Should schools increase their emphasis on civic education?

For engaging civic education curricula, go to The Center for Civic Education website, and, the University of Virginia Center on Politics, both of which have a number of sophisticated class-based and web-based educational programs for K-12 classrooms. The Center for Civic Education (Calabasas, CA) and The Forum for Democracy and Education (Ohio and Washington, D.C.) have initiated two different movements to advance the cause of increasing the quantity and quality of civic education in our public schools. I, personally, think it is a civil rights issue, because, how can we protect and/or advance our civil rights if we a) don't know what our rights are or are politically illiterate, and, b) are politically ineffective or impotent? We, of course, cannot; but, there are an elite few who do receive an excellent and effective civic/political education in this country. The problem is that politically empowering an "elite few" contradicts the promise of self-government, freedom, equality, liberty and justice for "all."

We are looking in to having a program on our EducationChannel that will address and deal with increased civic education for all. Thiis would connect with our local schools and be applicable to the general public as well. If there is curriculum material already avaialble that we could review for use I would appreciate learning of it.

I am currently a college freshman, and only recently have I come to understand even a fraction of the importance of civics in our country. With this being the case, I think it is so important to teach young children about the foundations of our country. They are growing up in a time where politics seem corrupt and an active citizentry is something that is rarely seen. It is never too early to begin molding children into the ideal citizens necessary to run our country, and I believe the job should fall jointly onto the shoulders of both the family and the school.

Some questions I pose include the following:

1. How should children be shown th importance of voting in a time when very few of their parents do it themselves?

2. How has the application of civics in education changed in recent years and what can teachers or future teachers do to improve its quality?

I was very impressed with this quote. Can you tell me if this quote came from Gloria and something about her background. I plan to use it when we work with some of our citizen groups, if that is permissable. Ron

If I recall my Ed. History 101, one of the purposes for public education was to make good, thinking citizens. I think public education has lost that as one of its fundamental purposes for public education. We need to help our students to think, compare, and research facts before they vote. Mock voting, having students participate in current events and so forth can all contribute to helping them become better voters. Even logic should be taught to students in order to learn how they can be duped into false premises.

We do need greater opportunties for our citizens to explore the processes of governance. Throwing more resources at Civics education is the wrong strategy, and the root cause of such a dismal knowledge performance. Use resources to build relevance and relationships into Civics education. Provide credit for active participation in the process of governing and make it a requirement for every Representative's and Senator's term in office. Example - the purposes of government as described by the symbolism on the reverse side of a dollar bill.

im a high school graduate from a public school, who enjoyed civics, economics and history classes id like to say that i do agree with the fact that kids learn how to work together and have a well understood group civic mentality, but that doesnt really tell kids about goverment and polices and laws as much as teach us a sort of lord of the flies kind of way of lifestlye.and kids have slowly stopped caring about maintaining the laws and basicly every thing the u.s. constituion is. although i do think the us constition sould be severly looked over it is still fundementaly sound, and i think the past 50 years should be focused on more in school, although we've progessed so rapidly in the past 50 years teaching children about what has been acomplished does ad a strong sense of confusion. were dealing with a strong rift in change from the start of the industrial age were much of civic thoughts had not changed and now its kind of like decades have turned into centuries as far as change in "progessive america". in big picture sense with other countrys competeing in growth we have all turned into a bunch of whos betters, kind of teaching are kids that mentality, theres nothing wrong with pushing yourself to be better but with out proper teaching of civics and in a sense respect for all. its no wonder why our kids have these issues, caring about whats going on and there only way of peicing it all together is looking for them selves. and thats why every kid who i know really cares feels connected but so alone when it comes time to talking about it

When was the last time we taught Civics? I am 47, a veteran teacher of Spanish, and cannot remember the last time we taught this. I believe the infrastructure of the deterioration of behavior and/or values in moral and ethical thought regarding citizenship starts at home, the trunk of the educational tree, so to speak. With so many disconnected and disfunctional families, teachers and administrators are having increasingly more difficult issues with which to grapple in terms of student behavior at school, let alone in the communities in which many of us live. I am the "detention teacher" at my high school. This has been an eye opening experience. I view it as an opportunity to try to make a difference in these young people who are in one form of trouble or other. I greet them with a smile, treat them with respect, and try to help them as best I can. My smile may be the only one they ever get in a day. Still, I am simply astonished by the vulgarities hurled at me on a daily basis. We are almost at mid-year in our school calendar. I want to feel like a professional educator when I come to and leave school at the end of each day, expecting educational excellence and behavior from myself and my students. Most days I leave beleagured, worn out, beat down. I don't look forward to the next day. And yes, as hard as it is to admit, I am looking to leave the classroom. I must preserve my health and well being. Sadly, that 5% of students who really want to learn will not be getting the benefit of my experitise and experience in the coming years. Respect is, and always has been my #1 credo and rule in my classroom. Sadly, the fruits of my labor and love are going elsewhere as soon as I can secure another job. I love education. I hate to leave it, and do so with guilt. But I cannot do this any longer. I sure hope there are those out there who can. Michelle Tamburini, El Dorado High School, El Dorado, KS

My students are desperate to understand the ideals on which this country was founded. They are desperate because they don't like being cynical about the intentions and actions of our leaders. These are kids whose first political realities involved Clinton and Lewinsky - for many of these kids, this set the foundation for their entire understanding of our political process. They crave conversations on "civic virtue" and "common good" because they understand something is wrong and they don't want to feel hopeless. I don't place full blame on schools for our kids not understanding basic civic ideas, but we need to compensate for a political system that under the critical eyes of teenagers is fundamentally broken. If we as teachers don't deal with this reality and adjust our teaching into a meaningful dialogue about these failures and what we need to do in order to fix them - our kids will see both our educational and political systems as meaningless.

Have you tried to register anyone to vote lately? It will make you very sad to discover how little people know about the function of our country, states, and cities, and the peculiar reasons they give for not participating in democracy. They have not been taught to think that they can actually make a difference. Congress for Dummies by David Silverberg is a great summer project for kids. Read the book, select an issue, and prepare to lobby. This is a wonderful and practical way to learn how things work in a hands-on fashion, and far more interesting that any of the texts used in the classroom.