Many media commentators bemoan the average American's lack of basic civic knowledge—information like the name of our current vice president or the country Americans fought in the Revolutionary War. Meanwhile, we face several deeper civic problems. Social and political turmoil appears to be threatening the very core of our national polity. And many adults, as well as young people, lack the skills and attitudes necessary for constructively working to improve the conditions in their communities.
Involvement in politics and civic affairs was once a popular, even social, activity. But with time, this habit has faded from society. To bring it back, savvy teachers and nonprofit organizations across the country are guiding students to become active and responsible citizens by investigating problems and needs in their schools and communities, developing solutions, and acting on them. These projects can achieve a number of objectives at once: They're highly motivating, focusing on issues immediate to students' lives. They teach the organizational and social skills needed to improve communities and the institutions that guide them. They show students, who often feel voiceless, that they can make a difference in their world and encourage them to continue such work after they've graduated. They exercise academic skills like research and argument writing. And they do all this not just through chapters in a textbook, lectures from a teacher, or studies of past activism in American history—but also by immersing students in the work of actively being responsible citizens.
Throughout the United States, a growing number of teachers from all grade levels and subject areas are guiding students through active-citizen projects projects. So, what do these projects look like? Here's a sampling:
- A 1st grade classroom plans and carries out a campaign to keep their school bathrooms cleaner.
- A 5th grade student writes letters to school administrators proposing that schools serve meals on weekends to students from low-income families.
- Middle school students, after studying the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution and reflecting on who's responsible for "insuring domestic tranquility," create a public service video and launch a series of neighborhood events to advocate for reducing gun violence in their neighborhood.
- A high school social studies class, concerned about date violence among teenagers, reviews lessons on the problem and decides to create their own, better, more authentic lessons. They field-test the curriculum in their school and then bring it to the school board and the district CEO to be approved for use in the city's high schools.
- A high school algebra teacher requires students to identify a local social issue and apply statistics lessons to help address it. One student team, for example, uses statistical analysis to identify neighborhoods with limited access to SAT prep sessions and prepare and distribute pamphlets on free workshops to families in those neighborhoods.
Notice that most of the projects are not political in the narrow sense; they are simply efforts to strengthen the community. (This can assuage fears that education for civic engagement will somehow involve teachers politically indoctrinating students.)
Projects like these are supported and spread by a wide range of education nonprofit organizations in cities around the country. Some of the most well-known include these:
- <LINK URL="http://www.communityworksinstitute.org/" LINKTARGET="_blank">Community Works Institute</LINK>, which publishes an online journal and holds two summer professional development institutes.
- <LINK URL="http://www.civicmissionofschools.org/" LINKTARGET="_blank">Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools</LINK>, which advocates for policies to support expanded K–12 civic learning.
- <LINK URL="https://earthforce.org/" LINKTARGET="_blank">Earth Force</LINK>, an international nonprofit focused primarily on youth environmental activism.
- <LINK URL="https://earthforce.org/" LINKTARGET="_blank">Generation Citizen</LINK>, which provides action-based civics curriculum and teacher coaching.
- <LINK URL=" http://www.mikvachallenge.org/" LINKTARGET="_blank">The Mikva Challenge</LINK>, a Chicago-based nonprofit that offers curriculum and training for teachers, described on the <LINK URL="http://www.mikvachallenge.org/educators/center-for-action-civics/" LINKTARGET="_blank">Center for Action Civics</LINK> portion of their website.
- <LINK URL="http://actioncivicscollaborative.org/" LINKTARGET="_blank">National Action Civics Collaborative</LINK>, a network of civics educators that provides a <LINK URL="http://actioncivicscollaborative.org/resources/toolbox/" LINKTARGET="_blank">toolbox</LINK> of curriculum resources from other action civics organizations.
- <LINK URL="http://www.rock-your-world.org/" LINKTARGET="_blank">Rock Your World</LINK>, a nonprofit that focuses on students' creation of art and media to promote social change.
- <LINK URL="http://www.tolerance.org/" LINKTARGET="_blank">Teaching Tolerance</LINK>, an equity-focused nonprofit that includes curriculum resources in the "<LINK URL="https://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources/student-tasks/do-something" LINKTARGET="_blank">Do Something</LINK>" section of their website.
A more extensive list of local or specialized programs are profiled on my blog, Civic Action in Schools.
Of course, bringing this kind of teaching and learning to a majority of schools across the country is a big lift. One example of a promising large district effort is the work of Chicago Public Schools' Department of Social Science and Civic Engagement. The department's implementation plan includes formal instruction in civic knowledge, classroom discussion about current events and issues important to students, service learning linked to formal instruction, activities for pursuing meaningful civic change, extracurricular activities involving students in their school or community, student participation in school governance, and simulations of elections and other democratic processes and practices. In particular, the flourishing, districtwide student voice committees are a notable outcome of Chicago's focus on civic education.
A core purpose for public schools in America is to prepare responsible citizens for active participation in a democracy. In these fractured political times, we need a return to this founding ideal, now more than ever. Let these resources and exemplars be a springboard for our civic responsibility as educators: to guide students to informed and engaged citizenship.