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The Founders of this nation believed that the government they were creating required a civically educated populace. Such an education aimed to cultivate enlightened, informed, and vigilant citizens who could perpetuate and improve the nation. Unfortunately, America's contemporary youth seem to lack adequate opportunities, if not also the ability or will, to critically examine the foundations of this nation. An even larger problem is an increasing ambivalence toward education in general. Stepping into this void is a diverse group of educators, intellectuals, and businesspeople, brought together in Civic Education and the Future of American Citizenship to grapple with the issue of civic illiteracy and its consequences. The essays, edited by Elizabeth Kaufer Busch and Jonathan W. White, force us to not only reexamine the goals of civic education in America but also those of liberal education more broadly.
In Teaching America, more than 20 leading thinkers sound the alarm over a crisis in citizenship--and lay out a powerful agenda for reform. The book's unprecedented roster of authors includes Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Senator Jon Kyl, Senator Bob Graham, Secretary Rod Paige, Alan Dershowitz, Juan Williams, Glenn Reynolds, Michael Kazin, Frederick Hess, Andrew Rotherham, Mike Feinberg, Seth Andrew, Mark Bauerlein and more. Their message: To remain America, our country has to give its kids a civic identity, an understanding of our constitutional system, and some appreciation of the amazing achievements of American self-government. But we are failing. Young Americans know little about the Bill of Rights, the democratic process, or the civil rights movement. Three of every four high school seniors aren't proficient in civics, nine of ten can't cut it in U.S. history, and the problem is only aggravated by universities' disregard for civic education. Such civic illiteracy weakens our common culture, disenfranchises would-be voters, and helps poison our politics.
We need young people to be civically engaged in order to define and address public problems. Their participation is important for democracy, for institutions such as schools, and for young people themselves, who are more likely to succeed in life if they are engaged in their communities. In The Future of Democracy, Peter Levine, scholar and practitioner, sounds the alarm: in recent years, young Americans have become dangerously less engaged. They are tolerant, patriotic, and idealistic, and some have invented such novel and impressive forms of civic engagement, as blogs, "buycott" movements, and transnational youth networks. But most lack the skills and opportunities they need to participate in politics or address public problems. Levine's timely manifesto clearly explains the causes, symptoms, and repercussions of this damaging trend, and, most importantly, the means whereby America can confront and reverse it. Levine demonstrates how to change young people's civic attitudes, skills, and knowledge and, equally importantly, to reform our institutions so that civic engagement is rewarding and effective. We must both prepare citizens for politics and improve politics for citizens.
"By nearly every measure, Americans are less engaged in their communities and political activity than generations past.” So write the editors of this volume, who survey the current practices and history of citizenship education in the United States. They argue that the current period of “creative destruction”—when schools are closing and opening in response to reform mandates—is an ideal time to take an in-depth look at how successful strategies and programs promote civic education and good citizenship. Making Civics Count offers research-based insights into what diverse students and teachers know and do as civic actors, and proposes a blueprint for civic education for a new generation that is both practical and visionary.
Imagine an America where politicians, governmental institutions, schools, new technologies, and interest groups work together to promote informed, engaged citizens. Civic Education in the Twenty-First Century brings together scholars from various disciplines to show how such a United States is possible today. Inspired by Alexis de Tocqueville’s analysis of American democracy in the early 1800s, this edited volume represents a multidimensional evaluation of civic education in its new and varied forms. While some lament a civics crisis in America today, Civic Education in the Twenty-First Century raises hope that we can have an informed and active citizenry. We find the activities of a number of politicians, government institutions, schools and interest groups as promising developments in the struggle to educate and engage Americans in their democracy. New technologies and new innovations in civic education have laid the foundation for a revitalized American civic ecology. With Civic Education in the Twenty-First Century, we call for the United States to make these practices less isolated and more common throughout the county. The volume is broken into three major sections. First there are four chapters exploring the history and philosophical debates about civic education, particularly with respect to its role in America’s educational institutions. Then, the second section provides seven groundbreaking inquiries into how politicians and political institutions can promote civic education and engagement through their routine operations. As some examples, this section explores how politicians through campaigns and judiciaries through community programs enhance civic knowledge and encourage civic engagement. This section also explores how new technologies like the Internet and social media are increasingly used by government institutions and other entities to encourage a more politically informed and engaged citizenry. Finally, the third section contains six chapters that explore programs and practices in higher education that are enhancing civic education, engagement and our knowledge of them. From the virtual civics campus of Fort Hayes State to citizens’ academies throughout the country, this section shows the possibilities for schools today to once again be civics actors and promoters.
Educating for citizenship was the original mission of American schools, but for decades that knowledge—also known as civics education—has been in decline, as schools have shifted focus to college and career, STEM, and raising reading and math scores. But over the last few years, spurred on by political polarization and a steep decline in public understanding, civics education is seeing a nation-wide resurgence, as school leaders, educators, and parents recognize the urgency of teaching young people how America works—especially young people who have been marginalized from the political system. But this isn’t your grandmother’s civics. The “new” civics has been updated and re-tooled for the phone-addicted, multi-cultural, globalized twenty-first century kid. From combatting “fake news” with fact checking in Silicon Valley, to reviving elementary school social studies in Nashville, to learning civic activism in Oklahoma City, journalist Holly Korbey documents the grassroots revival happening across the country. Along the way, she provides an essential guidebook for educators, school leaders and caregivers of all types who want to educate a new generation of engaged citizens at a critical time in American democracy.
"In September 2011, two leading civic engagement advocacy organizations headed, respectively, by Robert Putnam and Peter Levine released a joint report showing that a region's level of civic engagement was a strong predictor of its ability to recover from the Great Recession. This finding confirms what advocates of civic engagement have long hypothesized: that strengthening the networks between government and civil society and increasing citizen participation results in better government and better community outcomes. However, citizens concerned about the economic crisis need more than just deliberation or community organizing alone to achieve these outcomes. What they need, according to Peter Levine, is a movement devoted to civic renewal. Deliberative democracy-the idea that true democratic legitimacy derives from open, inclusive discussion and dialogue rather than simple voting-has become an extremely influential concept in the last two decades. In We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, Peter Levine contends that effective deliberative democracy depends upon effective community advocacy. Deliberation, he shows, is most valuable when talk and debate are integrated into a community's everyday life. To illustrate how it works, Levine draws lessons from both community organizing and developmental psychology, and uses examples of successful efforts from communities across America as well as fledgling democracies in Africa and Eastern Europe. By engaging in this type of civic work, American citizens can meaningfully contribute to civic renewal, which, in turn, will address serious social problems that cannot be fixed in any other way"--
The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools (2011) lamented the “lack of high-quality civic education in America’s schools [that] leaves millions of citizens without the wherewithal to make sense of our system of government” (p. 4). Preus et al. (2016) cited literature to support their observation of “a decline in high-quality civic education and a low rate of civic engagement of young people” (p. 67). Shapiro and Brown (2018) asserted that “civic knowledge and public engagement is at an all-time low” (p. 1). Writing as a college senior, Flaherty (2020) urged educators to “bravely interpret ... national, local, and even school-level incidents as chances for enhanced civic education and to discuss them with students in both formal and casual settings” (p. 6). In this eighth volume in the Current Perspectives on School/University/Community Research series, we feature the work of brave educators who are engaged in schooluniversity-community collaborative educational endeavors. Authors focus on a wide range of projects oriented to civic education writ large—some that have been completed and some that are still in progress—but all authors evince the passion for civic education that underpins engagement in the democratic project.
Speaking to the need to move beyond traditional formulations, this textbook presents radical visions for transforming civic education in the United States. Drawing on the experience of educators and scholars—including those rooted in feminist, queer, abolitionist, global, and race-conscious perspectives—this work offers new, practical ideas for civic education reform. Responding to recent political crises, many scholars, educators, and public commentators have called for a rebirth of civic education, but these all are grounded in the premise that the goal of civic education should be to teach students about the U.S. Constitutional system and how to operate within it. This book argues that the U.S. governmental system, including the Constitution, is infused with racist and anti-democratic premises and procedures. It asks: How can we seek a new path—one that is more democratic, more equitable, and more humane? A diverse range of leading civic educators, who are willing not just to push the boundaries of civic education but to operate outside its assumptions altogether, explore what future possibilities for civic education might look like and how these innovative ideas could be implemented in the classroom. Combining theory with practice, The Future of Civic Education will be important reading for those studying or researching in social studies methods, social studies issues, citizenship, and civic education. It will also be beneficial to social studies teachers at elementary and secondary levels, as well as policymakers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
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