Are we educating for citizenship?

Jewish World Review ^ | 5-30-05 | Nat Hentoff:

[SJackson]

Among the most deficient parts of the curricula in America's school systems is teaching students why they are Americans — how our government works, our system of justice, the history of the Constitution, and, indeed, U.S. history and what it's taken to maintain and protect our liberties.

A chilling 2003 report from The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at the University of Maryland, revealed that in our high schools, "most formal civic education today comprises only a single course on government — compared to as many as three courses in civics, democracy, and government that were common in the 1960s."

This situation has not yet markedly improved.

The report adds that in this single civics course, these days, there is hardly any discussion of the role of a citizen in this society.

It's not surprising, then, that as columnist Robyn E. Blumner of the St. Petersburg Times reports: "A National Conference of State Legislatures survey recently found that 64 percent of 15- to 26-year-olds can identify Ruben Studdard as a winner on American Idol, while only 40 percent can name the party that controls Congress."

This May, in New York City, 81 percent of eighth-graders flunked the state's basic social studies exam, which includes civics knowledge. Said Councilman Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx) to the New York Daily News: "I am dumbfounded that when I go into a class and I ask them who the mayor is, or what a congressman does, they don't know."

[raybbr]

Said Councilman Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx) to the New York Daily News: "I am dumbfounded that when I go into a class and I ask them who the mayor is, or what a congressman does, they don't know."

Why? It's your party's stupid policies that have caused this. You and your ilk have destroyed the education system in this country by forcing them to take diversity courses, focus on a single groups "history" (Black history month for example), learn about families with two daddies or mommies, etc. Instead of focusing on teaching students facts you have been teaching them how to feel about themselves.

Good grief, the education system in this country has been taken over by socialists and unions and this buffoon doesn't get it. Want to bet he sent his children to private school?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

As a former history teacher, I'm not at all surprised. Beginning in the 1980s, when foreign leaps in technology (particularly in Japan and India) threatened to overtake that of the U.S., education policy makers bemoaned the fact (and still do) that American students were lagging woefully behind in science and mathematics. Consequently, more and more emphasis was placed on technology and computer based curriculae in secondary schools at the expense of history, civics, and political science, fields which were deemed "irrelevant" to the modern economy and for future work force preparation. Who cares about old, dead white guys and long past wars anyway? The end result? A whole generation of technically saavy but historically, civicly, and politically ignorant college students and 20-somethings. This is what happens when you rob Peter to pay Paul in the classroom, and the country is suffering for it.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Agreed 100%

[Mobilemitter]

Exactly the same observation I have cited in my various rants about our culture. Objective observations and facts have been exchanged for entertainment and socialistic dribble. If you really want to see just how low we have set the bar, go to a library and check out newspapers from the '40s. They are full of something which is now almost impossible to find, facts.

[ViLaLuz]

"Are we educating for citizenship?"

Yes, but for a global citizenship, not an American citizenship.