A civics lesson

Our generation is constantly under assault for the media we consume. Our favorite movies, magazines, music and video games are often bemoaned by our parents' generation as too violent and sexually explicit. It might then be reasonable to believe that today's high school students would have a working understanding of the constitutional provisions that protected freedom of expression.

Apparently not.

Researchers at the University of Connecticut asked high school students if they took for granted the rights protected by the First Amendment. In their study released last week, 36 percent said that they did, while another 37 percent said that they didn't know enough to answer the question. Other questions on the survey confirmed a basic lack of knowledge about protections of free speech. Three-quarters thought that flag burning was illegal, and almost half believe that the Federal government can ban indecent material online.

This is only the latest in a long line of academic research confirming the lack of basic civic knowledge among our generation. According to John DiIulio, a Penn political science professor and co-author of a widely used American government textbook, "Most surveys suggest that there has been a pretty steady decline in the level of knowledge about American history, civics and government among high school students and even college students."

A decline in civic knowledge -- from awareness of constitutional protections, through how our government works to where our tax dollars go -- has a real impact on our generation's political participation and attitudes. Not knowing about government generates an unhealthy distrust and decreases likelihood to participate in it.

According to DiIulio, while widespread perceptions of large bureaucracies and legislative gridlock are not inaccurate per se, there is a lack of corresponding education about how small groups of dedicated policy entrepreneurs can overcome these obstacles to accomplish real change. Lack of civic education, he says, creates a perception that it is more difficult to make a difference than is actually the case. "Here," DiIulio says, "information is genuinely empowering."

Clearly, our schools and students need more civic education. Senator Robert Byrd's Constitution Day is a nice idea, but at most it would only highlight the chasm between what we as Americans do know and what we should know, rather than actually closing this civics gap. What we need is to once again teach civics and government in our public schools.

"Over the past 30 or 40 years, there has been a decline in the study of civics in high school," says Phyllis Kaniss, National Director of Student Voices. Part of Penn's Annenberg Public Policy Center, Student Voices is a nationwide civic education program, just one of many efforts dedicated to closing the civics gap. In Pennsylvania alone, there are 350 teachers in 165 schools in 42 counties that are participating in Student Voices. In Philadelphia schools, Student Voices is the civics program.

According to Kaniss, the program works by focusing on local government and local issues. Kaniss says of the students, "They're looking at how their local government addresses issues that concern them. ... We're trying to get them informed and active in thinking about policy issues and elections and realizing that they can make a difference."

But yet, even this program and others like it are still not enough. While they make a difference locally and regionally, nationally, civic education has continued its freefall. National education policy may be contributing to this decline. According to Kaniss, with No Child Left Behind and similar initiatives, "Schools are being pressed to have achievement in reading and in math, and they are letting civics go by the wayside in many cases."

In his 2005 State of the Union address, President Bush pledged to bring the No Child Left Behind Act to high schools. But as some have said, we must also leave no citizen behind. Civics must be included in these new education standards. The need for a national civics requirement is becoming ever clearer with each additional study illustrating widespread ignorance of basic principles of our democracy.

Schools are where we train our youth not only to be scholars, employees and entrepreneurs, but also where we train them to be citizens. Students must learn how to excel in all of these areas, and that includes learning the basic rights, responsibilities and opportunities that democratic government affords -- perhaps starting with the First Amendment, but certainly not ending there.

Students need to have some civic education in their high school curricula so that they can put some civics into their lives. Somewhere in between the sexually-explicit rap songs and the graphically-violent video games, that is.Kevin Collins is a junior Political Science major from Milwaukee. ...And Justice For All appears on Tuesdays.

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