One of the primary purposes of institutionalized education is to create productive members of our civic society. And part of being a functioning member is being engaged in the political process by exercising the right to vote. Civics is probably the most important subject in which every individual should be well informed. Not everyone will need to know how to do calculus, but everyone needs to know why they should vote and how to make informed political decisions.

About a year ago, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation published the results of a survey that tested American’s knowledge of basic U.S. history and the functions of the government using questions taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test. The results were striking: only 36% of those surveyed were able to get a passing grade of over 60% on the test.

Of the missed questions, some of the common trends were pretty egregious. 60% didn’t know which countries the U.S. fought in WWII, 57% didn’t know how many Supreme Court justices there are and 37% believed Benjamin Franklin invented the lightbulb. There also existed a massive age gap in the results. Of those over the age of 65, 74% passed, while only 19% of those under the age of 45 passed.

There’s nothing good to say about this; these results are unacceptable. According to this study, if every American were required to take the Citizenship Test, only a third would actually qualify for citizenship. And the age disparity is particularly concerning given that as the baby boomers age out of public service, the younger generations, a majority of whom do not have a baseline understanding of U.S. history and government, will have to take their place. If we want to make sure that the next generations don’t follow this same trend, we should begin requiring students at every level to take a basic U.S. history and government class.

Most won’t take it upon themselves to become educated on these topics. Most public schools offer basic U.S. history courses which focus on dates and memorization of facts rather than synthesis. Rarely in these courses are functions of government ever spoken about in any significant detail. The mere existence of major programs in colleges and universities keeps most students not in a political science or history department from ever taking a class focusing on U.S. history or civics.

If institutions like Wash. U. want to achieve the goal of producing graduates who are not only qualified to work in their respective fields, but will also be productive and engaged citizens of the U.S., students should be required to take a basic U.S. history and civics class. This doesn’t have to be a super in-depth class that works through complex political theory, analysis of government function or meticulous historical detail. It would just need to look at overarching historical topics and trends and explain the necessary details of our government and how it operates.

Making space in the various school curriculums for a three-credit graduation requirement seems feasible. In the College of Arts and Sciences, students are required to take a basic college writing class because the institution feels that learning to write properly is a necessary enough skill to require all students to learn. I would argue that universal suffrage and the overarching impact that government has on all people means that civics should be treated the same.

Teaching history is particularly important because our perceptions of it shape how we view the current state of the world. I have always felt that the way history is taught—by chapters that begin and end—is much of the reason as to why many have skewed views of social politics. The way that American slavery and the Civil Rights movements are taught, with little consideration to the lingering racial tensions that have continued to exist, leads people to believe that racism in America can be marked with specific end dates. A history class at Wash. U. could help to correct false accounts of history that are commonly taught (like that Native Americans “agreed” to move off their land and onto reservations or that the Civil War was fought over “states’ rights”) that warp perceptions of historical context.

It really concerns me that for all the money students pay to go to Wash. U. and similar institutions, very few will graduate having learned anything about the government they live under, the one that affects their everyday life functions. Civics should be a priority for all students in order to be well versed enough to vote and participate in politics confidently. If you’re paying for an education, no matter the field, part of that should be on how to be an active and engaged participant in the democratic process.