Rebuilding a Strong Democracy

2007-10-03T17:54:00Z

Rebuilding a Strong Democracy

What, or who influenced your attitudes toward becoming involved in civic life? In asking that question of many people over the years, I have always been astonished that virtually no one remembers a teacher or a school experience. My most vivid memory involved my father and his commitment to civic action. Other’s memories may involve the 4-H or the Y, raising money door-to-door for an important cause, or running in a 10K to help obliterate a dread disease. How about you, what memories come to mind? Although few of us think of school as the place that caused us to become involved in our communities, it should be a more important source of inspiration. What can we do to change that?

Unfortunately, even though our nation created public education to prepare young people to be effective citizens, as educators, we rarely think about that goal or talk about how to achieve that end. Recently, there has been growing attention given to preparing youth for civic engagement.

The Civic Mission of Schools report published by The Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE, a research center at the University of Maryland, looks at that issue. Scholars and practitioners were asked to identify research and present ideas that can help strengthen current practice regarding this important, but largely overlooked aspect of schooling in America. If you haven’t seen it, the report is available on the Carnegie website: www.carnegie.org and on the sites listed below.

The report identified six promising approaches supported by research which, when they are part of a comprehensive school effort, increase the likelihood that students will become engaged citizens. These approaches offer few surprises for teachers who favor interactive classrooms that are connected to their school and community life. 1) Provide instruction in government, history, law and democracy. 2) Incorporate discussion of current local, national and international issues and events in the classroom, particularly those students view as important to their lives. 3) Apply what is learned through service connected to the curriculum. 4) Offer extracurricular activities that provide opportunities for young people to get involved in their schools or communities. 5) Encourage student participation in school governance by soliciting ideas and suggestions to improve the quality of school life as well as to engage in student government. 6) Encourage students’ participation in simulations of democratic processes and procedures.

For a more comprehensive look at the report, take a look at the national Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools website, www.civicmissionofschools.org or the website of our California Campaign; www.cms-ca.org to discover the range of materials and activities that you can integrate into your present work.

Our California Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools is a collaborative effort of the Constitutional Rights Foundation and the Center for Civic Education. CRF regularly publishes The Bill of Rights in Action to support classroom instruction and has developed many materials that include simulations, and service learning opportunities. We also developed Active Citizenship Today, a framework for planning and implementing school and community projects. Our CityWorks program can be used with traditional U.S. Government texts to teach about local government. To learn more about CRF materials visit our website, www.crf-usa.org. CCE sponsors “We the People” a state and national competition based on the U.S. Constitution and “Project Citizen,” a program which stimulates students to plan projects to improve their community. Their materials can be viewed at; www.civiced.org . Many other groups have developed outstanding programs and materials for classroom use which are described on the websites of both the national campaign for the civic mission of schools and our California campaign. Both these sites are listed above.

Accept the challenge that we must do more to excite and prepare our young people to connect and engage in our democracy.

Let’s get busy; the health of our democracy is very important to our future!

Todd Clark

Constitutional Rights Foundation

Los Angeles, California