America 101, Saving Democracy with Civic Literacy

[pinto]

Saving Democracy with Civic Literacy in America 101
Most Americans would fail a citizenship exam. That has to change.

January-February 2009
by Eric Lane, from Democracy Journal

posted here via UTNE Reader - pinto
http://www.utne.com/Politics/America-101-Civic-Literacy-Saving-Constitutional-Democracy.aspx

Americans have always considered civic literacy critical for a thriving democracy. “A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people,” noted James Madison, the father of the Constitution and fourth president, in 1810. A 1997 survey by the National Constitution Center found that 84 percent of Americans believed that for the government to work as intended, citizens needed to be informed and active. Three-quarters of those polled claimed that the Constitution mattered in their daily lives.

Yet, despite this nod to civic literacy, too few Americans could answer the questions on the U.S. citizenship test or similar questions. Forty-one percent of respondents to the National Constitution Center survey were not aware that there were three branches of government, and 62 percent couldn’t name them; 33 percent couldn’t even name one. Over half of those answering the survey did not know the length of a term for a member of the Senate or House of Representatives. Another study by the center found that while 71 percent of teens knew that “www” starts an online web address, only 35 percent knew that “We the people” are the opening words of the Constitution.

<snip>

Scholars Michael Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter detail this point in their 1996 book What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters. They find that civic literacy provides meaningful understanding and support for a number of constitutional values, including compromise and tolerance, and promotes meaningful political participation. They also argue that “a better-informed citizenry places important limitations on the ability of public officials, interest groups, and other elites to manipulate public opinion and act in ways contrary to the public interest.”

The opposite is also true: Civic ignorance denies us the context through which to understand and measure the conduct of our elected officials. It unleashes our natural instincts to measure governmental processes and decisions in the present tense alone, through the screens of our own self-interests. It curtails our ability to consider what might be good for a larger community or for the country. This is the path to democratic decline—and we are on it.

Excerpted from Democracy (Fall 2008), a journal that aims to build a vibrant and vital progressivism for the 21st century; http://www.democracyjournal.org

(free reg required at that site for access - pinto)

[BridgeTheGap]

1. It begins with the parents and in the school system. Clearly, we're doing a piss poor job. I'm

glad this organization is taking on the task.

[pinto]

2. Agree. I came across this in UTNE. Wasn't aware of the organization. It's a great read.