The proper role of education in the US,
including that of public schools, is to prepare young ones to be functioning
adults in a democracy.[1] More specifically, in order to fulfill the
democratic requisite to provide equal opportunity, an individual has a right to
a public education and the preparation that education provides.
A
secondary responsibility of the educational system is directed at society: that is to develop citizens who are
responsible in their duties as prescribed by law and to some extent by customs. And to do this, certain goals need to be identified
and achieved. That is, in order to be
functional and responsible, adults should:
·
know certain knowledge (for example, how local
government functions within the nation’s federal system),
·
be able to reflectively process certain information
(for example, figure out how local government agents rank in power allocations),
·
be able to form conclusions and evaluations
(for example, judge how effective the acts of various agents are in relation to
citizen’s desires or needs) and,
·
at least, be willing to engage in rational
thought and discussion among themselves and with others (for example, in
discussion, treat opposing arguments reasonably and objectively).
But as with most social concerns, when addressing
these fundamental requirements, one deals with certain complexities.
For
example, the educational school system must avoid indoctrinating value
positions even if one is addressing basic functions. But this is not as straight forward as it
might seem initially. Just promoting the
notion that students make up their own minds over social issues, assuming
choices are within legal limits, is a fine notion but oversimplified.
Why?
Because that view, if held in an uncompromising way, promotes a holistic
view about how one sees the way societies should be governed and what economic
system they should sustain. That would
be a liberal – as in classical liberalism – capitalist nation and with that, it
entails a lot of policy biases – e.g., biases against welfare-based policy
choices. In short, no approach to civics
education is totally value free and commits some level of indoctrination.
So, to be functional or responsible about
content choices does not prohibit the acceptance of a list of preordained
values no matter how pro or anti-individual rights they may sound. The only exception is the value of being
rational on which modern life is dependent.
All this is pointed out to further couch the suggestion that the last
posting proposed, i.e., the adoption of a consumer government approach to secondary
civics and American government courses.
This change would have as its aim to shift
attention from the structure of government and a national focus – where current
civics instruction lies – to how individuals’ roles and duties can and should
function in more local environments.
This is seen as a midway step to adopting a civics curriculum based on a
liberated federalism construct.[2] While this suggested approach can be
described as eclectic, this blog will emphasize its progressive qualities.
Mostly, its progressive quality would be
reflected in how the suggested approach addresses student interests, but this
is geared toward having students seeking satisfaction in their communities,
towns, and cities. This would naturally
lead toward interacting with local fellow citizens, their neighbors, in dealing
with governmental issues and problems.
On a practical basis, this more local emphasis shifts
most students’ attention from book information to community information. A shift in concern is also anticipated from a
third-person perspective to a first-person perspective as more attention to
local and personnel conditions is more likely to be achieved. Assuming the reader agrees that these changes
are preferable, this blog will continue presenting this proposal in its next
post.
[1] For example, see Brett Grell, “Public Education: Definition, Purpose, & Importance,
Study.com, November 21, 2023, accessed March 20, 2024, URL: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-the-purpose-of-public-education.html#:~:text=The%20original%20purpose%20of%20public,These%20goals%20continue%20today.
[2] This blog has dedicated a good deal of text to
describing and explaining this view of governance and politics. For the purposes of this posting, the reader
should understand that the view promotes a partnership sense of citizenship in
which all citizens are in it together to advance the betterment of the
commonwealth. At the same time, it provides
a strong defense of individual rights but not as a radical element, i.e., it
recognizes that individuals have duties and responsibilities toward the nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment