If you have a few minutes to do some research, you might wonder about the connections among these three links:
First is from the extreme rightwing group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), funded by DeVos, Charles Koch, and major corporations. ALEC has 2,000 members who are state legislators. They get a free trip every year to a posh resort, where ALEC gives them model legislation to introduce in their state to promote the libertarian, anti-regulation, anti-government agenda.
Second is an article in the conservative journal Education Next about “reimagining civic education for the digital age.” It promotes the organization iCivics, a digital platform to teach civics.
Third, read about the award by the Trump Administration’s National Endowment for the Humanities and Betsy DeVos’s U.S. Department of Education of $650,000 to the curriculum and advocacy group iCivics and several university partners, to design a “roadmap” to guide teachers, publishers, and state officials on how to create integrated history and civics content.
The Trump administration, we know, is very concerned about instilling patriotism. Here is their ALEC-approved program for teaching civics. Frankly, I had forgotten that the NEH still existed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
From NEH: “to design a “roadmap” to guide teachers, publishers, and state officials on how to create integrated history and civics content. The document will be unveiled in September 2020.”
So where is the report and roadmap? What a farce.
yes i have been meaning to write some op/ed pieces on civics.,…will try
On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 9:01 AM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” If you have a few minutes to do some research, you > might wonder about the connections among these three links: First is from > the extreme rightwing group called the American Legislative Exchange > Council (ALEC), funded by DeVos, Charles Koch, and major ” >
Sotomayor is on the board of iCivics. Difficult to imagine that ALEC would approve of anything that she likes.
If it comes from Trump and Trumpism, civics is double-speak for a recovery and endorsement of racism, sexism, and all of the other isms that reside in Trump’s brain and that the rest of us have been trying to rise above for several centuries. CBK
iCivics is actually pretty good. I use it to supplement the many different things I do in the classroom. Before the pandemic used them as print resources, only using the digital platform for “games.” This year we were paperless when in person and have been remote since 11/19 so I have used some of their resources digitally. I am very progressive and detest the damage ALEC has done to education, but have found the iCivics lessons I’ve used to be unbiased so far. I hope that stays the same.
American educators can improve the thinking, discerning, and depth of knowledge of our students by having them read biographies of men and women who led our people to advance our democracy and to discuss, research and write about their insights and learning. The more students and educators focus on short answer A B C D choices as measures of knowledge, the less skills and knowledge we acquire. Listen to interviews of citizens and politicians and recognize slogans absent of reason, fact or comprehension. What is the most thoughtless response you heard this yea? Sorry? What are the responses? Too many to list one? We did this to ourselves as we over emphasized standard test scores and tried to reduce every student to a standard score. Think about it. Are you a 24 on the ACT, a 3 on the AP, a fifth stanine under a normal distribution curve or a 3 in reading and a 2 in math on the national testing standards for grades 3-8? The best way to dumb down a democracy is to reduce its education system to inane purposes and tasks.
American educators can improve the thinking, discerning, and depth of knowledge of our students by having them read biographies of men and women who led our people to advance our democracy and to discuss, research and write about their insights and learning. The more students and educators focus on short answer A B C D choices as measures of knowledge, the less skills and knowledge we acquire. Listen to interviews of citizens and politicians and recognize slogans absent of reason, fact or comprehension. What is the most thoughtless response you heard this year? Sorry? What are the responses? Too many to list one? We did this to ourselves as we over emphasized standard test scores and tried to reduce every student to a standard score. Think about it. Are you a 24 on the ACT, a 3 on the AP, a fifth stanine under a normal distribution curve or a 3 in reading and a 2 in math on the national testing standards for grades 3-8? The best way to dumb down a democracy is to reduce its education system to inane purposes and tasks.
I have to wonder if civics curricula from ALEC is a way for the Republican party to continue a legacy of “conservative values” in preparation for the 2040 shift in demographics as white folks will become a minority. It may also a way for students in apartheid charter and voucher schools to receive conservative propaganda under the guise of civics education. I live in an area served by Sinclair Broadcasting. As time goes on more programming with conservative messaging is being interjected into the news and elsewhere. I would be be very skeptical of conservatives bearing “gifts.”
Retired I think we’d have to be totally stupid NOT to expect what you said. The living example is of Koch and his machinations at the George Mason University Campus, and at other campuses . . . particularly about theories of economics. Google unKoch my campus. CBK
Have we ever taught American History K-12 . Or did we teach an aspirational view of what we wanted our history to read like. A view that always served the landed gentry , oligarchy…
One can argue that Zinn puts an ideological spin on American History that is to be believed or not believed. What you can not argue is that he does not present the documentation for his views A historical record of documents and events that to my knowledge has never been taught in the k-12 American Classroom . And therefore leads to the dangerous quandary we find ourselves in today. Making America Great Again based on a fictional past . A past where Confederate traitors deserve the statues and Military bases named after them in the eyes many even outside the South.
The one brief period in the 60s and early 70s that some sought to change this at the University level, it was viewed as a threat to the enterprise system.
“One of the bewildering paradoxes of our time is the extent to which the enterprise system tolerates, if not participates in, its own destruction.
The campuses from which much of the criticism emanates are supported by (i) tax funds generated largely from American business, and (ii) contributions from capital funds controlled or generated by American business. The boards of trustees of our universities overwhelmingly are composed of men and women who are leaders in the system.”
Not much new here. A continuation of a 50 year project. And one pursued by the Kochs even longer.as they nurtured a take over of Economics and Political Science at several Universities, starting at the University of Virginia \ George Mason and the Chicago school of Economics.
Hello Joel Herman: Some truth there; however, I see no paradox in businesses “generating taxes,” and then the representatives of The People allocating them according to law and long-standing protocols based on democratic principles which include ALL of the people.
How about we replace “generating taxes” with “paying taxes”?
The fact that genuine criticism comes from such campuses speaks to the difference between generating and paying taxes as such. Anything else from businesses is not a tax and is commonly considered gifts or bribes . . . all which are up for leveraging that criticism . . . there goes democracy.
A democracy can live in the tension between social justice for all and a moderated capitalism. We don’t need to completely embrace “socialism” to require businesses to pay their fair share of taxes . . . or to try to keep them from manipulating legislators and laws.
BTW: that Georgia Republican with the long blonde hair said that in a speech recently, paraphrased: We are holding up the last wall between us and socialism! This is someone who is quite wealthy . . . probably thinking that the rich “paying taxes” automatically means they should own what they are paying for . . . or it’s socialism! She at least wants the voters to think so. CBK
“The campuses from which much of the criticism emanates are supported by (i) tax funds generated largely from American business, . . . “
Dear Diane, I have enjoyed your posts for some time. I too am interested in fostering civic education and wrote about ICivics this summer for Insight Kansas. We are a group of five academics who write op eds for weekly distribution to 28 Kansas newspapers. You can view my op ed at https://www.kansas.com/opinion/guest-commentary/article244023192.html Another op ed of mine on civic education written in 2020 can be found at https://hayspost.com/posts/5e45ac8d65b5d31438496780 All of my op eds on K-12 education in Kansas are on the Insight Kansas Academic Insight into Kansas Politics website https://insightkansas.wordpress.com/ Please contact me if you are interested in my work. I am Sharon Hartin Iorio, Dean Emerita of the Wichita State University College of Education. Sharon.Iorio@Wichita.edu or Iorio.Sharon@gmail.com
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Good articles, Sharon.
When ALEC sponsors any program, my antenna go up.