In light of
long-running trends and recent events, no logical debater would argue against
the fact that Americans in general could use a good dose of political knowledge
and civic responsibility; national voter turnout is just barely more than 50
percent for presidential elections, public misconceptions of government offices
and powers dictate campaigns and lead candidates to blatantly misrepresent political
principles and structures, and a horrifying number of Americans apparently know
more American Idol judges than they
do First Amendment rights.
The obvious
solution is a month-long remedial civics course for all Americans, to be
administered by the long-marginalized minority that is high school civics
teachers. Think of it as goal-oriented poetic justice.
That’s not
feasible, you say? That’d be an egregious waste of taxpayer money, you say? You
hated your high school civics teacher more than you hate bird poop or hospital food, you say?
Well, you’d
be right, although you can’t speak for everyone. We can’t put upwards of 200
million voting age citizens in classrooms for a month and make them memorize
constitutional amendments or teach them which powers the president actually
has, no matter how much we may want to.
What we can
do, however, is set up the next generation to be a little bit more prepared,
engaged and aware. Our civics programs as they currently operate are obviously
not working, and political literacy in high school has been declining,
according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Fortunately
enough for us, the path to reform has already been marked. The answer, beyond a
simple re-prioritizing of civics within the educational system, is what is being
called “action civics,” or the more targeted idea of “digital citizenship”
suggested by the Education Commission of the States.
These new
governmental initiatives reevaluate the traditional civics education, moving
the focus away from basic knowledge of dates and names and emphasizing instead
an active participation and involvement in public issues from the beginning.
This full
engagement is further encouraged and made possible by the technological skills
of the new generation. With social media and internet access students can
immediately become a part of the public discourse on issues important to them.
Helping them to find these issues that they care about opens up their perspective
to the political community around them, and this initial awareness and interest
is all that is needed to set them on the path to civic engagement and
political literacy.
This shift
in teaching methods may require an inordinate amount of effort to pull off
uniformly and properly, but our civics education warrants and demands more than
just a quick fix.
I believe
that this method of getting students to act independently in the political
realm can have tremendous benefits for this generation and the future. Civic
engagement now means civic engagement later, and action civics is exactly what
we need to create a more socially and politically conscious wave of youth.
By giving
young people this type of education, we are giving them the tools and the
orientation necessary to be productive members of this political society and to
work for substantial positive change in the world. Maybe that’s what we need to
shake up the public’s systemic ignorance of the processes and principles of our
political structure and re-imagine what it means to function in democratic life.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/90283603/Spring-Issue-4-Last-Draft
