During my senior year of high school, I travelled to Washington, D.C. with a group of students from my AP Government class to compete in that year’s national We The People competition put on by the Center for Civic Education. In the competition, we participated in simulated congressional hearings where we would deliver prepared statements and answer follow up questions about a variety of subjects related to the United States government. According to the Center for Civic Education, these hearings are designed to provide students with “an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles and ideas.” After spending so much time engaged with this program, I became determined to get my peers to register to vote (the 2016 Presidential Election was coming up, after all). Not only that, but my interest in politics and government in general spiked, and I became more passionate about promoting candidates and policies that I agreed with.
While We The People and programs like it exist all over the country, they are certainly not the norm. In an article written for Forbes, author and former professor of political science Tom Lindsay writes that “civics education in the United States is in a state of crisis, which, if not addressed, will doom our constitutional democracy.” He then goes on to explain how a recent poll conducted by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation showed that only 1/3 Americans can pass the USCIS Citizenship Test, and only 19% of Americans under the age of 45 can pass it. This is concerning because, as Lindsay puts it, when it comes to democracy “citizens cannot be expected to uphold and defend what they barely understand.” If we are not properly teaching students to be engaged with government, then they will inevitably become less involved and less informed as adults.
Douglass Rushkoff points out one of the key issues to our current education system in his Ted Talk “How to Be ‘Team Human’ In the Digital Future.” He states that while it is great that schools are teaching students skills that they hope will help them get jobs one day, education shouldn’t be just about getting kids jobs. Education, he says, should give people “the intelligence to be able to participate in democracy.” Not only that, but if kids are becoming more involved in their communities and in government, they can gain experiences that they would be able to put on college applications – and eventually resumes – if they do feel as though education should be designed to get them jobs.
But how do we improve our country’s civic education programs to better promote youth engagement with democratic practices? For starters, our classes should focus more on encouraging students to participate in local government. Robert Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, writes that important civic lessons could be taught by teachers “working with students to effect public change that [their] students think is important, like getting lights for a neighborhood basketball court.” By showing students how their engagement with government can help them and those around them make real change, students will become more encouraged to learn about government and how they can get involved outside of the classroom.