09 November

[Belsnickel]

(10-24-2016, 10:12 AM)xxlt Wrote: A couple of guys who had researched this told me something very interesting a few years ago. They looked at data on what parents wanted schools to teach children from the earliest days of formal education in America up until the most recent surveys available (this was circa 2011). Parents throughout this entire period have consistently wanted schools to teach their kids two things: 1. how to be a good person - get along with peers, have a good work ethic, share, etc., and 2. how to be a good citizen - understand how government works, what the responsibilities of citizen and elected official are, etc. And throughout the history of formal education guess what two things have been emphasized less and less every year? You got it, those two things. In fact many HS graduates today have never taken a single Civics class and some only had the option of taking - at most - one elective class in Civics for one semester. So, one of the two things parents most want their children to learn has been virtually eliminated from the curriculum. And people wonder why we have elections like this one, why voters are disenfranchised, and why people have no understanding of the political process. 

And, let's be frank, a lot of time what is covered in that one civics class is not often enough information to really make an informed voter. I mean, maybe my standards are a bit higher but how many people coming out of HS that have taken civics understand the evolution of federalism, the difference between civil liberties and civil rights, the selective incorporation of our liberties under the 14th, or the role of public opinion in the political landscape? To me, these are just a few important concepts, yet I know they weren't a part of my civics education in HS, and I doubt they are today for most people.