Long before Americans decide whether to trust the government, respect workplace expectations, or take responsibility within their communities, they spend more than a decade learning how institutions work. Institutional credibility is learned, and schools are one of the first places students experience whether rules are legitimate, predictable, fair, and meaningful.

While formal civics courses teach the branches of government, voting, rights, constitutional structures, and maybe even civil discourse, there is also a hidden civics curriculum taking place daily. These lessons are taught through the policies and practices of the school. Research on adolescent institutional trust describes adolescence as a period when young people develop beliefs about the fairness and legitimacy of institutions, with their experiences with authority playing a role in the trust they develop.