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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.