Is Our Children Learning? (Civics edition)

This November's passing of another midterm election with lackluster voter interest and turnout leads me to consider several questions about the health of democracy in the United States. Voters had multiple issues to consider, including U.S. actions in a failing war in Iraq, questionable leadership on foreign policy with North Korea and Iran, ethics violations by at least a dozen members of Congress, high gas prices, stagnated wages, and an overall sense that our country is on the wrong track.

The sheer number of critical issues facing our country combined with unprecedented get out the vote efforts targeting young voters, old voters, socially conservative voters, and progressive voters might lead some to believe more Americans would participate in the election. However, voter turnout remained low across the nation, with only 40.4% of registered voters casting ballots last fall. While many political pundits and party leaders blame complex voting systems and perceived similarities between the two major political parties as the leading causes of voter apathy, I believe the root cause of the problem is much deeper and difficult to repair. I think the dominant cause of voter ambivalence is poor civic education in our public schools.

Education and democracy were connected in the earliest days of our republic. Thomas Jefferson advocated a free public education for all citizens because he believed education was the key to preserving liberty. Jefferson lead the newly formed U.S. government in establishing a free public education system, and many of his writings expressed his vision of the role education plays in democracy. In a letter to Virginia Senator Littleton Waller Tazewell in 1805, Jefferson wrote "Such a degree of learning [should be] given to every member of the society as will enable him to read, to judge and to vote understandingly on what is passing." In later writings, Jefferson argued the republic would fail without general education for all citizens because citizens must have the ability to exercise critical thinking skills and an understanding of current events if they hoped to maintain their freedom.

Almost 100 years after Jefferson convinced the Congress of the necessity of public education, John Dewey published a seminal work on educational philosophy again linking the success of democracy to public education. Dewey's Democracy and Education (1916) outlined his belief that the educational system must prepare individuals for action as members of their communities. He emphasized the need for experiential learning over the rote memorization of facts because only experiential learning prepared students for their role as active citizens and critical thinkers.

Critical thinking skills and the ability to learn through experience are crucial to active citizenship. Active citizens must gather large quantities of data, compare that information to their understanding of the world, and then make decisions based on their interpretations. Dewey's proposed education system actually created active citizens.

Evidence of a Failing System
Statistics showing low voter turnout are only one example of the many research results that demonstrate voter apathy. The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement conducts an annual survey of citizens age 15 and older to measure the level of civic participation in the nation. The 2006 results offer a few glimmers of hope, but the report mostly reinforces the notion that Americans are disinterested in government and politics.

The disengagement of young Americans is particularly worrisome to those who study trends in civic life. Young Americans today are much less likely to engage in civic activities than young people were in past decades. While volunteerism in up among young people, they fail to make the connections between their individual actions in their communities and the government policies related to their areas of volunteerism. For example, young people see value in volunteering for Habitat for Humanity to affect affordable housing shortages in their communities, but they do not see value in advocating government action on national housing policies. Young people are failing to make the connections because they were never taught how to make those connections. Service learning programs have taken hold in thousands of public schools, but students do not view their service within a big picture. This disconnect between personal action and government is indicative of the failure of civic education.

What Went Wrong?
We know civic education needs improvement, but before we can adequately articulate a plan for change in the curriculum, it may be helpful to briefly note how the system got off track.

Before public education was created in the U.S. with the purpose of teaching citizens, churches ran schools. Religious institutions provided education for their followers in order to instill virtues and maintain their congregations. The creation of the public education system allowed the government to focus its attention on the development of good citizens. Jefferson advocated a free public education system that would prepare citizens to self-govern. Civics lessons played a key role in the education of Americans until the mid-20th century.

As a reaction to failed foreign policy and the Red Scare, progressive decision makers in the public school system changed the face of civic education in the 1960's. They replaced lessons about patriotism and civic values with a relativist's view that all systems of government and political philosophies should be valued in education. They embraced multiculturalism in the classroom to the detriment of students' understanding of the role they played in their own democratic government. Debate over the purpose and content of civic education came to the forefront in 1980 when Ronald Reagan made civic education a campaign issue in his race for president.

Conservatives championed the issue through the 80's, with the publication of William Bennett's work on virtue and the coining of the phrase "political correctness" as a description of the multiculturalists' viewpoint. However, an attack on civic education from the right alone was not enough to create the debate about civic education we are witnessing today. Progressive intellectuals got involved in the debate, fearing if they stayed out of the discussion, conservatives would reshape civic education without their input.

Progressives discussed the importance in civic identity for the preservation of democracy and equated the country's need for national pride to an individual's need for self-respect. Today, the debate over civic education has representation from multiple political philosophies that may disagree about how to accomplish the task, but wholeheartedly agree that civic education reform is critical to the continued success of democracy in America.

Proposed Solutions for Civic Education
There are two major concepts that must be included in reform of the civic education curriculum: experiential learning and the democratic classroom.

Dewey's (1938) work Experience and Education outlined an educational philosophy of learning through experience. He argued the most effective learning takes place when students are able to enact the lessons conveyed by their teachers. The concept of experiential learning applies to civic education in that students can learn government concepts by enacting the rituals of the institutions they are studying. For example, students can learn about the judicial branch of government by attending a court hearing in their community and by reenacting a court case in class.

They can learn more about the election cycle by participating in a mock presidential election or running for student government. Research shows successful civic education systems allow students to put classroom concepts into a "real world" context and incorporate current events discussions into their classes.

However, Dewey was adamant in his belief that understanding the mechanisms of government was not enough to teach students the skills they needed to practice active citizenship. Dewey argued we could not limit our understanding and teaching of civics and citizenship to its political functions. He said the practice of citizenship went beyond the citizens' role as voter.

Dewey's philosophy about civic education was situated in the idea that citizens must work together in their communities to solve collective problems. While government action is one forum for affecting societal change, Dewey argued that citizens must have the skills to work together outside of the politics to address problems. The ultimate value of civic education was not to prepare voters, but to prepare social actors.

Edward Spiezio agreed with Dewey's assessment of the purpose of civic education. His research showed students who experience deliberation and decision-making models in school are more likely to use those models in their lives. The diversity of American society requires citizens prepared to deliberate their community's issues and reach a consensus, through both action to affect government and organized community action. Practicing that form of consensus building in the education system would benefit every community and the nation as a whole.

As Dewey described in his writing on the experiential learning cycle, students will best understand their roles as active citizens in a democracy if they are able to enact democratic values in the classroom. There are countless teachers who utilize the democratic classroom model as a method for helping students experience democracy in action. Teachers who utilize this model create a government model in the classroom. Students are required to establish rules for their interaction, including rules to protect individual rights, create methods for dealing with rule violators, and make decisions.

Through their enactment of a democratic model in the classroom, students learn not only history and governmental processes, but they develop skills in deliberation, agenda setting, and consensus building. All of these skills carry over into active citizenship outside of the classroom.

One key component of democratic education is the role discourse plays in decision-making. Deliberative democratic education incorporates a focus on the discursive aspects of the democratic process. Research shows this form of democratic education has a greater influence on learning outcomes, creates a dedication to life long learning, and better prepares students for discourse outside of the classroom than other forms of teaching.

Deliberative democratic education has a multiplier effect in that research shows students who experience this type of education in class take it home with them. One study showed students who debate current events at school talk to their parents about those same issues at home. Deliberation skills are critical for active citizenship, and experiential learning models that emphasize the development of discursive skills, like the deliberative democratic model, are needed in civic education.

Conclusion
Thomas Jefferson said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." His argument that civic education is vital to the maintenance of liberty cannot be ignored any longer. While I appreciate the intent of the multiculturalists' effort to allow for freedom of thought among students, their experiment in civic education has failed. Survey data shows a continuing downward spiral of disengagement among American citizens that must be stopped. We must reform civic education in a manner that creates excitement about civics and gives students the skills they need for active citizenship.

Many Americans have come to view civic action as a burden rather than as an opportunity to shape their world. Innovative and exciting civic education that allows students to develop and practice the skills of citizenship and engage in decision-making about their own lives can reshape the negative view so many have about participation in their communities. As Jefferson said, the key to preservation of freedom and democracy is an active citizenry. The future of democracy rides on our ability to create civic desire in our citizens.