A Crucial Element of Democracy

This is a blog by Robert Gutierrez ...
While often taken for granted, civics education plays a crucial role in a democracy like ours. This Blog is dedicated to enticing its readers into taking an active role in the formulation of the civics curriculum found in their local schools. In order to do this, the Blog is offering a newer way to look at civics education, a newer construct - liberated federalism or federation theory. Daniel Elazar defines federalism as "the mode of political organization that unites separate polities within an overarching political system by distributing power among general and constituent governments in a manner designed to protect the existence and authority of both." It depends on its citizens acting in certain ways which Elazar calls federalism's processes. Federation theory, as applied to civics curriculum, has a set of aims. They are:
*Teach a view of government as a supra federated institution of society in which collective interests of the commonwealth are protected and advanced.
*Teach the philosophical basis of government's role as guardian of the grand partnership of citizens at both levels of individuals and associations of political and social intercourse.
*Convey the need of government to engender levels of support promoting a general sense of obligation and duty toward agreed upon goals and processes aimed at advancing the common betterment.
*Establish and justify a political morality which includes a process to assess whether that morality meets the needs of changing times while holding true to federalist values.
*Emphasize the integrity of the individual both in terms of liberty and equity in which each citizen is a member of a compacted arrangement and whose role is legally, politically, and socially congruent with the spirit of the Bill of Rights.
*Find a balance between a respect for national expertise and an encouragement of local, unsophisticated participation in policy decision-making and implementation.
Your input, as to the content of this Blog, is encouraged through this Blog directly or the Blog's email address: gravitascivics@gmail.com .
NOTE: This blog has led to the publication of a book. The title of that book is TOWARD A FEDERATED NATION: IMPLEMENTING NATIONAL CIVICS STANDARDS and it is available through Amazon in both ebook and paperback versions.

Friday, September 23, 2016

MOSTLY, STEADY AS IT GOES

This blog has presented a somewhat contradictory message.  On the one hand, it has reported that education is a conservative institution and yet it has also reported that one of its core subjects, social studies (particularly civics education) went through a transformational change in the late forties/early fifties.  That is, it shifted from a curriculum led by traditional federalism to one guided by the natural rights construct.
This had, in my estimation, profound effects on how our schools taught government and politics.  It changed from one that emphasized the problems we faced as a democracy to a much more structural-functional approach.  The concern became to teach students the overall structure of government as an institution, created to meet and solve or ameliorate those desires expressed by citizens.  That expression is funneled through institutionalized competitive processes using established means and structures – interest groups, lobbyists, political parties. 
While this is transformational, this blog has deemed the change as unwelcome.  Why?  Because certain consequences have been derived and they are seen as not good.  One, the change has taken out a lot of the government being “of and by the people” and has left only the “for the people” attribute in place.  In other words, the change has helped institutionalize a segregated cleavage between the citizen and its government. 
Two, it has encouraged a systems view of government which seriously encourages an objectified perspective of government and politics.  Or stated another way, it has taken a lot of the humanness out of the study of politics.  Politics in this form becomes reductionist and forces become factors or variables as when measuring voting and non-voting, legitimacy or lack of legitimacy, surpluses or deficits; that is, things that can be measured, not understood and appreciated.
And three, in doing so, value questions are short-changed.  Despite several attempts at introducing values education into the study of civics, they have not been successful.  The reason is that they, in an attempt to be value neutral, have not been totally truthful in containing political biases.  As such, those who have implemented such efforts, mostly unintentionally, have engaged in subtle political messaging. 
This is unavoidable, but the proper thing to do is be forthright and provide a thoughtful rationale for what is being presented.  For these and other reasons, the change of the last fifty to sixty years needs another transformation.  This blog is dedicated to proposing and justifying such a change.  To be blunt, it is the position of this blog that American schools should adopt a liberated federalist approach to the study of civics and government.
          But in this, the change described in civics education and social studies is the exception – at least that I am aware of – and the rest of education is pretty much unchanged.  Oh, as compared to about a century or so ago, chalk boards were introduced to be later changed to white boards and to computer imagery being able to be projected for the class to see.  Computers have made a difference; hopefully, teachers are more apt to assign inquiry styled lessons since students have a virtual library at their fingertips.  But as for basic lesson structure and attitudes and norms, schools are the same.
          Of course, the nation’s project at desegregating schools has been an enormous effort.  In some cases, desegregation has led to integration, but given the racial tensions that have boiled over this summer, not enough.  But our efforts continue and our efforts have resulted in many more African-Americans filling prominent positions in our economy – things do seem to be getting better.
          Beyond these areas, Americans seem satisfied with their schools; at least, there is no concerted effort to change them.  Oh, they wish the schools were more successful in teaching, but they seem very pleased that schools mirror their biases in terms of profound value orientations.  And again, this blog has reported what they are.  Along with the above change in civics, a natural rights bias has Americans augmenting their belief in an ideology of growth, achievement, success, and individualism.[1]
          These general aims translate into more specific goals:  individual accomplishment, competition, and coming out on top.  Some – I would say most – Americans see this as advancing the interests not only of the individual student, but also of the community and nation.  This is the assumption derived from Adam Smith economics. 
History has not, in the overall, disproved such a notion; these capitalist values have proven very successful in leading to untold riches.  But the riches have been punctuated by dire economic collapses – see:  2008 collapse or the Great Depression of the 1930s.  On the other hand, even in times of success, there is the social consequence in which certain unsavory qualities seem to emerge.
Currently, and this blog has documented, high levels of narcissism, selfishness, incivility, and even criminality seem to characterize American social order.  One can attribute these qualities to these very biases American education promotes; it at least can be said to enable them.  My next posting will review – again – the main answer that the educational establishment has offered as an alternative, critical theory.




[1] Allan Ornstein and Francis P. Hunkins, Curriculum:  Foundations, Principles, and Issues, (Boston, MA:  Allyn and Bacon, 2004).

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