Forget Math and Science, Teach Civics (Or Why We Need To Bring Back "School House Rock")

[ehrnst]

By Drew Altman, Kaiser Family Foundation

I am seldom surprised by our poll findings, but this month’s tracking poll produced a doozy. Twenty-two percent of the American people think the Affordable Care Act has been repealed, and another 26 percent aren't sure. Those are surprisingly large numbers even with the 52 percent who still know it is the law of the land.

How could a repeal "vote" in the House -- however dramatic but still, only symbolic -- be misunderstood as an actual repeal by so many Americans?

First, people are very busy just getting through the day and they don't have a lot of time to sort through news reports about the policymaking process. They see the word "repeal" in the local paper or hear it on TV and think the law has been repealed. Second, there may be some partisan wishful thinking going on; 30 percent of Republicans think the law has been repealed while only 12 percent of Democrats do. But overall, it is obvious that the knowledge of basic civics is pretty low. Maybe it's because "Schoolhouse Rock" is no longer airing on Saturday morning TV explaining how government works.

(Coincidentally, a district court judge in Florida ruled at about the same time that the individual requirement to buy insurance in the health reform law is unconstitutional. One other district judge has ruled similarly on the individual requirement, while two others have now upheld the law at the time of our survey. The legal questions are a long way from being settled. We did not ask the public whether they believe the law has been overturned in the courts and is now void.)


http://www.kff.org/pullingittogether/Forget-Math-and-Science-Teach-Civics.cfm

[Orrex]

1. I'd like to hear more about "elbow room" and "manifest destiny"

[no_hypocrisy]

2. I agree. Teaching "history" isn't enough.

I had some exceptionally knowledgeable and interesting history teachers grades 7 to 12. They taught the three branches of government, important events in American history and their significance, etc. But all that information didn't teach me about what it is to be a citizen. By that, I mean fundamental rights in the Constitution, federalism, states rights, how laws are enacted step-by-step by the legislature or invalidated by the courts.

I didn't get a true idea of citizenship until I attended law school. Obviously constitutional law where we only scratched the surface with the due process clause ("proper and necessary") to justify the enactment of federal and state statutes and the equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to ensure that certain groups aren't discriminated against by those laws. I sat in the classroom, understanding that the information I was being given was not readily available in the schools nor was it emphasized and readily disseminated otherwise in society. (It's not that civics is a "secret" and hidden from the population. It's just that it's de-emphasized and not made important.)

Now my lessons of history have been re-invented by how power-brokers of yore have shaped events, events that still resonate today.

[catabryna]

3. Ah, a blast from the past...

My kid has Schoolhouse Earth, which is pretty cool and I've pulled up Schoolhouse Rock for him on the net because I think they are great for kids. I used to have the Schoolhouse Rock dvd, but it's in storage somewhere (hopefully).

I'm amazed at the utter lack of understanding about how our govt. works. Apparently, I went to better schools than I thought I did.

ETA: but, please don't forget the math and science!

[MadHound]

4. What makes you think that we don't?

Civics is required, usually starting in middle school, in almost all states.

[GoCubsGo]

8. If that's the case...

...then they need to set higher standards about who passes them, because people obviously aren't LEARNING them.

[reformist2]

5. Biased Fox News reporting is making their viewers stupid.

[GoCubsGo]

6. I have been saying that for years.

Not the "forget math and science" part, however. Nowhere near enough of that, IMO.

[tpsbmam]

7. Teach civics is fine in theory but you're going to get real civics courses from

lots of teachers and then you're going to get the tea bagger/creationist/Beckkk following teachers and the kids will come out just as stupid and misinformed as when they began the class. Maybe even more ill informed as now they have things on the authority of their parents, their preacher and their teacher!

Hmmmmm. I don't think "teach civics" is the answer. What the hell is? Even teaching history doesn't always help as, again, kids in some areas get a pretty distorted picture of history. Oh hell, I don't know what the answer is but civics left in the hands of (e.g.) some of the Texas schools where evolution is poo-poohed and creationism is the preferred explanation for life....

[ehrnst]

9. The fact that fundie Abstinence Only sex "ed" is federally funded in our schools

should tell us a lot about what passes for "facts" in the eyes of local school boards.

[Jokerman]

10. Catapulting the propaganda.

The media screams "REPEAL" and spins it as a "blow to the Obama Administration" and a "republican victory". That's all the faithful, and a lot of gullible fools, need to hear.

[karynnj]

11. Why - our media is why

How many times have you heard that in 2010, the Republicans won the Congress? The House vote was given incredible coverage and the RW talking heads referred to it as a milestone in taking back our country - and the Senate vote defeating it was far less covered.

I do agree that civics needs to taught better than it is, but I suspect that kids in school would do better on a test than the adults surveyed - who were taught the same thing - and studied what they were told would be on the test and promptly forgot it after the test.