OPINION: We can teach students to become active citizens

When my 8-year-old started asking questions about the world, it hit me that there wasn’t a lot out there to guide parents in teaching their kids about being active, engaged citizens.

Manifestations of this gap are even more glaring in my college classroom, where many of my students do not know how to vote, haven’t read the Constitution and are unaware of the state and local political offices responsible for many of our quality-of-life decisions.

As a parent and as a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, I’ve seen firsthand how important civic knowledge is to young people — and how it is lacking. And this isn’t just a problem in my corner of the world; it’s a national challenge we can no longer ignore.

Despite the vast amount of information available at our fingertips, a staggering number of Americans struggle to grasp the fundamentals of our political system. Nationwide assessments reveal that civic knowledge hasn’t improved since 1998, with only 23 percent of eighth graders performing at or above the “proficient” level.

School curricula on civics often fall short. Scores on Advanced Placement government tests are consistently among the lowest across all AP offerings.

The urgency of this issue is magnified by our current political climate. A majority of people across party lines believe the country is heading in the “wrong direction.” Until we treat civic know-how as a fundamental skill, we will continue to be bewildered and disillusioned.

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With the upcoming national elections — and every election thereafter — we need to make civic education a top priority. Solutions need to be embedded in everyday life, both at home and in school.

While higher education institutions like Stevens can play a role in such education in early adulthood, as a country, we need to start much earlier.

There are multiple hurdles facing K-12 schools in teaching civics. After the No Child Left Behind Act, social studies and civics were sidelined in favor of reading and math.

Teachers in social studies and civics tend to be among the least supported, and often have to take on coaching or administrative roles in addition to their teaching duties.

Government classes, typically offered in the senior year of high school, come too late for students to develop a strong understanding, and state laws increasingly restrict political activities and discussion of various sociopolitical topics in schools.

For instance, Florida recently passed a law that effectively prevents third-party voter registration organizations from working in high schools and on college campuses. Plus, fears of parental complaints lead teachers to limit political conversations in the classroom.

This lack of prioritization of civics instruction must change. No one likes playing a game they don’t know the rules to, and it is simply unfair to have a child go through 13 years of school only to graduate without understanding the political system they’re stepping into.

That’s why I wrote “How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It).” We need parents to play a key role, and to support integrating civics into every grade, starting early and building on concepts just like we do with other subjects.

Imagine if parents took on this role by discussing government and politics at the dinner table, encouraging their children to ask questions and showing them how to get involved in community and local government activities.

That way, we’d have more young adults who understand the system they will soon inherit.

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Parents and educational leaders can do more in this arena. For young children, we should focus on building vocabulary and awareness of governmental structures.

This will involve reallocating school time to social studies and civics. Students need repeated exposure to new words and ideas to develop a working understanding, so the earlier the introduction, the better.

Children should study the primary documents of the U.S. to understand the basics of our system and begin to learn about primary elections, which are often only briefly covered in most school settings.

Visual models can help students make connections; lessons can include diagramming how a bill becomes a law, modeling checks and balances and discussing the overlapping and distinct powers in our federalist system.

We can also help children understand specific civic issues connected to their local communities.

Middle schoolers and high schoolers can handle broader concepts and ideas. Young people at this age can and do engage in community involvement; parents and schools should foster these efforts.

High school should be all about turning theory into action. Experts agree that a high-quality civic education requires “action civics,” in which students learn by doing rather than just reading. Simulations of elections, legislative hearings and courtroom activities are examples of active learning shown to be impactful and memorable.

Research shows that teaching civics through active learning is related to increased civic participation. If we want our students to get the most out of their education, we must prepare them to understand and engage with our political system.

Dedicated efforts to increase educational focus on civics will enhance student self-efficacy and ensure the vitality of our democratic traditions.

With the election on the horizon, now is the perfect time to start these conversations and integrate civic education into our daily lives.

This reprioritization has to happen day in and day out, during presidential election years and all others. By committing to this, we can raise a generation of informed, active citizens ready to take on the challenges of our democracy.

Let’s give our kids the tools they need to understand and participate in the world around them — starting now.

Lindsey Cormack is an associate professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology and author of “How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It).”

Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.

This story about civics education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.