The American
Civics Curriculum
A complete training in civics for the American citizen
The American Civics Curriculum is a comprehensive guide to the civil realm, designed for every American citizen, and tailed to the high school student. Students will work the building blocks of the American government system, doing the work of becoming informed and equipped citizens in the process.
Students who complete this course will have acquired far more than head knowledge. The successful completion of this curriculum means they have participated in government—they have become statesmen.
The Forgotten Realm · The Civil Realm · Teacher’s Edition · Exam Pack · Foundations in Liberty
“A republic . . . if you can keep it.”
Benjamin Franklin
Two and a half centuries later, many Americans cannot say what kind of government we have, let alone how to keep it.
We are taught the three branches and told to vote. But the government that paves our roads, polices our streets, zones our land, and taxes our homes — city, county, special district, and state — goes unstudied and ungoverned by the very people it belongs to. This is the forgotten realm. This curriculum is how we take it back: not with outrage, but with knowledge and wisdom in action.
Recovering American Civics Education
A Practical Guide
The American Civics Curriculum is a sixteen-lesson, one-semester (or two semester with optional reading) course in practical civics and government for students in grades 9–12, as well as the college student, parent, grandparent, pastor, or citizen seeks to understand the civil realm. Starting local and moving outwards, it moves the student from reading about government to observing it, and from observing to engaging.
By the end of the course, the student will have read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in full, mapped his own U.S. Civic Address, named every person who represents him from precinct to President, and located the public documents his governments are built on.
Every layer
City, county, special district, state, and national — not Washington, D.C. alone.
Primary sources
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution read in depth and analyzed.
Real engagement
Students encounter the civil realm in their own city and town.
The Method
How the course works
Each of the sixteen lessons is divided into four sessions, with an optional fifth. The rhythm is simple:
I · Read
The Sourcebook
The student reads the assigned chapter of The Forgotten Realm as homework.
II · Work
The Workbook
In class or at home, student and teacher complete the lesson in The Civil Realm together. No separate lesson prep required.
III · Verify
The Exam Pack
A five-question quiz opens each session covering the assigned reading. Review sheets, a midterm, and a final anchor the grade. Answer keys included for teachers.
IV · Go to the Sources
The Documents
The optional Foundations in Liberty places the founding documents — from Alfred the Great’s Domboc to the Bill of Rights — in the student’s hands.
An Education in Statecraft
Inside the Books
What sets this curriculum apart
The Whole Republic
Not just Washington D.C.
Nine chapters walk the student through every layer of American law and governance — universal, national, state, county-equivalent, special district, and city — and how each is accountable to the one above it.
First Principles
The three realms, rightly ordered
Government begins with God’s design: family, church, and civil realm, each with its own ministry — resting on the fourth realm of self-government.
The Signature Exercise
My U.S. Civic Address & Civic Roster
Every student maps his own precinct, districts, and courts — then names every official who represents him, from school board to Supreme Court. Most adults cannot do this. Your student will.
Primary Documents
The founding documents, read and marked
Students read the Declaration of Independence and Constitution in their entirety, color-coding and labeling them paragraph by paragraph, with a comprehensive Teacher’s Edition, so the teacher is never left guessing.
Open and Teach
Syllabus
Every session’s reading is laid out in advance. Open the book, follow the plan, and the semester unfolds — for a homeschool of one or a classroom of thirty.
The Long Inheritance
From Alfred to the Constitution
Foundations in Liberty traces the thousand-year chain of documents behind American liberty — Domboc, Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Declaration, Constitution, Bill of Rights — each introduced and set in its historical place.
Additional Features
- Preparation for the CLT American Civics Exam, and the Naturalization Civics Test Q&A as an appendix
- Appendices: Landmark Supreme Court Cases, Landmark Federal Legislation, Famous Firsts, and 101 Things You Can Do
- A glossary of civic terms, plus Article and Amendment checklists with mnemonic “short forms”
What’s Included
The Components of The American Civics Curriculum
The Sourcebook
The Forgotten Realm
$34.95 $29.71
The heart of the curriculum: a readable, story-rich survey of American civil government from your city hall to the U.S. Capitol, written for American Christians. Includes the Declaration, the Constitution, and a full glossary.
One per student
The Student Text
The Civil Realm
$32.00 $27.20
A consumable text that turns the sourcebook into a curriculum: sixteen lessons of guided questions, document work, and real-world civic assignments.
One per student · consumable
Teacher’s Edition
The Civil Realm: Teacher’s Edition
$34.00 $28.90
The complete student text with answers to every exercise, activity, and question — designed so the teacher can learn alongside the student with minimal lesson prep.
One per teacher
Assessments · PDF Download
The Exam Pack
$8.00 $7.00
Session quizzes, review sheets, a midterm, and a final exam, with a complete answer key. Licensed for your household or school — buy once, print for all your students.
One per family or school
Optional · Highly Recommended
Foundations in Liberty
$17.95 $15.28
The founding documents that shaped American freedom, from Alfred the Great’s Domboc (c. 892) to the Bill of Rights — each with an introduction by Elizabeth Landis. A Roman Roads Classics volume.
Recommended one per student
The Complete Curriculum
Everything one teacher and one student need for the full course: the sourcebook, the Student Text, the Teacher’s Edition, the Exam Pack, and Foundations in Liberty.
$126.90 $107.86
All five components
Teaching several students? Add a sourcebook and workbook for each. The Exam Pack license already covers your whole family or school.
Ordering for a class?
Each student needs a copy of The Forgotten Realm and a consumable Civil Realm workbook. Each teacher needs the Teacher’s Edition. One Exam Pack covers your entire school or co-op, and Foundations in Liberty is optional but highly recommended for every student. Contact us for classroom sets →
Commendations
“In writing this book, Landis did the hard but imperative work of making clear what is utterly opaque for most of us. As American Christians, we desperately need this book on civic engagement.”
Benjamin R. Merkle — President, New Saint Andrews College
“Her step-by-step, bottom-up breakdown of the American system reveals that there are ample opportunities for Christians to engage responsibly and effectively in politics — not with rage but with mercy.”
Tony Woodlief — Author of I, Citizen
“A great primer on government in America — explaining not just the federal government but also state, county, and city government and special districts . . . a good basic education in what you need to know.”
Aaron Renn — Writer and social critic
The Author
Elizabeth Landis
Elizabeth Landis graduated from The Ohio State University with a master’s degree in French. She and her husband Greg have five children whom they have homeschooled K-12. In 2016, a local issue pulled her into the civil realm, and she has been uncovering the forgotten realm ever since. She currently works as assistant to the president at New Saint Andrews College where she founded the college’s civics club in 2020.
Questions
Common questions
What grade levels is this for?
Grades 9–12, and equally suited to college students, adults, elected officials, parents and grandparents, and pastors. The sourcebook is written to interest readers from junior high to adult who seek a basic guide for self study.
How long does the course take?
One semester: sixteen lessons, each divided into four sessions (with an optional fifth) — a natural fit for a four- or five-day week. With optional reading, this curriculum can easily be stretched over a year.
How much preparation does the teacher need?
Minimal. The curriculum assumes teacher and student are learning together; the Teacher’s Edition contains every answer, and the syllabus lays out every session in advance. The reality we face is that few teachers are trained in civics at this level before taking this course, so they will learn alongside their students. The Student Text + Teacher’s Edition makes this task a delight.
Is this only about local government?
No. The course covers every layer — city, county, special district, state, and national — plus voting, elections, parties, and a concluding study in Christian diplomacy.
Does it prepare students for a standardized civics exam?
Yes. The course contains preparation for the CLT American Civics Exam, and the full Naturalization Civics Test Q&A is included as an appendix.
What do I need for multiple students?
A sourcebook (The Forgotten Realm) and a consumable student text (The Civil Realm) per student; one Teacher’s Edition per teacher; one Exam Pack per family or school — its license covers printing for all your students.
Is this a Christian curriculum?
Unapologetically. It teaches the civil realm as one of three God-ordained realms of governance, our inheritance as a Christian nation, and it aims to raise up citizens who engage their communities out of love of God and neighbor. Yet it is also intended for every American citizen, regardless of their beliefs.
America 250
Keep the republic.
Start where you live.
Two hundred fifty years into the American experiment, the republic will be kept — or lost — by people who know how it works. Give your student the education few Americans possess.
