It is midnight in American politics. With the presidential election upon us, a large majority of voters are disillusioned by the state of our democracy. The word “fascism” is increasingly prevalent in our news feeds. Historians and political scientists speculate about the potential for civil unrest, even war. These are dark times.
As scholars of civic education and former high school teachers, we are thinking a lot about how to help students make sense of a democracy in crisis, which will remain an urgent problem regardless of which candidate prevails. What should we teach young people on Nov. 6 and beyond?
On at least one matter, we know what comes next. During every election cycle, like clockwork, a large chunk of the blame for the sorry state of democratic life is directed at schools, specifically the lack of time dedicated to civics instruction. Public officials lament dismal statistics about Americans’ modest knowledge of the basic mechanics of government and call for more explicit teaching about the structure and function of democratic institutions.
The logic is that if students had a better grasp of the procedural workings of our political systems, this knowledge would translate into concrete actions to sustain democracy. But this logic is flawed. A recent study showed that a policy implemented in 18 states requiring students to take or pass a civic-knowledge test to graduate did not improve youth voter turnout.
Civic knowledge is important. But the crisis we are facing is not fundamentally a knowledge problem. It is a soul problem. As John Dewey reminded us over a century ago, democracy is not merely a set of rules to be followed but rather a form of “associated living”—the embodiment of the commitment we make to build a world in relation with each other. And more and more evidence suggests that this commitment is broken.
The predicaments American education faces are myriad. It is not only the effects of the pandemic and social media contributing to the national crisis in youth mental health. Surveys have shown that youth ages 12 to 17 are (justifiably) pessimistic about the state of the country and disengaged with classroom instruction that does not acknowledge a world on fire.
Our own research has demonstrated that young people feel deep cynicism about a country that does not use the political levers they learn about in school to address issues like gun violence, climate disaster, genocide, and racism that haunt their present and future.
This deeper democratic crisis does not absolve schools of the responsibility to teach civics. Rather, it urgently reinforces their need to do so—but in a very different way.
Rather than framing civic education as a discrete set of facts, we need to approach it as the ongoing exploration of what it means to forge a collective path ahead, even though profound differences in identities and experiences exist. The most pressing challenges of our time remind us of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words about the “inescapable network of mutuality” in which we live.
This vision of civic education requires moving beyond the education practices that are falling short at this precarious time for American democracy. There are promising beacons that might guide us in this moment. Recent reports from Educating for American Democracy and the National Academy of Education, for example, offer resources to help schools and teachers recenter the civic lives of young people. But we need more.
Rather than repaving the worn pathways for civic education that we have walked for this long, it is time for a drastic overhaul. Here are three steps to take now.
1. Stop framing civic education as the job of one class or one subject.
By segmenting civic education off into social studies classrooms, we’ve essentially let teachers of all other disciplines off the hook and allowed the collective purpose of education to fall out of focus. The crisis we are facing is too big for social studies teachers to handle alone. This is the moment to weave civic education across all subject areas—to show how each subject is related to current issues. As we’ve explained in our writing for classroom teachers, every educator is a civic educator.
2. Reconsider the overwhelming emphasis on debate and argumentation as the primary forms of civic discourse presented in classrooms.
Given the rancorous climate of political discourse today, argument should be a skill taught only after we have learned how to engage in storytelling, reflection, and collaborative dialogue with people who are different from ourselves.
3. Challenge policies that do not embrace the full mutuality of the communities of learners we serve and educate.
Current policies that ban books, dehumanize transgender students, and dismantle diversity initiatives all represent a dereliction of civic education. Given the uncivil nature of political argumentation that is now commonplace at the highest levels of government, schools must lead the way in resisting these divisive policies.
While midnight is a time of deep darkness, it is also the start of a new day. If we can conjure the will to grasp it, this moment can be a turning point toward building a stronger democratic future together in schools.
