Engaging in civic action

In an evidence-based world, the survivors from Parkland provide testimony. Civic education from elementary to high school can convince young people to be engaged in the commons. They were terribly unlucky to have experienced such violence but they knew what to do: Organize for change.

Today there are several national and local organizations that provide civic training to young people. Several university professors have books about civic education. NAEP tests for it. We see some evidence that young people are engaged in various actions (such as …) but having a substantive, organized and thoughtful process to create “civic mindedness” requires something different. How are we doing as a nation?

Not so successful it appears. One conclusion is that in order to understand a civic mindset, one has to be engaged with civic related actions. Simply studying the forms of government and sharing a news article has failed to provide such a necessary mind set.

Here is a truncated example of one of the better elementary lessons from one of the organizations Aliens arrive on the planet and take over. They offer the people of earth choices. They can review their Bill of Rights but can only chose five. The task for the class is to discuss this dilemma and make a decision.

On the surface, this appears to be an interesting exercise. It is missing several key elements however. First, do the students care about the alien invasion given it is improbable. Second the lesson does not provide any training in conflict resolution, active listening or background on what rights are. Students would be better off reviewing the actual student rights from the Convention on the Rights of the Child and analyzing them.

But to be fair this “lesson” at least has an entertaining aspect to it but sadly fails to actually engage the students in any real aspect of civic action. For anyone to become aware of their civic duty there must be action. The activities must be engaging, must be hands on, must be meaningful, must be thought provoking and must be helpful to the commons. Requiring students to pick up trash on the playground, to donate hours at some site chosen by the adults, or write letters to city hall to request a traffic light at a busy intersection are steps in the right direction but fall sadly short in creating “civic mindedness.”