunities taking place during Civic Learning Week if you want to gather new ideas, connect with other educators across the country, and deepen your practice. 

• March 10 from 7 - 8 pm ET – Facing History & Ourselves will be co-hosting an online Civic Learning Resource Slam with a group of other civic education organizations, including the Center for Civic Education, EDC, iCivics, PBS, KQED, and GBH.
   
• March 11 from 7 - 9 pm ET – We will also be co-hosting an online workshop with KQED on Bringing Student Civic Learning & Reflection to Life with Infographics.
   
• March 13 – And for those of you in northern California, you are welcome to join us and other educators, leaders, and policy makers from across the country at the in-person national forum event for Civic Learning Week.
   
• Find other events happening during the week through this Civc Learning Week Events Calendar.

   

We hope you will join us in celebrating and lifting up the importance of civic learning from March 10-14, as well as throughout the school year, as we all work to support the next generation of young people to build the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to become engaged and ethical participants in democracy.