Independence hall, Philadelphia, Pa.By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | With the level of civility in public discourse being at an all-time low, it’s time for more education about how our government works.
“All educated people should have an understanding of our founding documents and understand where individual rights come from and how those individual rights are exercised,” says state Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley. “If we ever lose sight of those, we’re back into mob rule,” adding that it was fundamental for Americans to understand and embrace the rule of law.
“This is something that conservatives and liberals should both embrace — the whole notion of a public discourse where you’re in the marketplace of ideas.”
We agree today, just as we did last year when we called for a $50 million national campaign for more civics education to teach the importance of free speech, the common good, democratic institutions and the rule of law.
“Now is the time,” we wrote last year, “for a bipartisan collaborative of corporate and civic leaders to fund a broad and deep effort to remind Americans about the times when our country’s leaders treated each other as people, not symbols and hashtags. Now is the time for a $50 million multimedia campaign to reteach common values of civics to Americans from sea to shining sea.”
Four years ago, Grooms led efforts to upgrade high school social studies standards to boost constitutional education. Now he is pushing a measure that would modernize a 1924 law that requires South Carolina colleges to teach a year-long course on the nation’s founding documents and administer a test. The new proposal, mirrored by one introduced this week in the S.C. House, would actually lessen the time of study to a one-semester course.
Some colleges are following the current law, but others appear to be skirting it. Hence, the rewrite. The University of South Carolina, where an estimated 60 percent of 8,000 freshmen reportedly take a course on the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Federalist Papers, says it would cost $3.4 million to hire additional staff to teach the new course or $1.5 million for an online course. Other institutions say there wouldn’t be any additional cost.
Maybe there’s a less costly way to imbue students with knowledge about the founding documents than to require a semester-long course. Already, any high school student who passes an Advanced Placement test on American history is exempt from the 1924 requirement. Maybe if there were a uniform college test on civics for public college students to pass before graduation, there could be some accountability to ensure students met the state’s public policy of ensuring graduates have a better understanding of the foundation on which our government works.
Requiring a test shouldn’t be too expensive. A group of state historians could develop a new text to be administered on the same day across the state every year. Think of it as an SAT for civics.
How would students prepare? Either they could take an existing class, which shouldn’t cost colleges more money, or they could study a book on civics. For example, “U.S. Constitution for Dummies,” which discusses the founding document and amendments (22 pages) in 379 pages, costs just $19.99. Multiplied by 8,000, USC could spend $160,000 a year – not $3.4 million – and give the book to every student who then could take a test for free. Problem solved!
Seriously, rancor in public life threatens our democracy. If we can have more of a focus on civics, maybe more Americans will understand the value of being civil in public – and private – debate. (It also wouldn’t hurt to turn off much of the nonsense filling the airwaves and screens too.)
ON THAT NOTE, anyone interested in American history might get a real kick out of a book released this year. The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington is a fascinating slice of history pieced together by political thriller novelist Brad Meltzer. The nonfiction book brings history alive by organizing facts through the tools of a thriller writer. It highlights a secret British plot early in the Revolutionary War to kill Washington and the efforts of patriots to thwart the plot through undercover work – what we call counter-espionage today. The book offers insights into revolutionary times through a web of plots, spies, counterfeiting, politics and war.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
I taught Civics to ninth graders and it was required for many years. We need to do that NOW!
Andy, I truly believe that we can’t wait on civics to be taught in college. They need to be talk beginning in the 7th grade at the latest! Also, with the high cost of college education, I think it is inexcusable for anyone to demand that students pay for civics education. As I said, it’s a bit late by the time you’re in college for those lessons, and if you’re not going to pay for that course, don’t ask someone else to pay for it when it’s already so expensive!
Andy,
All good points, but to my friend Larry Grooms, I would suggest it is more important to teach individual resposibilities than individual rights, (and, of course, the two are inextricably connected.)
The problem is not so much people asserting their rights. You hear that constantly, every day all day. Instead, it is having citizens assume their fundamental duties in a democracy. Such simple acts as voting go unattended to. South Carolina has one of the lowest voter turn out rates in America. Then non-voters have the temerity to complain when local or state representatives make the wrong decisions.
This is not just an academic concept. One of the more stunning examples of the lack of engagement by citizens was the debacle over the nuclear plant that has cost citizens and rate payers $9 billion.
This was both predictable and avoidable. When the insider clique in the Statehouse proposed allowing both Santee Cooper and SCANA to collect large up front fees, years in advance of the proposed completion of the plant, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth protested in person and through the media. They were condemned as “anti-business,” or ignored. The public failed to weigh in until it was too late.
Democracy is a great idea that doesn’t work without civic engagement. South Carolina is the poster child for the perils of turning important decisions over to self-interested insiders. Any course that proports to teach civics should start with the proposition that citizenship is not just learning a few phrases from the Constitution. It is a difficult, time-consuming, but essential way of life.