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SCHOOLING AND CIVIC EDUCATION
Remarks by Ernest L. Boyer
Pres ident
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Ninth International Symposium
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C.
May 22, 1987
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INTRODUCTION
In 1972, I was sitting in my office in Albany, New York. It
was a dreary Monday morning. To avoid the pressures of the day,
I turned instinctively to the stack of third class mail that I
kept on the corner of my desk to create the illusion of being
busy.
On top of the heap was the student newspaper from Stanford
University. I was struck by the headline which announced that
the faculty at Stanford, in a burst of creativity, was
re-introducing a required course in western civilization after
having abolished all requirements just three years before.
The students at Stanford were mightily offended by the
faculty's brash act and, in a front page editorial, they
declared, "A required course at Stanford is an illiberal act."
The editorial concluded with this blockbuster question: "How
dare they impose uniform standards on non-uniform people?"
Frankly, I was startled that some of America's most gifted
students, after fourteen or more years of formal education, still
had not learned the simple truth that while we are not "uniform,"
we share many things in common. While we are all alone, we are
also engaged in activities together. These students had not
discovered the fundamental fact that, while we are autonomous
human beings with our own aptitudes and interests, we are, at the
same time, deeply dependent on each other.
The goal of civic education in the schools is best described
by the simple word "connections." Schools should prepare
students to live independent, self-sufficient lives so they can
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be economically and socially empowered. But schools also must
help students go beyond their private interests and put their own
lives in historical, social and ethical perspective. Discovering
the connectedness of things is the key to civic understanding.
I.
We are connected through the use of symbols and the first
priority of civic education must be to help all students become
empowered in the written and the spoken word.
During the Carnegie Foundation survey of 5,000 faculty for
our report, College; The Undergraduate Experience in America,
more than 60 percent said their students were not prepared to do
academic work, and lack of proficiency in English was identified
as the primary reason.
In our report, we stress proficiency in writing, since it is
through clear writing that clear thinking can be taught. And we
suggest that students in both high school and college be asked to
write a senior paper to demonstrate their capacity to explore a
consequential topic and integrate ideas. Such a capstone
assignment prepares students to meet their social and civic
obligations. In our dangerous interdependent world with its
bellicose communication, students should learn that good
communication means not just clear thinking, but integrity as
well.
Several centuries ago, the Quakers would risk imprisonment
and even death because in court they would not "swear to tell the
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truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me
God." The problem was not only that the Quakers objected to
swearing. The larger problem was the implication that outside
the courtroom, truth might be an option.
In the days ahead, civic education will be shaped by the
quality of our communication. Students must understand that
truth is the obligation they assume when they are empowered with
the use of symbols.
II.
To be civically prepared, all students also must discover
their connections to the institutions that consequentially shape
their lives. At the heart of such study is that "old-fashioned"
academic curriculum called "civics," which has dramatically
declined in recent years.
As early as 1922, Walter Lippman warned that public
ignorance was democracy's greatest challenge. He said that the
issues facing the electorate had become enormously complex, while
government appeared increasingly remote.
Civics used to be a mainstay in the high school curriculum,
but recently its role has diminshed. Civic illiteracy is
spreading, and unless we find better ways to educate ourselves as
citizens, we run the risk of drifting unwittingly into a new kind
of "Dark Age"—a time when specialists will control knowledge,
and citizens will make critical decisions, not on the basis of
what they know, but on the basis of "blind belief" in one or
another set of professed experts.
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In the Carnegie Report High School we propose a one-year
course on American government for all students. In such a course
students would be introduced to classic political thinkers—from
Plato and Locke to John Adams and James Madison. Students would
study the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the
Federalist Papers. Equally important, students would study
government today and how it works. For example, each student
might take one contested issue now before Congress, a state
legislature or community governmental body, and report in depth
on the history of the issue, points of conflict, and plausible
resolutions.
Civics also should include a study of private institutions—
youth groups, civic clubs, churches, political associations and
the like—which consequentially affect our lives, and, as
DeTocqueville so brilliantly discovered, add such vitality to the
nation.
In a world where human survival is at stake, ignorance about
government and the other institutions which shape our culture
should not be tolerated.
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For students to be civically engaged, they must see a
connection between what they learn and how they live. During our
study of the American high school, I became convinced that we
have not just a school problem but a youth problem in this
nation. Students feel isolated, unneeded and unconnected to the
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larger world. There is an alarming gap between the lessons in
the classroom and the realities of life outside.
I am troubled that teenagers today can see little connection
between the school curriculum and the community beyond.
Moreover, they see little relationship between their lives and
the needs of those around them.
These high school students are never asked to spend time
with older people, clean up litter on the street, or tutor
children who have not learned to read. School has become for
many a "holding vat," but after graduation we expect students to
become socially and civically engaged. Too many young people do
not understand that their altruism and their energy must be
directed positively and productively—that we are not just
receivers; we are givers, too.
In High School we propose a new Carnegie unit—a term of
voluntary service for all high school students—when they might
serve in hospitals, nursing homes or art galleries, or tutor
other kids at school. Students urgently need a sense of
mission. We cannot have healthy schools with pathology among the
young.
Vachel Lindsay wrote on one occasion that "It is the world's
one crime its babes grow dull. Not that they sow but that they
seldom reap; not that they serve but have no God to serve; not
that they die but that they die like sheep." The tragedy of life
is not death. The tragedy is to die with commitments undefined,
convictions undeclared, and service unfulfilled.
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This gap in civic understanding is reinforced by some of the
materials used in the schools. In a critique of civics textbooks
issued by People for the American Way, James Carroll of the
Brookings Institution concluded that, "many of the books are
largely disembodied expositions of principles and facts, lacking
the passion of the conflicts that infuse politics and government
with meaning and significance. The student is asked only to
master knowledge of the subject rather than to put this knowledge
to use. Thus, the participatory side, the side that requires the
individual to analyze democratic values, processes, and choices,
is largely ignored."
Carroll continues by saying, "students will learn the
necessity and value of public involvement by becoming involved.
Passive learning alone will not engage them. A work-study or
internship element should be a basic component of American
government courses. Students should be able to 'practice'
responsible citizenship and observe firsthand the workings of
politics and government."
Civic education is discovering connections: through the
empowerment of language; through an understanding of social and
civic institutions; and, in the end, through integrating what we
learn with how we live.
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