While the challenge of promoting civic
knowledge, skills, and dispositions is an ever present one, there currently
seems to be an increased need to address this challenge. For years, there has been an ongoing release
of studies documenting the lack of these attributes or abilities that one
associates with good citizenship among not only young people but citizens in
general.
This has only magnified with the currently, often-cited
polarization one finds in the American political landscape. Surely, this reflects less than stellar
accomplishments by the nation’s civics education programs. And one can say, with the exception of recent
reports in some segments of young people around the country, that things are
not getting better.[1] Here is what the journalist, Rebecca Winthrop,
wrote in 2020,
Americans’
participation in civic life is essential to sustaining our democratic form of
government. Without it, a government of
the people, by the people, and for the people will not last. Of increasing concern to many is the
declining levels of civic engagement across the country, a trend that started
several decades ago. Today, we see
evidence of this in the limited civic knowledge of the American public, 1 in 4
whom, according to a 2016 survey led by Annenberg Public Policy Center, are
unable to name the three branches of government. It is not only knowledge about how the
government works that is lacking – confidence in our leadership is also
extremely low. According to the Pew
Research Center, which tracks public trust in government, as of March 2019,
only an unnerving 17 percent trust the government in Washington to do the right
thing. We also see this lack of
engagement in civic behaviors, with Americans’ reduced participation in
community organizations and lackluster participation in elections, especially
among young voters.[2]
This sort of concern and findings by a variety
of academic and journalistic sources have been often cited in this blog.
So,
from less civic engagement in community efforts to acquiring political
knowledge, both of the nation’s founding principles and of the civic challenges
of the day, to voting and performing other civic activities, the level of engagement
is wanting. Within this context of how
civics education efforts should be conducted, this blogger’s task – as he sees
it – is to argue for those in charge to institute various elements of a reform
effort in civics education.
Naturally, besides what goes on in the
classroom, that focus would include what the preparation of teachers should
include to meet the challenges that civics education confronts today. To meet the aims of imparting civic knowledge
and skills and encouraging a disposition prone toward civic engagement, how teachers
should approach these educational aims, what they should be able to do, and how
they should be prepared to do their jobs
need to be considered.
In order to meet the above concerns, one is
apt, in typical business style, to collectively find the components of the teacher
preparation process, narrow one’s focus to those portions of the process
dedicated to preparing teachers to handle relevant civic factors, identify
what’s wrong, and go about devising plans and allocate resources to fix the
problem(s). Sounds logical enough, but
is it enough?
In addressing this topic, this posting does not
count on its writer’s academic credentials but instead on his being a veteran
classroom teacher of twenty-five years.
While the years of his service are a bit dated (1972-2000 – with some of
those years having him do some other things), he feels they still provide
relevant insights as to what is happening today – the reader will be the judge
as to whether he is right.
What he learned from that teaching experience –
the constructed beliefs he developed – allows him to feel he can add to the
discourse about what is ailing civics education. No doubt the challenges facing civics are
daunting, not only due to a lack of resources, but also due to a multitude of
factors affecting the general situation.
With that in mind, what follows is his take on what should constitute an
ideal teacher preparation program which emphasizes civics education.
That is, what should such a program include as
its elements? Warning: transcending all of these factors and elements
is a holistic aspect that defies systemic linear thinking and planning as just
described. He hopes his presentation
over several postings captures that sense and communicates it to the
reader. His goal in describing and
explaining his specific plan is to convey an element, provide a rationale for
it, and then speculate and react to what the reader might respond to the given
element.
This general order of presentation will be
followed as the individual elements are addressed. When all of the elements are “covered,” he
will then make some general comments as to the holistic nature of the concern. But before starting, the reader should also
be advised that the elements will not be divided by postings. For example, this posting begins its comments
on element one and will continue with element one in the next posting. How the whole presentation will appear or be
divided is still being considered.
So, here is the first element,
Element One:
A viable teacher preparation program needs to make clear that civic
preparation is not only a foundation of civics education or even social
studies, but of all public education and of responsible private educational programs
as well.[3]
In
terms of this element, it is helpful for one to step back a moment and ask why
one supports public education. What
serves as the ultimate or trump value justifying all the expense that public
education represents? Different perspectives
would probably elicit different answers to this question.
One
way to address this question is to look at the origins of public education; that
is, what was the original intent of having public education? According to the educational historian, R.
Freeman Butts,[4] it was
to support the development of a civic minded citizenry to meet the inherent
needs of a functioning republic. And supporting
this notion are the thoughts of the historians Allen Nevins and Henry Steele
Commager.
They state:
“The Founding Fathers knew that their experiment in self-government was
without precedent, and they took it for granted that it could not succeed
without an enlightened electorate.”[5] They go on to cite the efforts of Thomas
Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, George and his son DeWitt
Clinton to establish an accessible school system in their respective states.
And another historian, Samuel E. Morrison, more
explicitly states the original purpose of public schools in the following way:
Opposition
to free public education came from the people of property, who thought it
intolerable that they should be taxed to support the common schools to which
they would not dream of sending their children.
To this argument the poor replied with votes, and reformers with the
tempting argument that education was insurance against radicalism.[6]
All other reasons than that of preparing responsible,
civic minded citizens (such as preparing an educated workforce, keeping
youngsters from competing for jobs and off the streets, advancing the career
ambitions of individual citizens, etc.), while not necessarily exclusive of the
main goal, are at best secondary.
Yes,
the expense of public schooling needed to be justified to others besides the
rich and these practical and utilitarian reasons were advanced by the likes of
Horace Mann[7] and
others, but the main justification was the promotion of civic education. Butts further writes,
In
re-examining the stated purposes used to justify the development and spread of
the common public school in the mid-nineteenth century, I believe that the
citizenship argument is still valid. The
highest priority for a genuinely public school is to serve the public purposes
of a democratic political community.
Those in favor of “excellence” or “back to the basics” [cries one commonly
heard at the time Butts wrote these words] should be reminded that citizenship
is the basic purpose for universal literacy.
If the fundamental purposes of schooling are to be confined to preparing
for a job or developing individual talents, these might well be achieved in
private schools that select students for particular destinies. But the faith of the common school reformers,
as of the founders, that the civic tasks can best be performed by public
schools that are characterized primarily by a public purpose, public control,
public support, public access, and public commitment to civic unity was soundly
based.[8]
So,
the first element is for involved and interested parties to see the main
function of public and even private education is to promote good citizenship –
all else follows from this fundamental aim.
And with that general support for a civic foundation, this
posting stops and gives the reader an opportunity to mull over this role of civics
or for this central rationale for public schools. The next posting will pick up this first
element, elaborate on it and, given the space remaining, continue with the others. In all there are five elements.
[1] There have been reports of an uptick in young people
becoming more politically engaged. For
example, see David Lauder, “Essential Politics:
Young People’s Political Engagement Is Surging. That’s a Problem for Republicans,” The Los Angeles Times (April 23,
2021), accessed September 27, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2021-04-23/surge-political-engagement-youth-problem-for-gop-essential-politics .
[2] Rebecca Winthrop, “The Need
for Civic Education in the 21st – Century Schools,” 2020 Brookings
Policy (June 4, 2020), accessed September 26, 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/bigideas/the-need-for-civic-education-in-21st-century-schools/ .
[3] These comments will directly
address public education, but a lot of what will be stated will also apply to
private or sectarian educational efforts.
[4]
R. Freeman Butts, The Civic Mission in Educational Reform: Perspectives for the Public and the Profession
(Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press,
1989).
[5] Allen Nevins and Henry Steele Commager, A Pocket
History of the United States (New York, NY:
Washington Square Press, 1986).
[6] Samuel E. Morrison, The Oxford History of the
American People (New York, NY: Oxford
University Press, 1965).
[7] Allen C. Ornstein and Francis P. Hunkins,
Curriculum: Foundations, Principles, and
Issues (Boston, MA: Pearson, 2004).
[8] Butts, The Civic Mission in Educational Reform,
130.
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