How to improve civics education
Plus: Links and News
A few words of introduction before I list seven ideas for improving civics education.
“If schools were, in reality, democratic, there would be no need to bombard students with platitudes about democracy. They would simply act and behave democratically, and we know this does not happen.” — Noam Chomsky
The Chomsky quote is used to provoke thought. I don’t necessarily think that, for example, allowing students to veto classroom assignments would lead to a better quality of education. Nor do I think it's true that, if schools achieved a satisfactory democratic nature, the graduates would behave more democratically in the "real world." Some of them would, some of them wouldn't. We still need strong institutions and democratic norms to maintain the individual freedoms afforded by a constitutional republic.
However, there are major strides schools could take in the direction of fostering democratic norms and behaviors.
This is assuming that traditional schools will continue to be the primary modes for delivering education. Arizona disrupted the educational ecosystem with the passage of universal vouchers. If segments of the Republican Party hadn’t gone off the deep end, we might be talking about a conservative-led education revolution. As it stands, we’re probably stuck with a new status quo in Arizona: a versatile but still unsatisfactory combination of options. Public schools (charter and district) are stuck dealing with oodles of mandates. Private schools are much more affordable in the short-term, but I don’t think we’re going to see an imminent explosion of quality microschools.
The future of American education is, like many things in our politics today, highly uncertain.
Here are some ideas for how to improve civics education, whatever way our schools are configured:
1. Teach history
History of what? History of technology. History of medicine. History of the solar system. History of the state. History of the country. We need a reinvigorated history program that captures student interest. Kids are naturally interested in stories. We should engage their curiosity. Right now we don’t test for history, so it’s devalued in the public school curriculum. History can augment the teaching of literacy and help students develop reasons why to learn. History, if it’s taught well, can help students make sense out of a complex world.
2. More field trips
This is where the community needs to get involved. Let’s build community relationships in order to foster in students a sense of belonging in civil society. This could include field trips as well as a consistent network of guest speakers and volunteer tutors. This, again, will engage student interest and inspire students to learn. Motivation is a critical component to learning, but it is overlooked by most practitioners who assume it’s always the student’s fault for being bored in class. Let’s take frequent trips to museums and libraries. Visit the same museum four times in a year. Visit farms. Visit local businesses. Visit the Capitol. If this takes an extra stream of school funding, let’s pay for it.
3. Encourage student journalism
Student journalism should be a mainstay of every educational venture. Even something simple like a classroom journal or a newsletter to parents. Allow students to reflect and write about what they’re experiencing in class, at school, and in their communities. Perhaps students could become “pen pals” with students of a different school. Reflections on these exchanges could be posted on a student website or the school newsletter. Let’s get creative in our methods to promote literacy, and while doing so, let’s model ways of communicating with others that are entirely detached from social media. You never know — maybe these habits, ingrained in schools, would lead to better markets for local news.
4. Ban smartphones and social media
At least until a certain age? I’m not exactly sure about this one, but, speaking for myself, I am very grateful to have grown up in an age prior to the proliferation of handheld glowing screens connected to online profiles. This is not blanket tech phobia. I don’t wish I grew up typing on a typewriter. But social media seems bad for developing brains. Not to mention all the time it takes away from other important things, like … daydreaming.
5. Teach digital literacy
This is possibly in contradiction with the previous idea, but at the very least, we should teach students how the internet works, how algorithms work, how to avoid getting caught in partisan bubbles, how “free” social media platforms make billions of dollars, how flashy information isn’t necessarily contextualized information, etc.
6. Discuss current events
I understand the hesitation to engage with current events. Things are controversial. It might be better to focus on teaching literature, history, science, etc. However, this is another opportunity for students to connect with the world around them. It is an opportunity to model prosocial behavior. In my view, civil discussions of current events should be encouraged in schools. If a school decides to avoid current events, there are still ways to teach healthy discussion practices like disagreeing with reason and respect.
7. Student empowerment
I think we should give students more experience with decision-making. Include students in the school budgeting process, or at least show them examples for how organizations and legislative bodies build consensus to make tough decisions. Set up student boards to make decisions about minor aspects of school rules. You might be surprised at how reasonable students can be if given a chance to make rules for themselves. At the high school level, taper off the mandatory coursework and allow opportunities for structured elective studies, civic projects, or internships in replace of credit hours.
Links and News
Great piece by tech philosopher L.M. Sacasas on the significance of A.I. generated artwork. Key takeaways: Human art is not merely pattern recognition. Human art surprises us in nuanced and intentional ways. Human art has the capacity to invoke reflection. Spending more time absorbing a piece of human art can draw us into a deeper appreciation of our shared human condition. Computer generated art — art that is merely a product of artificial intelligence — lacks these qualities, cheapening the human capacity for imagination.
ChatGPT Will End High-School English. A high school English teacher wrote this piece in The Atlantic questioning if writing is still an essential skill given the rise of sophisticated artificial intelligence programs. The author seems to think that the art of writing might become obsolete. Why teach kids to write if a computer can do it? My two cents: Computer generated writing is stale and boring. You can read a few examples in the article. Students should learn to write for all the reasons we currently think they should learn to write. The author of the article summarizes the reasons himself: "I believe my most essential tasks, as a teacher, are helping my students think critically, disagree respectfully, argue carefully and flexibly, and understand their mind and the world around them." Writing helps students do all of that. Writing can also help students process their learning — for example, it’s probably better cognitively (in terms of learning) for students to write a response to a short-answer prompt rather than picking a multiple-choice answer. Finally, writing can help students become better readers, which can help them learn all kinds of new things. Long live reading and writing.
The Curriculum Wars Are Based On An Illusion: Americans are more united on how to teach our history than we think (article via Persuasion magazine).
The History Wars Are Not What They Seem (podcast episode via The Bulwark). At about the 18:00 minute mark the conversation turns to academic standards for civics and history. The guest believes that, across the board, the curriculum for history and civics is “underdeveloped” compared to other subject areas.
Both the links above on school curriculum are inspired by this report by More in Common, an organization that studies the causes of political polarization. In this particular research project, they found a “perception gap – the gap between what we imagine an opposing group believes and what that group actually believes.” Yes, there are extreme ideologies that drive controversy, but there exists a healthy center in both parties who basically agree that we should teach the complexities in our history — both the awful injustices and the triumphs of freedom. We’re always going to debate what to emphasize because it is impossible to adequately cover every important story in our nation’s history. But we can reject the narrative that we’re impossibly divided on these issues. Instead, we can work to outline the areas of convergence and then build school curriculum from that framework.