Breyer makes case for civic education

Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer argued that civic education could help reduce polarization and strengthen citizenship during a forum at the Ed School last month.

“We are in sort of a period where people seem to be arguing quite a lot and disagreeing,” Breyer, who is now Byrne Professor of Administrative Law and Process at Harvard Law School, said in a conversation with Martin West, academic dean and Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education, on April 21. “I think in the longer run, the only possible solution is to restore 12th-grade civics.”

Breyer, who served on the court from 1994 to 2022, spoke about his own civic education in San Francisco public schools, which helped spark his interest in public service and taught him the value of civic participation in a democratic government.

Read more at the Harvard Gazette.