I read an article by Dr. Ben Carson this week about children learning civics, and immediately thought of several adults I would like to enroll.
Including, on certain days, myself.
Because knowing how our government works is something we all need to keep working at. And if we expect the next generation to carry on this experiment in self-government, somebody has to show them how.
In his article, “How Kids Can Rescue Civics Education,” Carson describes a civics competition through his American Cornerstone Institute’s Little Patriots program. The idea is to get elementary school students learning about our founding, our Constitution, and the responsibilities of citizenship.
It got me thinking about what children learn about government when nobody is giving them a lesson. What is it kids learn from watching us?
If their introduction to public life is grown-ups calling each other idiots on the internet, we probably should not be surprised when they decide politics is something unpleasant people do on their phones.
If they hear us complain about every decision the school board makes, but never see us read an agenda or attend a meeting, what have we taught them about participation?
And if we insist that everyone who disagrees with us must be either stupid or dishonest, how exactly are they supposed to learn to govern alongside people who think differently than they do?
In “Federalist No. 10,” James Madison explained that differences of opinion and competing interests are part of human nature. Eliminating those differences would require destroying liberty or somehow making everybody think alike. Neither was an acceptable solution. His argument was for a republic designed to control the harmful effects of factions.
Which means learning to be a citizen includes learning that other people get a say. Even when they are wrong. Even when we are absolutely certain they are wrong.
And occasionally, after we have listened and checked a few things, we may discover they had a point.
This is where civics gets a little harder than memorizing the three branches of government.
Although we should probably know those, too.
We need to understand who has the authority to make a decision. What limits apply to that authority. How representatives are chosen. How laws are changed. And what we can do when we believe our government has made a mistake.
The First Amendment protects speech, religious liberty, a free press, peaceful assembly, and the right to petition government for a redress of grievances.
Those are tools people can use. Children ought to see us using them thoughtfully.
A child does not have to be old enough to vote to learn how to ask a good question.
Why is that road closed? Who decides what happens at the park? Where does the school get its money? Why can’t the mayor just change that rule?
There is a civics lesson waiting inside every one of those questions. And we don’t have to know every answer. “I don’t know. Let’s find out” might be one of the most useful things we can say.
We can pull up an agenda together. Read a newspaper story and talk about which facts are established and which questions remain unanswered. Look up a provision in the Constitution instead of relying on what somebody said it means.
We can also let children watch us disagree without being cruel, correct a mistake without making excuses, and lose a vote without deciding the whole system should be burned down.
Schools should have an essential role in teaching civics, but families and communities bear responsibility for that work too.
We are raising future voters, school board members, county commissioners, jurors, and neighbors. They are watching how we handle the responsibility.
What are we teaching them?
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