John Thompson, retired teacher and historian in Oklahoma, reviews a book about how to teach civics in this era.
He writes:
Lindsey Cormack’s How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It) “offers an engaging and practical approach to discussing political issues and the inner workings of the U.S. government with children.” And guess what? How to Raise a Citizen doesn’t dump the entire challenge on schools and educators, as was the norm for corporate school reformers! She presents “a tool for parents, educators, and anyone eager to fill this gap.”
Cormack explains that, “Nationwide assessments reveal that civic knowledge hasn’t improved since 1998, and “Scores on Advanced Placement government tests are consistently among the lowest across all AP offerings.”
Cormack pushes back on the 21st century test-driven, competition-driven ideology which demanded that individual teachers must be accountable for data-driven, supposedly transformative change. How to Raise a Citizen calls for mindsets which the Billionaires Boys Club insisted were “excuses” made by teachers with “low expectations.” She writes that “we need parents to play a key role, and to support integrating civics into every grade, starting early and building on concepts just like we do with other subjects.” Cormack challenges society to:
Imagine if parents took on this role by discussing government and politics at the dinner table, encouraging their children to ask questions and showing them how to get involved in community and local government activities.
Cormack then explains, “We need parents to play a key role, and to support integrating civics into every grade, starting early and building on concepts just like we do with other subjects.”
Both parents and educators should first focus on young children, helping them build a “vocabulary and awareness of governmental structures.” Then they should help middle schoolers and high schoolers to “handle broader concepts and ideas” so they “can and do engage in community involvement.”
By high school, there should be a team effort for “turning theory into action.” Cormack explains, “Experts agree that a high-quality civic education requires ‘action civics,’ in which students learn by doing rather than just reading. Simulations of elections, legislative hearings and courtroom activities are examples of active learning shown to be impactful and memorable.”
I am struck by three points that Cormack makes. First, the adults should guide efforts where the goal is deep learning about the political process, not politicizing lessons by guiding outcomes favored by one political group or another.
Secondly, this reprioritization of active learning “has to happen day in and day out, during presidential election years and all others.” Committing to this, we can raise a generation of informed, active citizens ready to take on the challenges of our democracy.
Thirdly, she makes a case for hopefulness.
How to Raise a Citizen reminds me about the ways my high school students and I taught each other how to actively participate in our democracy. My principal knew that I would refuse to follow vertically aligned curriculum pacing guides which teachers were supposed to obey so that we would “all be on the same page” regarding the teach-to-the-test schedule. Our class’ schedule for teaching state “Standards,” as opposed to standardized tests, was different whenever there was a presidential or mid-term election, or when state or local politics took over the headlines, or when extreme events, like the Murrah Building bombing, 9/11, or wars in Iraq and Afghanistan occurred.
I would “horizontally” align our civics and/or history lessons in terms of what was being taught in other classes, and events in the community. For instance, when English classes started reading Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man, I would teach about Ellison’s experiences growing up in Oklahoma City, such as the cruel joke that was played on him that inspired the famous “Battle Royal” scene.
Our inner city students’ reading levels ranged from 2nd grade to college levels. We would use graphs, photos, audio and film clips, and other interventions to help all of them comprehend challenging concepts. Above all, they saw high-level instruction as a sign of respect, and responded by learning how to learn in a holistic and meaningful way.
The students were especially insightful when guest lecturers visited, and during field trips to places like art museums, “Deep Deuce,” where Ellison grew up, and the state Capitol. This was especially true when a veteran of the Sit-In movement joined us in repeated trips to the Capitol. Legislators were always enthralled by the students’ wisdom.
When teaching abortion rights, I would reveal to my students, who mostly held anti-abortion beliefs, that I had been a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, but everyone was free to their own opinion. I told them that I preferred the role of a teacher and referring to students as “pro-life,” as opposed to calling them “anti-choice,” which had been my job as a lobbyist.
Students frequently were more conservative than me regarding social issues, and some would come to class a day after a stimulating discussion, and pass on responses made by their parents or grandparents when they discussed our lessons from the previous day. One even brought his preacher to class, resulting in a diverse and meaningful conversation. And since I taught with the door open, parents walking down the hall would come in and join the discussions.
For instance, one father overheard our lesson on the Tulsa Massacre, which then was called the “Tulsa Race Riot.” He asked the class what name the massacre should be given, and then shifted gears and taught a lesson about anti-Jewish Pogroms. The kids figured out what he meant and shouted, “The Tulsa Pogrom!”
The next day, he came back and gave us a photo of Malcolm X shaking Martin Luther King’s hand, and taught a lesson on the Booker T. Washington to Malcolm X tradition and the W.E.B. DuBois to Martin Luther King tradition. (Clara Luper, the leader of the nation’s longest lasting Sit-In movement, did almost the same thing in another class; the students were thrilled when she challenged me by saying the Malcolm X tradition deserved respect but I shouldn’t give it respect equal to the MLK tradition.)
And that brings me to Cormack’s third basic point, bringing hope that schools, families, and communities can come together and nurture a commitment to civics education, and a 21st century democracy. A few years ago, I would have seen her optimism as a self-evident truth. Now, I worry that our failures to teach civics and history have helped undermine our society’s commitment political institutions. But, I try to focus on cross-generational and cross-cultural conversations. Cormack’s book, and memories of my students’ successes, restore my hope that we can push back against systemic challenges, and, as she emailed me, “build pathways for students and schools to thrive.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Some parents will do it. Most won’t.
We have to take a drivers license test every few years to be able to drive legally.
There is no test for parenting. Any attempt to teach future parents how to parent properly without damaging the child, comes under attack by the likes of the extreme MAGA cult.
Case in point: The Traitorous Felon and convicted rapist in the White House had parents, so did Maniac Musk and the lifelong liar and cheater’s cabinet of fools.
LikeLike
Actually I think the right to vote should depend on reaching the age of 18 and passing a civics test similar to the one immigrants take for citizenship.
LikeLike
Yeah, that’s never been done before….
LikeLike
Great piece, as always, from John Thompson. I especially appreciate his creative ways to imbue ordinary Civics lessons with ideas his students are wrestling with, in their other classes and in the real world. But the title–“reviving” Civics–bothers me. Recently, several thinkers I follow (Joyce Vance, for one) have been calling to “return Civics to the curriculum.” But only 8 states– AK, DE, KS, ME,NJ, RI, VT, WY– do not require Civics in their state curriculums. In 2018, 50% of all 8th graders took civics, and many more took Civics in 9th grade. (I’d argue later was better, but HS curricula are notoriously hard to crack– another topic.) Keep teaching Civics– go ahead and require it everywhere–but make sure that what we’re teaching is not memorizing the structure of law-making, but genuine engagement and having a say in the communities where we live.
LikeLike
The gap between what is taught in many civics courses and a former student’s lived experience as a citizen of the U.S. is an ever-widening abyss. The U.S. government is owned by corporations and billionaires. The U.S. is not a functioning democracy. I support civics education, but I have absolutely no confidence in the role that public education will have in motivating youngsters to actively participate in government. (Yes, I am that cynical about the country’s future.)
LikeLike
We need to get our young people off screens, the Kardashians and Tick Tock. Our young people need a dramatic return to reading, writing, thinking and computers as useful tools in academics. Civics instruction is important for our collective future because understanding how the government functions is important to preserving a democratic system of government. I may be “old fashioned,” but at least I know how to think, to weigh and measure, to discern, connect the dots, analyze, and understand consequences which is more than I can say about the “children of corn” Trumpkins, many of whom are in state of deep regret. Harris and Walz tried to tell them, but their bigotry and ignorance got in the way.
LikeLike
Civics is called American Government in many schools.
LikeLike
Yes! Information–bad, wrong, or inadequate–is what’s killing America. The destruction of “liberal” education, the demise of a “Fairness Doctrine,” and the rise of ignorance-sharing devices–podcasts, etc.
I taught social studies in two Ohio school districts–grades 7-12, and it can be done in ways that help students learn and learn to think–and ways that will not insult or make most parents defensive. (One way is to have students do their own research on various political issues).
I retired when the testing mania took over.
I don’t think the kind of society we value–free thinking, prosperous for all–can exist without the PEOPLE having adequate information and ways to express their preferences and control their governments.
Also, college has been made way too expensive. When I graduated high school in the mid 50’s I asked myself WHERE I wanted to go to college–not HOW I would pay for it. True, I didn’t have enough money immediately, but I was able to work my way through Ohio State with odd jobs. Today, OSU and like colleges are too expensive for that. My daughter went to OSU in the ’80’s, worked part time, and still needed burdensome loans. And in the parlance of today, “It’s ‘only’ gotten worse.”
LikeLike
College was affordable for a working class kid like me in the 1960s. I commuted to school, lived at home and worked during the summers to help pay for it. I left school with no debt. I taught in a public school, went to school at night and in the summers to pay for my master’s degree. So much like affordable college and home ownership are out of reach for young people in this inflated economy. Trump’s privatization will make everything more expensive and worse.
LikeLiked by 1 person