Note: In case you missed my last two postings, let
me inform you that I am posting on Tuesdays, as opposed to my previous posting
day, Mondays, and Fridays.
The last few postings
have been about taking a look at the most widely used American government
textbook and seeing how it treats certain concerns. Specifically, I have been seeing if the
textbook has a natural rights perspective with a heavy self-centered approach
or, instead, a more communal approach – one reflecting a federalist bias. This blog has been dedicated in part to
promoting a federalist view and it has claimed that this is not what the prevailing
approach has been in civics instruction.
In order to back up this claim, I decided that a closer look at the most
widely used textbook would give us good evidence as to whether I am correct in
this assessment. Overall, for most
teachers, the textbook determines the content of what he/she teaches. Magruder’s
American Government[1]
is by far the most frequently chosen text for American government classes
across the US.
Due to limited space,
I have in this review of Magruder’s
tried to narrow in on key questions. I
have asked: (1) What is the assumed
motivation of a student that would encourage him/her to read the material? (2) Does the material bolster/promote
participation in pursuing collective goals or does the text encourage a more
individualistic/self-interest posture? (3) Does the material advance social
capital,[2]
especially among high school students?
Most of the text – the overwhelming amount – is taken up with “slice and
dice” descriptions of the different elements of the political system. Earlier, I stated it takes on a scientific
bias of assuming that by reducing elements of reality, looking at smaller and
smaller elements, one can reach clear explanations of why things are the way
they are – in this case, in terms of government and politics. All one has to do is add up the different
explanations of the varied elements and have a picture of the whole. But as I previously pointed out, while this
approach might lead to some level of explanation, it usually does not lead to
understanding. Most social reality, it
turns out, is greater than the sum of its parts.
Interspersed
throughout the book are eleven inserts, collectively entitled “Citizenship
101.” These inserts seem to come closest
to addressing the federalist concerns I mentioned above. To date, I reviewed the inserts “Writing
Letters to the Editor” and “Volunteering.”
My judgment of these two is that both fail to inspire much that would be
supportive of social capital or communal interests. They make attempts to address what a citizen
might do to get more involved with government and politics, but, at best, the
attempts are judged to be lukewarm both in terms of information and tone. With this posting, I want to review the
book’s treatment of “Working on a Political Campaign.”[3]
In this insert, it is
hard to determine what motivation is assumed on the part of the student. The tone is light-hearted, but there is no
describing what campaign workers experience.
I sense the author of the insert assumes a student who would read it is
already wanting to work on a campaign – any campaign. I write any campaign because in the steps the
insert lists, the first step is “Get to know the candidate.” This is before any consideration is given as
to why one would work on a campaign.
Then, curiously enough, the second step is “Choose a Candidate.” I fail to see the logic of this progression. The last two steps are straightforward: “Find out about volunteer opportunities” and
“Choose a task.” The steps, though, are
perfunctory with little information or enthusiasm over what type of activity
the steps entail. Let me share the text
for “Find out about volunteer opportunities”:
Political
campaigns offer a wide range of volunteer opportunities. A candidate may be looking for people to go
door-to-door to seek support. The
campaign may need people to host or even just attend events. Most campaigns need people to make phone
calls or send out mailings of campaign literature. Campaigns also appreciate financial
contributions.[4]
Don’t you feel
yourself wanting to run out and get involved?
Don’t you get a good sense of what it means to work on a campaign? Don’t you just feel tingly over the
possibility of doing something so exciting as working to get someone elected,
someone you believe will help lead us to make a better community, city, state,
nation? Sorry; it’s just that campaign
work is a chance to learn some important lessons about politics and an
opportunity to work with like-minded people who might turn out to be life-long
friends. As with the book’s treatment of
volunteering, couldn’t there be some case studies of young people working on a
campaign or quotes from campaign professionals about what all is analyzed
during a campaign? To be honest, the
text does have in its regular text information about voters and voter behavior. There is a section dedicated to explaining
why people don’t vote. All of this can
be useful in campaign work, but the tie-in is not built into the
explanations. There is a question in a
section review (page 178) that asks:
“How do factors such as income and level of education impact rates of
voter participation? … Why do you think this is the case?” Magruder’s
claims these are critical thinking questions.
How about using the text information and ask: From what you know about why people don’t
vote, how can a political campaign encourage reluctant people to vote? Which political party would be more inclined
to encourage high voter turnout? This
last question would have students look up and analyze: who votes, which party
is likely to win low turnout elections; which party is likely to win high
turnout elections? Let me add another
question: Is it good for us to have high
turnout elections? Why/why not? This is critical thinking.
As with the other
inserts already reviewed, I believe Magruder’s
could do a lot more with the topics it has highlighted in these inserts. In terms of motivation, the text basically
takes the posture that students either have the motivation to work on a
campaign or they don’t. By using only minimal
language of encouragement to get involved or to promote social capital, one is
left with not much motivation or excitement emanating from Magruder’s.
[1] McClenaghan, W. A.
(2013). Magruder’s American Government (Florida Teacher’s
Edition). Boston, MA: Prentice Hall/Pearson.
[2]
Social
capital is a societal quality characterized by
having an active, public-spirited citizenry, egalitarian political relations,
and a social environment of trust and cooperation.
[3] Op cit,, McClenaghan, p. 141.
[4]
Ibid.
