Improving Civics Education

For John, BLUF:  There seems to be a certain lack of civics education, at least as judged by citizen participation in local government and in voting.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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NAS Debuts Coalition to Stop Action Civics

From National Review, by Mr Stanley Kurtz, 22 March 2021, 7:44 AM.

Here is the lede plus two:

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has announced the formation of a coalition to promote authentic civic education.  The new NAS Civics Alliance will oppose attempts to replace proper courses in American government with politicized “action civics.”  Most conservatives still haven’t even heard of action civics, where K-12 and college students are required to protest and lobby for (invariably leftist) political causes for course credit.  At a moment when the public and legislators are eager to restore long-neglected civic education, radicals are attempting to smuggle partisan leftist activism into K-12 education under the misleading label of “civics.”  The new NAS Civics Alliance aims to block these moves and restore genuine civic education instead.

The NAS Civics Alliance announced its formation with an introductory essay from NAS President Peter Wood, an Open Letter and Curriculum Statement signed by members of the alliance, and a page where anyone can sign the Open Letter and join the alliance.

The Open Letter warns against the rise of action civics in states like Massachusetts and Illinois, and new attempts to nationalize the practice.  The Civics Curriculum Statement lays out a range of positive alternatives, while being careful not to endorse any specific program.  The NAS Alliance, for example, makes no attempt to force a single solution on the complex question of precisely how to balance state-level mandates with local school-district control.  On the other hand, the NAS Civics Alliance clearly endorses the Partisanship Out of Civics Act (which I authored) as a model for legislation which would ban action civics at the state level.  Opposition to the politicization of civic education is the alliance’s unifying theme.

The Author points out that Our Commonwealth is one of the early adapters of the idea to encourage school students to write letters to elected officials.  I am all in favor of that.  I am in favor of it as long as the teacher or the school is not "steering" the student in one direction or another.

for sure, we have to improve our teaching of civics in public schools.  When I was in 9th Grade, in Bucks County, Pa, we have a year long course called "CORE", in which we looked at life as an adult, including examining three separate job options.  We then went on to examine Government at all levels, and about the time my parents pulled me out to go to California, we were embarking on writing a "town charter".  All good stuff.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff