Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 2, No. 3 | Civic Education in Schools The Right Time is Now (low bandwidth)

In schools across the nation, educators are developing new ways to teach students that citizenship is a rich experience that involves responsibilities as well as rights.

The Roadrunners, a student group from the Skinner Middle School in northwest Denver, were concerned about pedestrian safety near their school, so they decided to study traffic patterns in the area. The youngsters drew up maps, recorded traffic incidents, polled hundreds of students and met with police and community leaders. The data were so well developed and the student voices so persuasive that the city installed a four-way stop sign at an intersection declared unsafe by the youngsters.

This is only one example of how schools across the country are encouraging youth to voice their opinions responsibly while learning firsthand how our system of democratic government works. Educators from Maine to California are encouraging students to grapple with public issues and tie them to academic lessons, so that the youngsters will become informed, active citizens.

Development of these model programs may mean that after years of being on the “endangered” list, civic education will not join the ranks of the dinosaurs after all. Instead of trailing off into extinction, the traditional social studies classes with students learning facts and more facts may be evolving into a dynamic new style of “civic engagement.”

But how is the idea of civic engagement being translated into the day-to-day curriculum of schools around the country? The answer is, differently, in different places. In Hudson, Massachusetts, for example, second graders learned about seeing-eye dogs, therapy dogs and bomb-sniffing dogs. Then they organized a “Barkery” and made dog biscuits to raise funds for animal surgery at a local shelter. While making and selling the biscuits, the children practiced reading, measuring, math, communication and cooperation skills. In Washington, D.C., high school students, who were studying issues involved with labor and justice, applied their lessons in the community. When they discovered that a fast-food restaurant was paying its tomato pickers less than fair wages, the students boycotted the restaurant and organized a protest. In Modesto, California, students in Fairview Elementary School, most of whom are Hispanic, studied, discussed, debated and then voted on whether or not a five-year policy of requiring students to wear uniforms should be continued. The results were 458 students in favor of discontinuing the policy and 162 in favor of continuing it. The parent vote was 167 in favor of keeping the uniform policy and 139 against it. The staff vote was about evenly split. The School Safety Committee, which is made up of students, parents and staff representatives, met in late June to resolve the question and decided to discontinue the uniform policy since there was not sufficient sentiment in favor of it. However, the committee recognized that parents and staff were concerned about dress standards, so the group will develop a set of “expectations” for the kind of clothes students should wear. In the fall, the school is planning a “Rock the Vote” concert to encourage Latino parents to register to vote, so that they will practice and model this civic responsibility for their children.

Teachers and administrators in these and other schools with similar programs report that the experiences the youngsters have in the community are reflected in a revitalized interest in academics. Grades and test scores improve as students grasp the link between what they learn in the classroom and how they can apply their skills and knowledge in the real world. Seeing this connection spurs even some of the most disaffected youngsters to achieve academically. What’s more, the youngsters gain a deeper appreciation of how they can participate in the democratic process.

The Right Time
These vignettes of students engaged in civic learning are juxtaposed against alarming statistics that indicate youngsters are disconnected from civic and political institutions, perhaps in part because of a decline in civic education courses in U.S. schools. (See, Does A Downturn in Civic Education Signal a Disconnect to Democracy?) Yet, it is also clear that these same youngsters care deeply about helping to create a better world. Members of the younger generation are increasingly prompted to volunteer to help others and are also becoming involved politically to support causes in which they believe.

The North Carolina Civic Edu-cation Consortium (www.civics.org) recently released results of the first statewide survey of the civic skills, knowledge, behavior, opportunities and attitudes of teenagers and adults. The survey, which was supported by Carnegie Corporation, the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, found that “North Carolina youth have a high level of confidence in their civic engagement skills, but their levels of political involvement and knowledge of government are low.” Only 9 percent of teens surveyed knew the names of the two U.S. senators from their state and only 26 percent have ever sent a letter to a newspaper. By contrast, 73 percent of teens surveyed have recently volunteered to do community service, 49 percent have boycotted a product when they disapproved of a company practice and 32 percent have signed a petition circulated on the Internet. The strongest indicator of civic interest and participation was family income level, with youth from high-income homes more likely to report civic involvement than youth from low-income homes.

Next page: The younger generation is increasingly prompted to help others and to become involved politically to support causes they believe in.

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