Empowering the Next Generation: A Civics Education Revolution

In a time when book bans and the suppression of critical historical struggles have become all too common, our education system has failed to equip our youth with the tools necessary to become engaged citizens in our celebrated democratic experiment. This miseducation of the young has been exacerbated by the alarming erosion of civic education in the standardized testing that determines the winners and losers in our meritocratic system.

Reclaiming the Promise of Civic Engagement

The Civics Education Crisis

The failure to provide comprehensive civic education has become painfully evident to Lindsey Cormack, a parent of two young children and a professor of political science at the prestigious Stevens Institute of Technology. Cormack, who teaches a generation of young engineering students, has witnessed firsthand the diminished state of civics education. She tells host Robert Scheer that many of her students lack a fundamental understanding of our government: "They think they're going to do this big adult thing, participate in democracy, but then they're crestfallen and they're a little heartbroken because someone didn't explain the rules to them."Scheer agrees that the exclusion of civics from national standardized tests has contributed to this crisis. Cormack concurs, explaining that in the pursuit of higher test scores and school rankings, the things that are not tested, like civics, are often pushed aside: "When we have this obsession with making higher scores for all of our students and higher aggregate scores for our schools, neither one of these tests has a civics component. So in a compressed classroom day, you're going to have things that get squeezed out. And when we were interviewing teachers, we know that the things that get squeezed out are the things that aren't tested. So civics gets to the side."

Filling the Void: A Parental Responsibility

Dismayed by the failure of the education system to fulfill the basic requirement of an informed citizenry, Professor Cormack took matters into her own hands. She authored a comprehensive and highly accessible civics primer, "How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It's Up to You to Do It)," to empower parents to fill the educational void.Scheer acknowledges the admirable nature of Cormack's efforts, but questions the reliance on parents to perform a task that should be guaranteed to all children by a well-functioning public education system. Cormack agrees that better parenting is not the complete solution, but defends her book as a necessary starting point: "I think it is an injustice and a disservice to put a child through a K through 12 schooling environment, especially in a public taxpayer funded schooling environment and not let them know with certainty the government that they are graduating into and how they can influence it … Do parents solve everything? No. But do enough parents … see that there is a problem … want schools to get involved … have the power to lobby for school boards or to be in state legislatures to change this? I think the answer is yes. But it's not clear how we get that ball rolling unless we point out the problem, which is our kids are not learning this."

Reclaiming the Narrative: Addressing Gaps in Historical Education

Scheer and Cormack agree that schools often gloss over or omit critical topics in our history, such as slavery, women's suffrage, the Vietnam War, and the genocide of Native Americans. Cormack emphasizes that "governments are less accountable when their people do not understand what's happening." She believes that by empowering parents to take an active role in their children's civic education, they can begin to address these gaps and ensure that the next generation is equipped with the knowledge and tools to participate in a vibrant democracy.

The Path Forward: Mobilizing for Change

Cormack acknowledges that while better parenting is not the complete solution, it can be the catalyst for broader change. By raising awareness of the problem and encouraging parents to advocate for improved civic education in schools, she believes that a groundswell of support can emerge, leading to the necessary reforms in our education system.Ultimately, Cormack's book and her efforts represent a rallying cry for a civics education revolution. In a time when the foundations of our democracy are being tested, she believes that empowering the next generation with a deep understanding of their rights, responsibilities, and the workings of government is crucial. By bridging the gap left by the education system, Cormack hopes to inspire a new generation of engaged and informed citizens, ready to shape the future of our nation.