Civics U: Civic Education
In my first article I mentioned that The Declaration adopted by the first National Assembly of The People in 2019 stated that “We can no longer accept: The decline of civic education….”
This concern is not new. In 2011 and 2012, the Hoover Institute published articles on the need for improving Civic Knowledge and Resuscitating Civic Education. Since that time, and even before, there have been calls to strengthen civic education. And just this week the Indiana state legislature passed a new law requiring that students take a semester-long civics education course in grades 6, 7, and 8. One reason for the decline of civic education has been the emphasis in schools on reading and math and the time required to meet the requirements of ESEA, the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act; and the attention given to STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education. Attending to these subjects has left less time for civic education.
So what is meant by civic education? Civics commonly refers to classes in American history and government, and the informational content of these courses, such as how the country was formed after independence from Britain, the function of the three branches of government, the constitution, the bill of rights, and so on. But civic education is more than just this informational knowledge. It includes teaching values – the values that are the foundation for and embedded in America’s history and system of government and jurisprudence. And the purpose of such civic education is to teach students about their civic duties – to be, and how to be, informed and engaged citizens. It is to equip citizens to be knowledgeable, to have informed opinions, to participate, and to vote.
In a broad sense, civic education does not happen only in school classes. Information and values are also transmitted and learned in homes, churches, public patriotic events, media reports and editorials, candidate forums, political debates, literature, and much more.
The basic content of school classes in civics has been fairly well established. But now, amidst the push to strengthen civic education, we are seeing various and different ideas about what civic education should include and how it should be taught.
But there are concerns and disagreements. For example, on one hand, there are efforts to more directly incorporate and address current issues, such as racism and identity politics in school curriculum. On the other hand, there are parents who are pushing back against schools including critical race theory in their school’s curriculum. In other words, the more broad and significant question is how to portray America – as an exemplary nation in spite of its shortcomings, or as a divided and often oppressive nation.
To just begin addressing this current state of affairs would require at least another article. For now, I will simply say that our current differences in political and social viewpoints, and even the differing views about the content and methods for teaching civic education, demonstrate and confirm the need to strengthen civic education and the understanding of our country’s foundations and directions.