It’s Your Civic(s) Duty

It’s Ann here today. Andy is in OurLittleCorner blogging about pinball and a pirate

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about elections and about how you get folks to turn out to vote – and vote intelligently. I’ve been thinking about how a country creates socially-responsible citizens, and I’ve been thinking about the teaching of civics.

Most of us took Civics or American Government in high school, right? According to the Nat’l Education Association (NEA) almost all states require at least a semester of government. Yet it’s obvious to one and all that that course isn’t doing what is needed. According to Pew Research about 44% of the voting-eligible U.S. population didn’t turn out to vote in the enormously-important 2020 Presidential election. Also, according to the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, in 2021 a bare majority of Americans (56 percent) were able to identify the three branches of government and nearly one in five (20 percent) were unable to identify any.

Sandra Day O’Connor in 2009 – when she first retired from the Supreme Court – was concerned that civic education was disappearing from the curricula and when it was taught it was boring. So O’Connor helped start a program called iCivics with the goal of transforming civic education for every student in America with innovative, truly engaging games and resources (according to the iCivics website). In 2018 iCivics formed a coalition called CivXNow, a ” a fast-growing movement of 150+ influential members calling for a civic education revival in America.”

With a little googling I found this 2023 video, “The Functions of Government” sponsored by iCivics. It’s intended for 6 to 11 year olds. I’d love to know your reaction to it.

Using cartoons to teach about government isn’t new. Our son says that Schoolhouse Rock songs were a memorable part of Saturday mornings for all Gen X kids (born between 1965 and 1980) . These short cartoons covered civics, history, economics, math, science, and grammar. While “Conjunction Junction” is a favorite, “I’m Just a Bill” might be the most famous of them.

With a little more googling, searching into ways to teach young people about our government, I came up with a 1950 talk John Kennedy gave to a convention of Massachusetts high school student council members. Kennedy, then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, would be elected President 10 years later. I’ve posted a couple of his more relevant comments below.

“…public schools are expected to develop leaders for a democratic society. Certainly, all of you must recognize an obligation of the most pressing sort to participate in, and to contribute to the life of your country.

I do not mean by that that you should all embark on careers in the executive or legislative branch of our government. But I do mean that you are obligated to participate in, to contribute to the national life at all levels (the underline is mine, not Kennedy’s).

Aye there’s the rub. In 2018 Judy Woodruff from NPR interviewed a group of high school students about the voting problem, and one student suggested that we should all be required to vote. Can you even imagine what our country would be like if voters – with absolutely no idea of the issues or the candidates -legally had to cast a vote?

A few states require students to pass the same test that immigrants must pass to become U.S. citizens. Take a look at the questions from the test here. I actually think it’s an awful test…just rote memorization. Applicants are given 100 questions (with the correct answers) to study – with the caveat that there may be other correct answers but test-takers should use one of the suggested responses. At test time they are given 10 of those 100 pre-determined questions and required to correctly answer six (6!) of them.

So if neither a requirement to pass the immigration test nor requiring voting would seem to insure engaged citizens, what can we do? More funding for the social sciences, perhaps?

In 2022 The American Bar Association posted an informative article, “Momentum Grows for Stronger Civic Education Across States.” That article provides an astounding revelation about school funding: “Civic education has been chronically underfunded, both federally and locally, the federal government invests a mere 5 cents per K–12 student compared to $54 per student for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).”

And with more funding would come the means to create more innovative curricula and better-trained teachers.

According to civxnow.org, “civic education, when done well, produces young people who are more likely to vote; work on community issues; become socially responsible; and feel confident speaking publicly and interacting with elected officials.” I vote that we do everything we can to support equitable, non-partisan civics education!

Now that I’ve got the serious stuff off my mind, I’m thinking about adding more to those trivia-type Citizenship Test questions. One could be “What U.S. president served for 4,422 days (that’s over 12 years)? And who was that President’s 3rd Vice President? And what was the name of that Vice President’s wife? And what year did that Vice President become President?

And the answers are FDR, HARRY S TRUMAN, BESS, and 1945. And here’s a recipe from Bess Truman (who apparently never publicly discussed politics. Did she not have a good high school civics class?).