Forum: Renewing civic vision
It has been expressed by many of us in education, as well as private citizens and public officials that civic education is not being taught effectively in our schools. Perhaps this is because there are ideological disagreements over the meaning of civic virtue and democracy.
A conservative idea of civics would emphasize a moral education in traditional values and practices. Conservatives believe mutual respect, honesty, fairness and hard work have been overshadowed by the pursuit of instant and self-gratification. They believe our public schools have neglected the importance of public morality. They also feel we need to instill a love for our country, including its historical figures and practices.
The liberals stress multiculturalism and the need to develop a new American identity that reflects the diversity in our nation. School should emphasize learning about the lives and cultures of traditionally marginalized groups so to understand the "diversity" of perspectives brought to bear on the history of our country.
Liberal philosophy reflected in educational curriculum at most universities and within the NEA has had the following results. As part of their multicultural agenda, our students are taught how our nation has failed to live up to its ideals of liberty and justice, but they are not receiving adequate information to understand and revere our historical figures and American practices.
Because the phrase "One nation under God" doesn't portray the religious belief of a minority of our citizens, it is treated as divisive rhetoric. In their view, our common culture should be expanded to encompass all who reside within our borders. This has had the unfortunate result of promoting separatism. Their belief that separation of church and state means there should be no religion at all in our schools has undermined the teaching of moral values.
Heterogeneous learning environments became "politically correct" so to expose our students to other possibilities conducive to building a common culture. Tracking has become the way of the past. Teachers now have a burden of individualizing all their lesson plans to meet the needs of every student (a labor-intensive task), and teaching students who come to class with various different ability levels and needs (no student gets enough attention).
Higher educational costs are incurred to accommodate smaller class sizes in response to lowered educational performance. Yet it has had no significant effect on improving student test scores.
A renewed emphasis on civic education must accommodate both conservative and liberal philosophy when developing the plan to implement it in our schools. I contend that the singlemindedness with which the liberal goal of multiculturalism was achieved sanctioned an extreme educational agenda to the detriment of our nation's school systems. Though students no longer are insulated from diverse culture around them, too many of students graduate without subject mastery, the ability to make reasoned and informed decisions or to understand the complexities that must be considered when making any decision affecting the people of the United States.
NANCY SALVATO
Mrs. Salvato is a middle-school teacher in Illinois and an independent contractor for Prism Educational Consulting. She is the Educational Liaison to Illinois Republican State Sen. Ray Soden and she volunteers as the 6th Congressional District Coordinator for the Center for Civic Education for "We The People" and "Project Citizen" instructional programs funded by the U.S. Education Department by act of Congress. She is a columnist for American Daily, and TheRant.us. Her pieces are published in the Washington Dispatch, Opinion Editorials, GOP-USA, Iconoclast, the Free Republic Network & Townhall.com. |
