Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of six pieces exploring the ideas behind America’s founding. Each piece will accompany one of five master classes on the Declaration of Independence from Utah Valley University’s Center for Constitutional Studies. The classes are free and open to the public. Read more about and access the classes here.
Read more ‘The show must go on,’ 81-year-old rocker Rod Stewart says after pausing Utah show for oxygen
When we Americans think about civic education, we immediately think of public schools and universities. But for decades, our schools have only emphasized and funded non-civic subjects like language arts and STEM. Encouragingly, however, on our 250th anniversary, we are seeing a renaissance in civic education, both here in Utah and throughout our country.
In 2021, the Utah Legislature created the Civic Thought and Leadership Initiative (CTLI) to “facilitate nonpartisan political discussion” and “provide civic education and research.” In 2025, the Legislature created a new yearlong mandatory high school course, Constitutional Government and Citizenship, to provide civics teachers with more time and a focus on what matters most.
This year, in partnership with America250 Utah, CTLI has created a master class and other resources to help everyday Utahns understand the Declaration of Independence. This renewed interest from policymakers and thought leaders in civic education is heartening. But these efforts will prove ephemeral if we miss the fundamental precursors to meaningful civic education: the formation of civic virtue in everyday citizens.
The dedicated revolutionaries and constitutional framers we so rightly celebrate this year saw the proper formation of citizens as being not only importantfor the success of free government, but absolute and essential. Free government, they argued, only works if citizens exercise self-government.
Not only do “we the people” have to govern ourselves by voting, running for office and otherwise participating in the act of government, but we also have to be the kind of people who govern ourselves, placing limits on our appetites and desires for the good of all. In other words, it isn’t enough to do self-governing — we have to be self-governing.
In this way, civiceducation is better called citizen formation, and while formal education plays a critical role in that formation, its role is secondary in the formation of good citizens. What matters most is that citizens develop what the Founders (and many thinkers before them) called civic virtues.
The word virtue comes from the Latin word virtutem, which can be translated as moral excellence. For classical thinkers like the ancient Greeks and Romans, moral excellence was manifest in persons who developed specific habits of right action, called virtues. These virtues include courage, prudence, justice and moderation. Later, Christian thinkers would add virtues such as humility, hope and charity to the list.
To be virtuous, it is more than occasionally acting virtuously; we must become virtuous. As we consistently act as a courageous person would, we develop the virtue (or habit) of courage. The same goes for other virtues.
Read more Series recap: Tacoma and Salt Lake settle for split to close PCL first half
“Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private (virtue), and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.”
— John Adams
Through reason and experience, classical thinkers and our Founders argued, we can understand that moral excellence is the road to “the pursuit of happiness” and that all our passions or desires should be governed by virtues. If we develop unvirtuous habits, we become slaves to our passions. Thus, freedom and happiness both require virtue.
As Edmund Burke put it, “Men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” Just, free and flourishing governments require citizens who govern themselves. As John Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren, “Public Virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private (virtue), and public Virtue is the only foundation of Republics.”
While schools and universities are important in cultivating knowledge about civic virtue, they are not the principal places we practice civic virtue. Rather, it is in homes, churches, Little Leagues and workplaces that we find role models and try to live virtuously and practice self-governance. It is where we learn that freedom is not the absence of laws, but the presence of good ones.
So, what can we do in 2026 to develop civic virtues in ourselves and those we love?
On Sunday, July 5, America250 Utah has asked every Utahn to invite their neighbors for a potluck meal. It can be a simple way to think of others above ourselves, build friendships and practice virtues.
For extra credit, read the Declaration of Independence. This time, rather than just emphasizing the rights it declares, focus on the virtues it highlights, which include these 12: decency, respect, truthfulness, justice, prudence, dutifulness, patience, courage, humility, magnanimity, faith and honor.
Finally, thank divine providence for the virtuous women and men who came before us and placed their lives, fortunes and sacred honor on the altar of our freedom.
Read more 8 stories around the World Cup