Here’s some bipartisanship I can get behind. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Congressman Lee Hamilton penned this op-ed piece for the Christian Science Monitor about the importance of civic education.
Of course, there’s no reason Florida (or Hillsborough County, or Tampa, or YOU!) needs to wait for the federal government to do something about it. We can start working to improve civic education today.
“If we hope to sustain American democracy, we need to treat civic learning as on a par with other academic subjects. To participate fully in our democracy, students need to understand our government, our history, and our laws. They need to appreciate the skills democracy imposes on us – consensus building, compromise, civility, and rational discourse – and how they can be applied to the problems confronted by their communities and our nation as a whole. Restoring this civic mission of schools will require a concerted effort in school districts, at statehouses, and by the federal government.”
