Tag: failure to teach civics

Both Democrats and Republicans have justifiably complained about the stunning failure of America’s educational system to provide adequate instruction in history and civics. But who is to blame? We continue our examination of the crisis.

A Center for American Progress study notes that “Civic knowledge and public engagement is at an all-time low…While the 2016 election brought a renewed interest in engagement among youth,⁴ only 23 percent of eighth-graders performed at or above the proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics exam, and achievement levels have virtually stagnated since 1998.⁵ In addition, the increased focus on math and reading in K-12 education—while critical to prepare all students for success—has pushed out civics and other important subjects.”

While both leftists and conservatives have noticed the troubling lack of knowledge regarding American history and civics, the pronounced trend towards the use of education for leftist indoctrination may well be to blame. A study by the National Association of Scholars  reveals that “A new movement in American higher education aims to transform the teaching of civics…What we call the “New Civics” redefines civics as progressive political activism. Rooted in the radical program of the 1960s’ New Left, the New Civics presents itself as an up-to-date version of volunteerism and good works. Though camouflaged with soft rhetoric, the New Civics, properly understood, is an effort to repurpose higher education.

“The New Civics seeks above all to make students into enthusiastic supporters of the New Left’s dream of ‘fundamentally transforming’ America. The transformation includes de-carbonizing the economy, massively redistributing wealth, intensifying identity group grievance, curtailing the free market, expanding government bureaucracy, elevating international “norms” over American Constitutional law, and disparaging our common history and ideals. New Civics advocates argue among themselves which of these transformations should take precedence, but they agree that America must be transformed by “systemic change” from an unjust, oppressive society to a society that embodies social justice.”

The studies findings include:

1. Traditional civic literacy is in deep decay in America. Because middle schools and high schools no longer can be relied on to provide students basic civic literacy, the subject has migrated to colleges. But colleges have generally failed to recognize a responsibility to cover the basic content of traditional civics, and have instead substituted programs under the name of civics that bypass instruction in American government and history.
2. The New Civics, a movement devoted to progressive activism, has taken over civics education. “Service-learning” and “civic engagement” are the most common labels this movement uses, but it also calls itself global civics, deliberative democracy, and intercultural learning.

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3. The New Civics movement is national, and it extends far beyond the universities. Each individual college and university now slots its “civic” efforts into a framework that includes federal and state bureaucracies, nonprofit organizations, and professional organizations. Universities affiliate themselves with these national organizations’ progressive political goals.
4. The New Civics redefines “civic activity” as “progressive activism.” It advertises progressive causes to students and uses student labor and university resources to support progressive “community” organizations.
5. The New Civics redefines “civic activity” as channeling government funds toward progressive nonprofits. The New Civics has worked to divert government funds to progressive causes since its founding in the 1960s.
6. The New Civics redefines “volunteerism” as labor for progressive organizations and administration of the welfare state. The new measures to require “civic engagement” will make this volunteerism compulsory.
7. The New Civics replaces traditional liberal arts education with vocational training for community activists. The traditional liberal arts prepared students for leadership in a free society. The New Civics prepares them to administer the welfare state.
8. The New Civics shifts authority within the university from the faculty to administrators, especially in offices of civic engagement, diversity, and sustainability, as well as among student affairs professionals. The New Civics also shifts the emphasis of a university education from curricula, drafted by faculty, to “co-curricular activities,” run by non-academic administrators.
9. The New Civics movement aims to take over the entire university. The New Civics advocates want to make “civic engagement” part of every class, every tenure decision, and every extracurricular activity.”

Appropriate, unbiased education in the essentials of American history and civics is vital to the health, and indeed, survival of the United States as a constitutional republic of free citizens.  It’s a topic that must not be ignored.

Photo: Smithsonian Institution

The excessive discord among American political factions, and the rejection of traditional  American values by a sizeable minority, may be fueled by the stunning inadequacy of the public education system, particularly in the teaching of civics and history. A fatal lack of knowledge about the meaning of the unique U.S. Constitutional form of government and the growing absence of historical memory warps the national dialogue.

Leftists and conservatives alike have worried about this issue. But what is to blame?

A Forbes article by George Leef reports that “A good many educators take seriously the idea that teaching is a political activity and accordingly feel justified in using their classrooms as platforms for spreading their social, economic, and philosophical beliefs. They want to act as “change agents” who will improve the world…Most of those educators have been imbued with a leftist cast of mind – hostile to capitalism, private property, and anything that stands in the way of their utopian visions of a just society brought about through government power. Instances like the recent ones at UC Santa Barbara (where a professor physically attacked a student who was peacefully protesting abortion) and Eastern Connecticut (where a writing professor went off on a rant about how evil Republicans are) are pretty common.”

Jonathon Cole, writing in The Atlantic, notes that “While there surely are many varied causes for the current American political situation, one among those is the relative ignorance of basic American history…and what some refer to as “civics” among a large sector of our population. It is testimony to the failure of the country’s education system that a high percentage of the voting-age population is simply ignorant of basic facts—knowledge that is necessary to act reasonably and rationally in the political process. This void isn’t limited to those with little education or those without significant professional achievements. It is telling, for example, that in 2009, 89 percent of those who took a test on civic knowledge expressed confidence they could pass it; in fact, 83 percent would have failed.”

The American Bar Association has long worried about this issue.  In 2011, Mark Hansen, writing in the ABA Journal stressed that “Parents traditionally worry about what their children are learning in school, but it’s what those students are not learning that’s even more unsettling.”

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The Education Commission of the United States  conducted a comprehensive survey on the teaching of civics. Finn states that “We’ve known for a while—thanks to the National Assessment and other measures—that American primary-secondary students aren’t learning a heckuva lot of civics… NAEP assessed civics in 2006 and found that fewer than a quarter of high school seniors could supply a satisfactory answer to a question about the means by which citizens can change laws. uCenter surveyed American adults in 2014 and found that only 36 percent could name the three branches of the U.S. government…”

A 2017 study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that “Many Americans are poorly informed about basic constitutional provisions, according to a new national survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center…More than a third of those surveyed (37 percent) can’t name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment; Only a quarter of Americans (26 percent) can name all three branches of government. ‘Protecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution presupposes that we know what they are. The fact that many don’t is worrisome,’ said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania…”

That research is echoed by The Brookings Institute:  that asks “…do America’s young people have the tools they need to assess candidates for public office and influence the policy process? The statistics say no. According to a new book edited by David Feith, young Americans know little about the Bill of Rights, the democratic process, or the civil rights movement. Three of every four high school seniors aren’t proficient in civics, nine of ten aren’t proficient in U.S. history, and the problem is aggravated by a lack of civic education at the university level.”

The Report Concludes Tuesday, May 29.

Photo: Smithsonian Institute