What’s the Point of Civics Education?
HKS’s Education Next | Frederick Hess
Executive editor of HKS’s Education Next, Harvard faculty associate and Harvard alum Frederick Hess (EDM 1990, AM 1996, PHD 1997) responds to a recent survey revealing K-12 educators’ lack of concern around civics education, an issue former ACLU president and Harvard alum Nadine Strossen recently claimed is the reason students show up to college wholly unprepared for civil discourse. “I was gobsmacked by the results,” Hess writes. “I mean, I’ve always thought it fairly uncontroversial to assume that students need to know how judges get appointed or how Congress works if we expect them to be informed, engaged citizens.”
While Hess thought his belief in the importance of K-12 civics education was shared among educators, he expresses sheer disbelief in the results of a new RAND Corp. survey — “Not even one fourth of teachers rank knowledge of political and civic institutions as a top-three concern?! Not even half think promoting knowledge of citizens’ rights and responsibilities makes the top three?! Barely 1 in 10 think it’s important that students be able to articulate their beliefs?!”
In fact, “few teachers seemed to believe that civic education requires teaching students about the core institutions or knowledge upon which civil society rests.”
The result and answer? “The consequences of ignorance are glaring. We see the effects daily playing out on social media, in our tribal politics, and in performative civic leadership….We desperately need civics and citizenship instruction that prepares students to do better. That means helping students cultivate the requisite knowledge, skills, and habits. But the first step, it would appear, is convincing teachers that this is worth doing.”
Related:
Seeking Justice, Seeking Truth: a Conversation with Nadine Strossen (AFA, 8/26/22)