“Government of the people, by the people, and for the people” Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln said it best, that government should be created, maintained, and in service to its citizens. As a citizen of the United States, we have the right and responsibility to enact a certain level of control over our government. To maintain this free society, we need to equip our citizens with the knowledge and ability to understand the mechanisms that drive our government. Today, sadly few understand or are knowledgeable about the basic functions of their government.
During my years in the education system, I had almost no interest in civics, government, or politics. Civics was emphasized almost exclusively for the test I had to take to graduate. Unfortunately, the only information I retained from the two mandatory classes I had to take in high school, consisted mostly of copying dates and locations from a projector; and being tested on them twice a semester.
It wasn’t until my time in college I had an education that excited and engaged my interest. This renewed interest in my education and new found enthusiasm for civics came mainly from a great Political Science instructor. If you’ve ever had a teacher that wowed you or one you looked up to, one that opened up a subject in a new fantastical way, this was the professor for me. As a result, my passion and focus on this subject matter flourished. So why did it take until college to get interested in civics? For starters, we actually did something with the material. Lectures, notes, and tests were a part of class; but we also had mini projects. Things like picking a topic in the news and reporting your findings to the class made me feel like I was not only learning, but reporting it gave me the impression that what I did was important.
Although I had a great professor in College, it was the lack of a good civics education during my primary schooling, which hindered my understanding of the role of a citizen and the government. The education system in which I grew up in lacked a lot of initiative in multiple areas, in the curriculum, the lesson planning, and to some extent in the teachers themselves. So how did we get here? As Charles N. Quigley, Executive Director of the Center for Civic Education, so eloquently surmised in his address at the 1999 American Bar Association Symposium:
“Modern” civic education as a recognized and discreet curriculum began a century ago in the effort to Americanize the waves of “alien” immigrants who arrived on these shores to ensure that they were assimilated into the then dominant Northern European culture with its Judeo-Christian, Graeco-Roman, and (in law and government) Anglo-American roots. Sometimes referred to as “pressure cooker” civic education, these early initiatives tended to be catechistic and dull, but they carried on for more than half-a-century of sustained by the patriotic euphoria of two world wars and the “circle the wagons” mentality of the early years of the Cold War. (Quigly, 1999).
This historical background provides an initial framework on how and why we educated in civics. We currently don’t have this “circle the wagons” mentality today, yet many of the older generation echo this sentiment, so what changed ?
Quigley continues:
The 60s, of course, meant a “goodbye to all that.” Vietnam and then Watergate brought disenchantment, rebellion, experimentation, a loss of faith in traditional institutions and traditional leaders, the break-up of consensus, weakening of the core culture, the advent of heterogeneity, multiculturalism, etc. One of the great ironies of America’s civic culture in this century is the fact that it has been so victimized by its success. The civil rights movement and the opening of the floodgates to immigrants from all corners of the globe have created a diverse society in many ways out of synch with the common (and admittedly ethnocentric) core values that underwrote civic education earlier in this century. Redefining civic education in this polyglot world is the overriding challenge for civic educators today. (Quigly, 1999).
The question that we now need to ask ourselves is what does the civics education landscape look like today? Today, we find that in an era of standardize testing; civics education is being left behind. While our educators focus on core subjects like Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; only 39 states require at least one course in American government or civics, only nine of which requires students to pass a social studies test in order to graduate from high school. (Emma Chadband, NEA Today, 2016). Due to a shift in the school curriculum, we see the spotlight shift from social studies and government. With an education centered around polices such as No Child Left behind and Race to the top we are seeing a noticeable gap in the student’s education. We are not equipping our students with 21st century citizenry skills.
While the outlook for public civic education may look bleak; there are many who see the noticeable gap in our students education and have taken the initiative to shine a spotlight on the issues affecting our youth. Project Citizen is a government funded organisation that stresses the importance of civics in education. Currently they are campaigning with others to support senate resolution bill 150, to increase civics in education and professional development of civics educators. If passed this bill will greatly expand civics in education throughout elementary and secondary schools. This organisation endeavours to provide lesson plans and projects to better educate our youth in civics. Project citizen provides lesson plans that vary in its societal impact, but teaches students how to actively engage with the government. One teacher in Johnson county Tennessee enrolled her 5th grade class in Project Citizen, the students had free reign to decide what project they would choose, something that would impact society. The students chose to petition the local school board to construct another access road to their school, as the main road was deemed too dangerous by virtue of traffic. The petition while unsuccessful, did manage to persuade the school board to make changes to the existing road, making it safer. An impressive feat, while not a world changing event, the initiative taken by these fifth graders shows the positive impact that civic minded citizens can enact in their state and government.
The Teachers Guild (TTG) engages educators and designers from all across the globe to engage students in a number of topics, including civics. TTG engages designers and educators in a new and creative way, they choose a specific topic, and then break it down into 4 stages. 1.) Discover: Teachers, designers, and/or those who are interested or knowledgeable on the topic share their insights. 2.) Ideate: Those interested will post their ideas and methodologies in teaching the subject. 3.) Evolve: These Ideas will then begin to take on a life of their own with a download-able toolkit, here educators can make specific lesson plans and programs for how they want to teach a specific subject. 4.) Select: Each project gets voted on. Each program is put up for others to try and to rate, the end result is a popular program/lesson plan that others can use. TTG is currently collaborating with dozens of educators and designers in an effort to produce civically minded students, those who are able to use their voice to enact change on matters that are important to them.
UNICEF has been behind a lot of civics in education over the years, in ways I didn’t expect. While I don’t see them taking a role in changing the way countries teach civics in education, they do an amazing job at seeing the disconnect between governments and their citizenry. UNICEF performs case studies providing invaluable data. UNICEF in partnership with UNESCO conducted an in depth analysis in order to assess both the contents and the teaching process of Civic Education to primary and secondary school students in Serbia and Montenegro. There are dozens of other countries in which UNICEF are also actively performing data analysis, and engaging the population in the importance of civics in education.
The United Nations Development Program Bureau for Development Policy (UNDP). “The UNDP ensures inclusive and effective democratic governance by advocating, advising, fostering impartial spaces for dialogue, achieving consensus and building institutions.” (Civic Education Practical Guidance Note, p. 4). The UNDP endeavors to promote civics education by educating democracy at both a local and national level. In educating in civics, the UNDP stresses the correlation between civics education and poverty reduction.
These initiatives though fantastically engaging and wonderfully educational, are too far and few between. Though we can applaud the initiatives taken by these organizations illustrating civics in action at the elementary levels with Project citizen, the active creation and implementation of civics projects through The Teachers Guild, the creation and analysis of civics in education as a whole through UNICEF, and the entire focus and mission to make civics a living breathing organism worldwide through the UNDP. The major overarching question that still remains is, why doesn’t the domestic government utilize the current education system to do the same?
If we are to truly have a government of the people, by the people and for the people, then as educators we need to seriously question the quality of our civics education imparted onto the next generation. I feel that even though there are some good organizations that are doing a great job at educating in civics there’s no real foundation. Consider the current 2016 presidential election race where the people may lament the task of choosing between a clown or a crook, yet the citizenry seem unable or incapable of affecting the necessary change on the system in which produces them.
While completing the research necessary for this project, I learned a great deal of information about the effectiveness of these educational organizations. I found the Executive Director of the Center for Civic Education address to the Bar Association Symposium was an incredibly enlightening and insightful look into the history of our civic education. From our country’s inception to the 1960’s; there was a chuck of history I hadn’t considered. I knew it existed but I had never given it any critical thought. I learned how the nation coped with the changing values created by the continuous shift in migrant population. My parents echoed the “circle the wagon mentality”, but I never knew where the terminology came from until I was able to read Quigley’s address. I realized that there is a gap in our civics education; and while I felt that there were not enough initiatives being taken by the government to rectify this situation. I found that there were many organizations attempting to fill these gaps. Organizers, teachers, and students were taking on the challenge of creating and designing effective lesson plans and curriculum as illustrated with The Teachers Guild and Citizens Project.
References
Chadband, emma. (2012, October 17). In Standardized Testing Era, Civic Education Getting Left Behind. Retrieved from http://neatoday.org/2012/10/17/in-standardized-testing-era-civic-education-getting-left-behind-2/
Evaluation database :Civic Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in the Republic of Serbia. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/index_14389.html
Hardy, B. L. The Importance of Civics Education. Retrieved from http://www.asbj.com/TopicsArchive/Parents-and-Communities/The-Importance-of-Civics-Education.html
Mullaney, T., Houp, A., Santos, J. G., Marra, P., Amalong, J., B., . . . Scripps, E. The Teachers Guild. Retrieved from https://collaborate.teachersguild.org/challenge/civic-education/ideate
Project Citizen. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.civiced.org/programs/project-citizen
Quigley, Charles, N. (1999, February 25-26). Civic Education: Recent History, Current Status, and the Future. Retrieved from http://www.civiced.org/papers/papers_quigley99.html
United Nations Development Programme Bureau for Development Policy Democratic Governance Group: Civic Education Practical Guidance Note. Retrieved from http://www.pogar.org/publications/other/undp/governance/civic-edu-note-03e.pdf
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