I remember in high school I had a classmate who forgot what Sept. 11 was. In the 2012 election, less than six in ten Americans voted. A third of Americans cannot name all three branches of government and a third cannot even name a single branch of government. There is no doubt not enough Americans participate in the political process or understand how the American government works. A functioning democracy requires a well-educated citizenry. A Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll has shown over the course of 33 years a vast majority of Americans agree American schools must “educate young people for responsible citizenship.” Yet, the National Assessment of Educational Progress found American students receive the worst test scores in civics and history than in any other subject.
So how did we get here? Until the 1960s, schools commonly taught three courses in civics and government. Two of these courses, civics and problems in democracy, focused on the role citizens play in a democracy and provided a forum for students to examine current events. These two courses are largely not offered in high schools today.
The third, an American government course, provides an overview of the federal government. Yet, at my high school this class was not required and at many other schools it is not required. How is it that our schools will let students graduate without a proper understanding of the rights American citizens have? Should that not be a primary objective of school? The fact that a “Problems in Democracy” class sounds like a class I would take in college, but not in high school is a serious problem. Democracy should not be a class reserved only for the college educated. There are many students who do make it to college to have the opportunity to take a class on democracy and even if college students do have that opportunity to take such a class, most will still not take that class.
The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools found students who partake in quality civics learning are “more tolerant of others, more willing to listen to differing points of view, and take greater responsibility for their actions and to improve their communities.” Funny, maybe Congress could use a civics lesson. We need to bring back civics into American high schools. Not the type of civics education where a teacher stands up at the front of the classroom and lectures about checks and balances and the branches of government. Rather, we need a civics education that comes alive: action civics. Action civics is a class in which students learn civics through hands-on experience. Just as my roommate studying chemistry learns chemistry through lab, high school students need to learn about democracy by partaking in the democratic process we are lucky to have.
President Lincoln once said, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Perhaps a house uneducated cannot stand either.
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