Want Better Citizens? Restore Civics Education

(Editor's note: This is an opinion piece posted by a Patch reader. If you'd like to post on Patch yourself, find out how here.)

I remember the first time I thought about an election.

It was fall of 1992, and a historic three-way Presidential race was in its final stages, featuring incumbent President George H.W. Bush, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and billionaire oil-man Ross H. Perot, the Reform Party nominee who at one point was leading the polls, and wound up garnering the largest share of the vote for a third party Presidential candidate since Theodore Roosevelt ran on the Progressive line in 1912.

As a 4th grader, my base of civic knowledge was about as narrow and milquetoast as you would expect. As I'd been taught from Houghton-Mifflin, U.S. history went something like this: the Indians were here until they weren't, Washington fought the British and won us independence, all men were created equal, freedom of speech, Lincoln ended slavery, our grandmas waited in breadlines during the Depression, our grandpas beat Hitler in WWII, somebody shot Kennedy in the head, hippies protested Vietnam, Martin Luther King had a dream and ended racism, Reagan beat the Soviets, World Peace, Disneyland, The End.

That's about as deep as a social studies went in 1992.

Still, the election that year was probably the first to occur within the timeline of living memory for myself and most of my 4th grade class, and the topic came up a week or so prior to election day.

We asked my teacher about who he was voting for.

"Come one! Tell us!" we implored.

"No, no, I can't. Your parents will get mad if I say," he answered.

This was after some prior dialogue where he said as little as possible while asking us, in a most disinterested tone, how we felt. If I could jump into my body back then, I would have told him that "We're kids, we don't feel. We imagine."

"I'll write it on the board," he said, relenting.

PEROT

***

That moment stuck with me all these years, because it crystallized an interaction that would represent the parameters of a lifetime of civic discussions.

Several years ago, I was discussing local school board issues (nothing remotely controversial, I promise) with a friend at a martial arts class. The school owner interrupted, "WHO CARES!"

Well, we care.

"Is it going to make you rich?" he asked me. We wound up getting sidetracked from a serious discussion about local school issues, to quite literally one of the most imbecilic conversations I've ever felt obligated to partake in about why discussing civics is a waste of time and could actually stop you from being rich and successful.

"I don't read about the news or the economy. It's all bull****. The real economy's up here," he said, pointing to his skull.

If only somebody had alerted grandma during the Depression, she could have saved herself some time instead of waiting in that awful breadline.

This was not an isolated experience. Throughout my time in undergrad at St. John's University, and Suffolk County Community College, two institutions that could not in any way be defined as "elitist" or reserved for members of the wealthiest class, quality discussions were thwarted by uncomfortably ill-informed students demanding that we "stop talking about this" and focus on the lesson plan.

"I pay for the class, not to hear debates."

On Facebook, it's no different. People who enjoy discussion seem to sequester themselves in groups, while the rest of humanity checks out, choosing not to participate in topics on which they have either no working knowledge, no opinion, or no desire to have their beliefs and assumptions challenged. They're tired. They want to go along, and get along.

But it all goes back to that first experience. Because I do remember what non-lesson topics dominated the classroom, both in 1992 and subsequent years. I remember lively discussions on Tonya Harding allegedly having her Olympic rival knee-capped with a baseball bat; whether Michael Jackson was simply turning white or bleached himself; Pee Wee Herman being arrested in a grimy porno theater; the O.J. Simpson trial; and in later years - Monica Lewinsky, Columbine, Bill Gates' bank account, and Woodstock '99 burning to the ground.

Today, you'll find a much wider audience both online and in person, when the dominant topic is celebrity, tragedy, salaciousness or fortune. That's the way the world has always been, yes. But there is a balancing act between popular culture and civic participation. I fear that American society is dangerously out of balance in this regard.

***

The old adage that "education starts in the home" could also apply to civics. Parents should be having discussions about societal issues at the dinner table with their children. Parents should set an example by voting in each election, and explaining the process to their sons and daughters. We should bring kids to public forums every now and again.

But how can we reasonably expect parents to serve this function, when they came up through the same education system that reinforced dull participation, rote memorization of names and dates, and discouraged conversation on that could evoked even the slightest passion or controversy?

Civics education is required in all 50 states, and yet, only 25% of students in the U.S. met the standard of proficiency on the NAEP Civics Assessment, according to the National Education Association. Clearly, the problem is not a lack of civics-based education in the classroom, but the method of delivery and depth of participation.

It's not enough to present textbook information to students without real context for how it feels to be a thinking, informed, active participant in the current times. They spend the bulk of their civic education learning about someone else's issues, in some other time, without ever needing to answer the questions: "How does this impact my day-to-day life, and what is my role as a citizen in this cycle of continuous events?"

Civics is not a topic that resides exclusively in the past. It's here, now, tomorrow, always. It is a tool, a burden, and a responsibility, all at once.

I've spoken to educators, parents, and students about the issue of quality civics education here in Suffolk County, and what they have told me is that school districts are hesitant to invite speakers, approve the formation of student groups, or design participatory exercises and excursions, for fear of sidetracking lesson plans, or touching on sensitive topics that could spark discontent between students and/or parents.

While these fears may not be unfounded, they are not sufficient reason to stunt the development of civic-minded education.

Children are asked to do nothing more than memorize civic information that they have no idea what to do with, then turn 18, get sent off to college, and find themselves in a minefield of debate, discussion, and activism, with whatever information they've discovered independently on the internet as their best frame of reference. And, you know, the names and dates they were forced to memorize in high school.

School districts fear the invitation of controversy that erupts on campuses from time to time, but this is exactly why college students often struggle with tone and tolerance. It's why young people, whether they attend college or go straight into the workforce, have an even harder time differentiating quality news sources from click-bait propaganda. And for those who choose not to participate at all, even to the extent of voting once every four years, we must take responsibility for their disinterest.

This same dilemma reveals itself in other areas of education, too. Quality education on drugs, alcohol, and addiction always stops at the point of controversy and discomfort, so kids become young adults who have no clue how to deal with the pitfalls of binge-drinking and drug use. Sex education and Women's issues are largely ignored, or viewed as the sole domain of women themselves, so young men and women are thrust out of high school without comprehending topics like pregnancy, birth control, abortion, sexual consent, parenthood, gender, and identity.

Generation after generation is sent into the real world, utterly unequipped for citizenry, because we spent a quarter of a lifetime trying to protect them from having an honest conversation. Because we were protected from having one too.

When you seed a population with the idea that citizenry is some bothersome extra credit type hassle, but time and thought is better spent on celebrity and wealth worship, you get scenarios like the Year 2018, when Americans ponder questions like, "Who would make a better President, Donald Trump or Oprah Winfrey?"

The economy of the mind, indeed.

***

If we are going to start encouraging quality civic education, then I propose that schools from K through 12 implement a number of education reforms, such as:

• Regular field trips to and visits from local lawmakers, not for the mere congratulation of student achievement, but to hear them speak on issues of substance and concern.
• Sponsor candidate debates where children are the audience, and get to ask questions. (Watch the tone of debates immediately change for the better, when candidates see who's watching them)
• High Schools purchase voting machines to hold mock elections surrounding the same candidates and issues that adults vote on each November.
• Open sponsorship of any political or social student group with three or more members.
• Place a student government representative on the school board with full voting privileges.
• Mandatory field trip for each HS senior class to either the state or nation's capitol. No more baseball games or museum trips until this requirement is satisfied.
• Require 20 minutes of social studies and/or civics class time to be set aside for topical debate.
• Make journalism class an English requirement, where students learn about both reporting, and source quality.
• Mandate classes on Women's Issues and Civil Rights.
• Allocate funds to invite speakers on political topics, and mandate that speakers represent differing ideological point of views including Conservatives, Progressives, Libertarians, etc. Speakers should not be media trolls looking for controversy, but people with legitimate backgrounds in policy and/or academics.
• Establish a student United Nations body, to operate in a similar fashion to Student Government, for the purpose of discussion and debate on international relations.
• Establish a robust public policy internship program in every district.
• Most important - participation in each program or activity outlined here must be open to ALL students regardless of academic performance. No more cordoning off quality civic education in AP classes reserved only for the highest performing students. Civic participation is a right, a sacred responsibility - not an earned privilege.

***

These improvements could remake our future citizenry in ways that would pay dividends for decades and beyond. Quality education tends to be defined by the extent to which we prepare students to succeed in business, technology and science. But perhaps, if we perform an honest intake of American society at the moment, we will conclude that all of our wealth, momentum, creativity and smart device proficiency are nothing but hollow comforts dressed on the body of a citizenry that forgot its own purpose.

Let's stop taking the easy way out. Our schools must be ground zero for the remaking of the American civic participant.

Because if there is one thing that every parent can agree on, myself include, it's that for any fault that we possess, it is our duty to help our children become better people than we are.

Demand that our schools re-invent civics education.