Shoring Up the Foundation of America’s Promise to Its People
The “Why” of Civic Education and Ways to Improve It
Starting With the End in Mind
Before jumping into the question what is the value of civic education in a democracy, perhaps it would be a good idea to answer this question: what kind of citizens are we seeking to create?
Perhaps one of most significant contributions of The Civic Mission Schools Report is it answers that question. What type of citizen should we be trying to “build” in the United States? What are the common traits of a democratic citizen, these “republican machines” as Rushing referred to them? There are four:[1]
· Informed and thoughtful
· Participate in their communities.
· Act politically
· Moral and civic virtues
Citizens that are informed and thoughtful have an understanding and appreciation of our history and the fundamental processes of American democracy. There is an understanding and awareness of public and community issues. It is the ability to obtain information when needed and to think critically. It includes being able to dialogue with others that have diverse perspectives and consider viewpoints different than one’s own. Being able to resist simplistic answers to complex questions and being tolerant of ambiguity also characterize an informed and thoughtful citizen.[2]
Citizens that participate in their communities belong to groups in civil society that offer a place for Americans to participate in public service. These groups work together to overcome problems and pursue cultural, social, political, religious interests and beliefs.[3]
Those citizens that act politically have skills, knowledge, and commitment needed to accomplish public purposes. This can take various forms, but can include, for example, organizing people to accomplish social issues and solve problems in groups. It also can include speaking in public as well as petitioning and protesting to influence public policy and voting.[4]
Finally, citizens must have and act with moral and civic virtues. This means there is a concern reflected for the rights and welfare of others, they are socially responsible, and willing to listen to alternative perspectives. They have confidence in their capacity to make a difference and contribute personally to civic and political action. Perhaps most importantly, they can strike a balance between their own personal interests and those of the common good. They also give priority to exercising their civic duties such as voting and respect for the rule of law.[5]
Citizens that are equipped with these skills, knowledge, behaviors, and perspectives are the bedrock upon which American democracy depends.
Why Fix Our Civic Education?
If one has any understanding of democracy, while they likely would advocate it as the best form of government, they will also likely acknowledge that it is not without its shortcomings. American democracy has always been an evolutionary “work in progress”. It has had stunning successes, but also deep flaws that have required hard work, blood, sweat, and even civil strife and war to address and correct. Civic education plays an essential role in addressing a democracy’s shortfalls. And its clear our current civic education efforts are inadequate. We need to change.
The Civic Mission Schools Report advocates ways that “civic learning” can address many of our democratic shortfalls. Specifically, civic learning helps shore up democratic short falls in seven ways:[6]
· First, it increases the democratic accountability of elected officials. Only informed and engaged citizens will ask inciteful questions for their leaders.
· Second, it improves public discourse as citizens that are interested and knowledgeable will demand more from the media.
· Third, civic learning fulfills our ideal of civic equality by providing every citizen, regardless of background, the tools for full participation.
· Fourth, civic learning promotes civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions enhancing the ability to understand public issues and view political engagement as a means to address communal challenges.
· Fifth, civic learning has been shown to promote civic equality. Poor, minority, urban, or rural students that receive quality civic learning perform much higher than their counterparts.
· Sixth, “twenty first century competencies” that employers seek, and value are generated by civic learning.
· Seventh, civic learning can contribute to a better school climate which includes lower dropout rates.
Knowing what kind of citizens we wish to create and what civic education can do to address democracy’s shortfalls, still begs the question- what can our schools do to improve civic learning and civic literacy?
What Can Our Schools Do Now?
Fortunately for us, there have been many capable minds looking at this question for some time. And indeed, there are things that can be done now to improve civic literacy in this country if we have the political will and see the need for doing it.
As Michael Tomasky, in his book If We Can Keep It, How the Republic Collapsed and How It Might be Saved, explains: “Right now…nearly every American schoolchild takes civics. But they mostly take just one year, and it’s very basic. Civic education has decreased over the last quarter century.”[7] Education scholars Richard D. Kahlenberg and Clifford Janey emphasize this point when they wrote in a 2016 report for The Century Foundation entitled “Putting Democracy Back into Public Education”:
“Throughout U.S. history, Americans have pivoted between whether the central priority of public education should be to create skilled workers for the economy or to educate young people for responsible citizenship.”[8] (emphasis mine)
Tomasky adds that, “…Ever since the end of the Cold War and the ascendance of the global economy in the 1990s, “…the emphasis (in education) has shifted away from preparing citizens and toward serving the needs of the marketplace”.[9] (emphasis mine)
Contrast that with math, computers, and technology, where the impact on the job market and education is more tangible and more in the limelight as our economy becomes ever more technology and science driven. The Brown Center for American Education Report that the Brookings Institution cites provides confirmation of this view saying:
“…even as politics increasingly penetrate American classrooms, U.S. education policy—as implemented in state accountability systems, for example—continues to emphasize students’ performance in mathematics and reading as the dominant focus of K-12 schooling. To the extent this emphasis has crowded out a focus on students’ civic development, we should ask whether today’s schools are, in fact, responsive to the needs of our time.”[10] (emphasis mine)
So, it is clear- addressing civics education requires rethinking and reprioritizing its importance. As is often said, what is deemed important, gets done!
Reconstructing Civics Curriculums
But it will take more than just deciding civics education is important. Civics Education must relevant and fresh. Creating curriculums deliberately based on the seven-part learner profile identified in the Civic Missions Schools Report would be a strong place to start for re-fortifying our schools’ role in their civic mission of citizen creation. Also, another major improvement would be both increasing and making more uniform the actual civics class time and course requirements required in all states to graduate from high school and for attending university.
Hirsch argues in favor of this but points how difficult it is to achieve that because “…Trying to get nationwide or statewide or even district or schoolwide agreement about specific grade-by-grade subject matter in history, literature, or the arts is like touching some poisonous object.” But Hirsch goes on to ask, what is the consequence of not doing this? His answer: “…by noncommonality poor children become ever more disadvantaged and one’s country performs at a mediocre level…” [11]
State governments, which have strong control on both the minimum requirements for the content of public education curriculum, as well as the amount of time teachers have during a school year to cover it, must increase the amount of time allowed for civics education. A half-year of civics education as required in some states is simply not enough. As an example, the State of Texas, while offering several courses that build civic literacy, requires only one half-semester course for graduation to high school students on the actual structure and operation of the United States government.[12] The amount of curriculum content listed for this course is voluminous and cannot be covered in a one-semester course, at least not with adequate knowledge retention by students. The 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education (referenced by the Brookings Institution) earlier confirms this point from a student’s point of view:
“Student experience reinforces this view that civic learning is not a central concern of schools. Seventy percent of 12th graders say they have never written a letter to give an opinion or solve a problem and 30 percent say they have never taken part in a debate- all important parts of civic learning…”[13]
The Interdisciplinary Nature of Civics Education
And yes, we must continue to teach the structure of government. One still must know the “nuts and bolts” of our government. One must know how our government is supposed to work. But, there is much more to know than only about government structure.
One must know our history which generated the ideals, concepts, and norms our democracy is based upon. Most importantly, one must learn and know how to use that knowledge to navigate our government as a citizen. Hirsch’s advocacy of a knowledge-based education that comes from shared knowledge in a shared knowledge school could be a part of the answer. Without that shared knowledge, we have no common societal language, no common nomenclature, and no common ideas and values. We Americans end up “talking at and past each other”, instead of “talking with each other”.
Further, we cannot rely solely on students to identify what it is they are interested in learning about when it comes to civic education. There is simply too much to learn and to know. As said earlier, a student is “not going to know what they do not know”, so how can they be expected to effectively construct their own civic education? Only a trained civics educator can develop the subject matter and curricula that will provide students with the knowledge base they must have to be effective citizens. Additionally, training and encouragement of our students to participate in their school, community, and in civic groups is essential to return us to our country’s heritage of civic participation and involvement.
Civic literacy, and the civic education it relies upon is not just on one thing, but all these things. They are not “either-or” but are “both-and”. Our civic learning approach to improve civic literacy must include the “what, how, and why” of civic learning. The “what” is the content including the concepts that a child needs to build their civic reality. This is done through the shared knowledge Hirsch says is missing in our schools nationwide today. As Hirsch insightfully and succinctly points out: “…Knowledge is not functional until it is shared”.[14]
We must make sure we have correctly identified a strong, interdisciplinary course content of history, political philosophy, constitutional law, government structure, economics, and political science which are well blended, span curriculum, and are connected to paint an accurate, cogent, compelling portrait of our government’s democratic structure. It should be a portrait that energizes, motivates, and excites students to not only want to learn the basics of civics, but want to learn more about it, and to become involved in their government. It should be a portrait that creates a learning community in every school in the country- schools grounded on this shared knowledge school concept.
Improving the “How” of Civics Education
The “how” is the method by which civic education is presented and delivered to the student. While some curriculum content must be, by necessity, delivered by lecture (“drill and grill” as some call it), much of it can be presented in a multi-faceted fashion. Certainly, it can be in the form of some community service. But, it can also be through hands-on learning experiences with students visiting their local, state, and federal governments in-person for real life learning. This is more than field trips to tour state capitol buildings, but instead, spending time with government officials on the job to and learn what, why and how they perform their jobs. These can be, for example, “youth-in-government” days where students shadow government appointed and elected officials at every level of government and later describe what they have learned based on that shadowing experience. These can be local summer internships. There are many, many other ways this type of learning can be delivered in a relevant, interactive fashion to move us away from the stereotype of civics as being dry and boring.
An important part of the “how” of civic education is, as Appelbaum describes teaching children how to “self-govern” in our schools. Appelbaum believes that reviving civic participation, an important part of a child’s civic curriculum:
“…It means carving out time, space, and resources for students to govern themselves. One recent study found that, holding all else equal, greater knowledge of civics among high-school seniors correlated with a 2 percent greater likelihood of voting in a presidential election eight years later. Active participation in extracurricular activities, however, correlated with a 141 percent increase.”[15]
All civics curriculums must assess and measure student content proficiency through, not only end-of-course examinations, but also for a student to move from certain grade levels, especially to graduate from high school. Professional development for teachers of this interdisciplinary curriculum must be given the resources needed to keep teaching methods fresh and state-of-the-art. The 2018 Brown Center Report found “…that high school teachers are some of the least supported teachers in schools and report teaching larger number of students and taking on more teaching responsibilities like coaching school sports…”[16] Colleges and universities too must require, for all undergraduate students regardless of major, at least one civics learning course to ensure basic civics knowledge.[17]
Teaching the “Why” of Civics Education
At the same time the structure of our government is taught, we to teach why knowing this is important. The “why” is quite simple, but often overlooked, which seems odd because it is so powerful. It is the single most important part of a person’s civic education. If they understand the why and act on it, a powerful force for democracy is then “under construction”. We will be, as Hirsch describes, “citizen building”. From the beginning of a child’s education, starting at a young age, they must hear why they are learning about their government. We must be plain and clear about the fact that without their proper participation in their democracy, it will fail. And, children should be taught that once a democracy vanishes, any number of other forms of government can take its place, including governments that are authoritarian in nature.
The Civic Mission Schools Report offers what it characterizes as “six proven practices” that comprise a well-rounded and high-quality civic learning experience. They are:
1. “Classroom Instruction: Schools should provide instruction in government, history, economics, law, and democracy.
2. Discussion of Current Events and Controversial Issues: Schools should incorporate discussion of current local, national, and international issues and events into the classroom, particularly those that young people view as important to their lives.
3. Service Learning: Schools should design and implement programs that provide students with the opportunity to apply what they learn through performing community service that is linked to the formal curriculum and classroom instruction.
4. Extracurricular Activities: Schools should offer opportunity for young people to get involved in their schools or communities outside of the classroom.
5. School Governance: Schools should encourage student participation and school governance.
6. Simulations of Democratic Processes: Schools should encourage students to participate in simulations of democratic processes and procedures.”[18]
This is a road map that, if followed, would do much to overhaul our nation’s civic literacy. With it, we will create not only civic literacy, but the lasting civic outcome that our democracy relies upon- patriotism and nationalism. These are terms which Hirsch contends are “not dirty words”. In fact, they both have the same root meaning: loyalty to one’s birthland (natio), and loyalty to one’s fatherland (patria). [19] To be clear, this is not the toxic extreme nationalism that teaches, and breeds hate of other nations, races, and various people groups. Instead, this is the nationalism, combined with patriotism, that creates kindness, a feeling of relationship with others, in this case one’s fellow Americans.
And it is compatible with globalism because it is difficult to love persons in other countries without first loving your fellow American. The power in the Pledge of Allegiance we recite at sports, civic events, and in many schools is the “liberty and justice for all” we promise and commit to when we say the Pledge. It espouses this for each individual American, all our fellow citizens. We wish liberty and justice for everyone. No exceptions. We do not just wish it for certain people. We wish liberty and justice for everyone because we are bound together by our shared knowledge, language, and civic ideals. That is the power of civic literacy to bind us together as one while, at the same time, retaining our individual and ethnic uniqueness. As Hirsch wisely observes:
“If we do not want to fragment ourselves, if we want America to be unified and productive, we will ensure that our inherent diversity is embraced by a genuine diversity of knowledge and sentiment. The two realities do not exclude each other, they did not during much of the past, and we must not let intellectual and emotional confusion to fragment us now”[20]
One More Thing We Should Do with Our Civic Education- A More Exciting Framework
In looking at the civic education requirements for the secondary grades in the author’s state, it stands out just how uninspiring the framework in which all the content areas are placed into, is. It is called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for social studies for high school.[21] Without question the teacher is what makes these topics interesting. And the topics do appear fairly complete and comprehensive. Still, something seems to be missing. What might that be?
At least in part, it is the current framework in which all this course content is organized and presented. It is not exciting or inspiring. When, for example, one looks at the TEKS for Texas high school social studies, unless you are a teacher who loves pedagogy frameworks, it will not get you “jazzed up” much about studying high school social studies. It certainly will not answer a student’s “why” as to why they should be studying this subject at all. It is simply a list.
The Democracy Fund, an “independent, non-partisan private foundation founded to confront deep-rooted challenges in American Democracy while defending against its threats”[22], has a “systems” framework they call the Health Democracy Framework. This framework could truly inspire students with a powerful “why” as to why they should want to study civics. They explain it best:
“Our vision and core beliefs are built, in part, upon an analysis of what factors matter most to an effective political system. In developing our healthy democracy framework, we identified six elements that comprise a healthy democracy: energized civic participation, vibrant news and media, independent civil society, effective governing institutions, free and fair elections, and impartial rule of law and equal civil rights. [23]
Whether it is the Democracy Fund’s civics framework or someone else’s, creating one and using it to shows the inter-relationship of all the pieces of our democracy can make civics not only interesting, but relevant and exciting!
The Solutions are Not Complex, But Will Not Be Easy
These are some basic improvements that would go far in the improvement of civic education and thus civic illiteracy in the U.S. It will take a long term, national commitment, not the fragmented minimalist approach that exists today. But, until we do, we will continue to operate a democratic republic with citizens ill equipped for their important role as We the People, providing the consent of the governed. Our civics education must be improved now if we want to sustain our democracy for future generations in the complexities of the 21st century and beyond.
Next, we will look at specific topics in civic education that we must improve on how we teach it or, if they are not taught at all or in any depth, begin teaching them.
[1] “The Guardian of Democracy, The Civic Mission of Schools”, 2011, pg. 11, Ibid
[2] “The Guardian of Democracy, The Civic Mission of Schools”, 2011, pg. 11, Ibid
[3] “The Guardian of Democracy, The Civic Mission of Schools”, 2011, pg. 11, Ibid
[4] “The Guardian of Democracy, The Civic Mission of Schools”, 2011, pg. 11, Ibid
[5] “The Guardian of Democracy, The Civic Mission of Schools”, 2011, pg. 11, Ibid
[6] “The Guardian of Democracy, The Civic Mission of Schools”, 2011, pg. 6, Ibid
[7] If We Can Keep It, by Michael Tomasky, Copyright 2019, Pg 225, Ibid
[8] “Putting Democracy Back into Public Education”, by Richard D. Kahlenberg and Clifford Janey, November 10, 2016, The Century Foundation, https://tcf.org/content/report/putting-democracy-back-public-education/?agree+1
[9] If We Can Keep It, by Michael Tomasky, Copyright 2019, Pg 225, Ibid
[10] “The 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are Students Learning? By Michael Hansen, Elizabeth Levesque, Jon Valant, and Diana Quintero, Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, pg. 2, June 27, 2018, https://www.brookings.edu/multi-chapter-report/the-2018-brown-center-report-on-public-education/
[11] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 155, Ibid.
[12] Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies, Subchapter C, High School, 113.44, United States Government, Adopted 2018, one-half credit, ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter113/ch113c.pdf
[13] “The Need for Civic Education in 21st-Century Schools”, by Rebecca Winthrop, June 2020, Policy 2020 Brookings Institution, Ibid
[14] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 155, Ibid
[15] “Americans Aren’t Practicing Democracy”, by Yoni Applebaum, The Atlantic, October 2018, pg. 8 of 10, Ibid.
[16] “The 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are Students Learning? By Michael Hansen, Elizabeth Levesque, Jon Valant, and Diana Quintero, Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, June 27, 2018, Ibid
[17] “The Guardian of Democracy, The Civic Mission of Schools”, 2011, pp 7-8, Ibid
[18] “The Guardian of Democracy, The Civic Mission of Schools”, 2011, pp 6-7, Ibid
[19] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 178, Ibid
[20] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 156, Ibid
[21] Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or Social Studies, Chapter C. High School, August 2020, pp 1-65, ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter113/ch113c.pdf
[22] Democracy Fund, www.democracyfund.org/who-we-are
[23] Democracy Fund, www.democracyfund.org/who-we-are/healthy-democracy-framework/