American Civics (1 Viewer)

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    Optimus Prime

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    Interesting and troubling article

    Almost put it in Republican Party thread but it’s a bigger issue than that
    =======================
    New national educational tests results arrived this month — this time for civics — and again the news is bleak.

    We all know the storyline. The pandemic hit hard. Students lost ground. And civic learning in America has been eroding for some time.
Yes, but, sorry to say, it’s worse than that.


    This story isn’t just about students’ loss of knowledge. It’s also about their loss of connection to this country. Even bleaker than the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results are the findings of a January survey by Morning Consult that revealed generation-by-generation declines in a sense of pride in America.

    About three-quarters of baby boomers say they’re proud to live in the United States, but only 54 percent of Gen Xers, 36 percent of millennials and 16 percent of Gen Z members do.

    For the past three decades, NAEP results have shown a need to turn things around for civic education. The results come out, and cries go up for more investment in civic learning. But nothing has changed. And now the slope of learning is headed down.


    But our problem isn’t just underinvestment. It’s that, for three decades, adults have been fighting bitterly about what to teach by way of civic education, and the result is that the kids don’t get taught much at all.
It’s time to say we’ve hit bottom and we’re going to turn things around. Can we do that?


    I believe we can. Because while many people have been taking sides — 1619 vs. 1776, anyone? — others have been getting on with rebuilding a solid foundation for civic learning. It has taken hard work and meaningful compromise, but we now have available to us a consensus statement with national support about what should be in a civic education — and how we should teach…….

     
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    Civics classes should also include stuff like this.



    It's old, but the message is timeless.

    Could you imagine if the government put out stuff like this today?
     
    Based on my planning, I am looking at “retiring” from my full-time job in about four years.

    I often think I might like a career change and go teach high school civics at my kids’ school.

    That would be cool, could be super rewarding, or super frustrating and potentially full of conflict.
     
    Indeed. But in the interest of discussion, can you elaborate on the potential conflict?

    It feels like there's a decent chance of conflicting with parents or administration over certain topics that used to be straightforward but now are questioned by some people. Take for example the notion of the separation of church and state - that used to be non-controversial, but I think it's entirely possible that you'd get some parent pushback on that, and eventually some changes from the school board to water it down to an unacceptable level.

    Just seems like a higher risk these days -- doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, just something I'd be worried about.
     
    It feels like there's a decent chance of conflicting with parents or administration over certain topics that used to be straightforward but now are questioned by some people. Take for example the notion of the separation of church and state - that used to be non-controversial, but I think it's entirely possible that you'd get some parent pushback on that, and eventually some changes from the school board to water it down to an unacceptable level.

    Just seems like a higher risk these days -- doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, just something I'd be worried about.

    I thought that's what you were suggesting but wasn't sure. Definitely agree that's possible and to be clear, there's no way in hell I would want to teach civics at a public school, especially in a red state with a bunch of entitled Karen parents who think they get to engineer everything about their child's lives including their school cirriculum regardless of the credentials and basis for who and what is being taught.

    But no matter where I would teach civics, I would do it in a way that is 100% defensible under the relevant law associated with civics. Someone could want to argue all day long about their opinions on the Establishment Clause but I would be teaching the actual law. I don't think there is all that much grey area in this subject matter, at least not at the high school level. A Con Law class at law school could get into the merits of how the supposed originalism of the current Court has introduced a subjective, vague element to what was otherwise structured and reliable by insisting that history/tradition colors the analysis.

    Not for high school though.
     

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