I recently encouraged readers to make summer great again by getting the kids outdoors more and giving them lots of free time, along with trips to various attractions and historical sites close to home. But after reading Wilfred McClay’s online essay “Civic Education, Rightly Understood,” it’s imperative to add one more item to this “make summer great” list: restoring history and civics to our children’s lives through everyday activities. McClay links our ignorance about history and civics to the current dire circumstances that have brought us to “the lonely precipice at which we find ourselves.” He goes through the abysmal scores of students on history and civics examinations, and even connects these students’ failure to learn about their country to the mental depression and spiritual malaise affecting so many of our young people today. By neglecting to teach students about America’s great achievements as well as its mistakes, McClay explains, we have left our …