American Heritage Charter School is a public school located in rural Bonneville County.  We offer a free, rigorous, and patriotic education.  Our mission is to create patriotic and educated leaders. We believe in James Madison’s statement that,

"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge ​is the only guardian of true liberty.”

Everything we do at American Heritage is designed to build strong Americans who have the knowledge, skills, character, and fortitude to be our Nation's next generation of leaders.

Patriotism & Civics

We believe, as E.D. Hirsch wrote in his "In The Making of Americans", that there are two central reasons for public education in America:  to create social mobility, allowing bright, hard-working students of all backgrounds to have the opportunity of the American dream; and to create social cohesion, binding children of diverse economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds into citizens of a single nation.  We celebrate the diversity of cultural backgrounds that have been brought together into the great American melting pot.  And we strive to focus on the uniquely American ideals, history, culture, and Constitutional principals that bind us together as a nation. 

Patriotism and a focus on civic responsibility might be considered part of our character education program, but it is so much more.  You can't walk into our school without walking away with a feeling that our country's future is bright.  From our Mascot (the Patriots) and our school colors (red, white, and blue) to our patriotic decor, we wear our patriotism on our sleeves and you'll hear it in the halls. 

Every morning, our students recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the Idaho State Pledge, the School Creed, and their individual class creeds.  The School Creed is aspirational and embodies a positive attitude of promise that we hope to instill in our students:

I am an American Heritage Charter School Patriot. I am unique and intelligent. I am respectful, honest, and kind. I have high hopes for my future and great expectations for myself. I promise to be the best I can be using the life principles of our country's great heroes to guide me. I promise to enrich the world by serving others. I am a Patriot—strong, proud, and brave. I am a leader today and tomorrow.   

Students learn our patriotic hymns and historical anthems, and they sing them -- regularly.  They learn all four verses of the National Anthem.  They learn the hymns of our Military branches and sing them with pride.  We learn about civil and military service, and the rights and obligations of citizenship.  We study and memorize famous quotations, poems, and speeches that are significant to our shared American history and which bind us together in a uniquely American culture.