Saving Democracy with Civic Literacy in America 101

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

The drop-off in civic literacy has also fueled the erosion of the national political consensus that drove the soaring successes of postwar America. During that period the federal government grew from a star in a far-off galaxy to the daily light of our political life. As Richard Nixon noted in his 1970 State of the Union address, “Ours [is] . . . a society of large expectations. Government helped to generate these expectations.” It undertook to meet them by responding to the consensus demands for a number of economic, civil, and environmental rights through, for example, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and a broad expansion of environmental protections.

But by 1970 this grand consensus was only a memory. Its dissolution came about for many reasons, but it is no accident that it coincided with the decline in civic education and civic literacy. In fact, the two have driven each other—political dissolution made it harder to speak about American civics, but the lack of discussion guaranteed that Americans, particularly students, would enter the world with a dimmer conception of American life and a shakier commitment to a community beyond their narrow self-interests.

The result is a culture and a government that can make only halting progress. Lacking a deep sense of civic life, we demand things for ourselves and our groups without an appreciation of the give-and-take inherent in American politics.

The goal of civic literacy is to continuously reinvigorate our democracy through the promotion of meaningful civic engagement. It requires knowledge of the Constitution, its history, and its values, as they have evolved. We have to understand the fragility of our democracy and our obligation to maintain it. The only place to start is with the public schools. Public schools have an obligation to teach children about our history and civic institutions, including the Constitution.

What would an effective civic literacy program look like? This is not a road untraveled. Many groups have spent considerable time exploring the question, and they all agree that civic education must start early. Many of the lessons we need to learn from the Constitution—participation, compromise, tolerance—must become part of our attitudes and conscience in order to have real impact. The sooner the effort begins and the more often it is repeated, the better it works.

Accordingly, sometime in fourth or fifth grade students should take their first civics-oriented course. This course should also include some basics of American history; call it the American Constitution I. It should introduce the structural details of the Constitution and their significance, as well as the basics of the Declaration of Independence and the visions that inspired these documents. The course should also refer to relevant current events to capture students’ attention.

More sophisticated versions of this same course should be required again in middle school and high school—American Constitution II and III. The essential goal is a deep understanding and appreciation of our Constitution, but the courses should also provide students with the capacity for critical examination of the system. A line of discussion might be the value of the Electoral College today, or the relationship between the First Amendment and campaign finance reform.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print