Second Ten Postings of Gravitas

The following list of titles and accompanying dates refers to past postings on the blog, Gravitas: A Voice for Civics Education, that have been deleted.  After each title and date, the entries below include the first paragraph of each respective posting.  If you care to receive a copy of a particular posting, send your request via email to gravitascivics@gmail.com .  One posting per request.IS CIVILITY A LEGITIMATE CONCERN FOR CIVICS EDUCATION?

(October 11, 2010)

On a practical level, parents and teachers should, and I would observe are, concerned with the extent to which we live in a civil society. After all, should not civic education and social studies in general be about giving our youth the knowledge and skills to be pleasant and constructive citizens and promote a citizenry disposed to helping one another? Upon reflection, different people might have differing views on this question.

CIVILITY AND VALUES EDUCATION

(October 17, 2010)

The question of whether or not civility is a legitimate topic for civic education might be a touchy one for some. When you get into issues of civility, you roam into normative questions: what is proper and improper behavior? Do public schools have the responsibility of imparting appropriate values?

OFFENSIVE HOUSE OF WORSHIP?

(October 18, 2010)

As I was writing the first draft of this posting a few weeks back, the television news and commentary was teeming with the uproar over a curious concern. Apparently in New York City, there was (and I believe still is) a political storm over where to place a house of worship. Actually it is better described as a cultural center with an area for prayer, but why get stuck on the details? Islamic adherents of that city decided to build a “mosque” a block and half away from ground zero. That is, the center will be built a short distance from where the World Trade Center towers were attacked by Islamic terrorists. This is seen by many as an offense to the victims of that attack and their loved ones.

ANOTHER APPROACH

(October 22, 2010)

In my last posting, I suggested an ideal process for those involved with placing an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York. The planned placement of this center has caused much distress. Summarily, I called for those involved to have been able to foresee the outcry and to take a proactive approach designed to avoid this conflict. I do not believe that what I proposed is necessarily the most practical or the only way the conflict could have been avoided. I do not even claim that it is or was at all possible. What I do claim is that the scenario I outlined reflects a different approach to public issues than the one exhibited by the participants of this New York drama.

CONSTITUTIONALITY OF A POWERFUL GOVERNMENT

(October 25, 2010)

In our current political campaigns for the upcoming Congressional elections, several ideas are being bandied about that need to be seriously addressed and, at least, questioned. These ideas are coming from the far right and primarily are part of the message the Tea Party is spouting. I hesitantly choose this issue because this blog is not meant to be partisan. However, there are a host of claims that relate to our constitutional makeup and the intentions of our founding fathers that I believe to be inaccurate.

There is nothing more central to civics education than clear ideas as to what our constitution means. Unfortunately, for what seems to be political reasons, current policy debates are being argued not from what would be prudent courses of action, but from what is constitutional. When the Constitution is being abused, responsible political discourse should identify such abuse. But when the argument is about what is good or best for the country in terms of specific courses of governmental action, then the issue is not the constitutionality of that policy. Attempts to conflate prudence with constitutionality tend to do harm. Those who engage in such efforts – as is being done in the current campaign season – are popularizing misinformation.

THE OTHER CONSTRAINT ON POWERFUL GOVERNMENT

(October 29, 2010)

Let me pick up where the last posting left off. Again, civic understanding must cover the basic Constitutional elements. In the last posting, I might have left the impression that the only constraint on government under our system was the procedural process by which legislation is adopted. My point was that for most policy proposals, this process is what most effectively restrains the actions of government. But process is not the only limiting provision. Of course, the Bill of Rights is a set of protections for sustaining liberty. These cannot be underestimated as a pure constraint on governmental power.

MORE FORMAL EVIDENCE OF INCIVILITY

(November 1, 2010)

Early on in these postings, I alluded to the fact that many have expressed concern about the lack of civility in our society. I further mentioned that due to this concern and other practical realities associated with this alleged deficiency, civics education should, to a much greater degree, address the manifestations of incivility. But perhaps you are skeptical about the extent of the problem.

AN ELECTION STORY

(November 5, 2010)

Let me tell you a story. There was a Congressman who represented a district in the South. The district has within its boundaries a state capital and two universities. Fairly well-educated area. The electorate repeatedly voted for this fairly conservative Democrat and he was considered to be what they call a Blue Dog.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CITIZENSHIP

(November 8, 2010)

Many of us are currently concerned with the economy. How do civic conditions affect the current economic problems? To some this might be a bit of a stretch, but I do believe there is a connection. To have you see the connection, I have to reveal, in a more detailed fashion, my civics construct. In the November 1 posting of this blog, I utilized Robert Putnam's idea of social capital. Paraphrasing Putnam's definition, social capital is a societal quality characterized by having an active, public-spirited citizenry, egalitarian political relations, and a social environment of trust and cooperation; it speaks to communal bonds and cooperative interactions. It hints at a level of meaningful selflessness. While this whole notion has to be developed (I am not talking about instituting a pie in the sky nirvana), Putnam's idea does refer to people looking at their society as something greater than their immediate interests and ambitions. I will write a great deal about what exactly I am promoting by my use of the concept, social capital. For the sake of simplicity, let me just write that good citizens are those who embrace social capital as a positive ideal and are willing to seek its qualities in themselves and in their associations and community.

DEMANDS OF CONSISTENT THINKING

(November 12, 2010)

What characterizes a populace that is well educated in civic affairs? Reasonably, we can expect a populace to be consistent and rational in its expressed opinions concerning political and governmental conditions of the day. It should be able to see the more obvious and reasonable consequences of its favored political policy options. Do we, as a people, meet this standard?

First Ten Postings of Gravitas

The following list of titles and accompanying dates refers to past postings on the blog, Gravitas:  A Voice for Civics Education, that have been deleted.  I have also included the first paragraph of each posting to give you a sense of what the individual posting's topic is.  If you care to receive a copy of a particular posting, send your request via email to gravitascivics@gmail.com .  One posting per request.

CENTRALITY OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP

(September 6, 2010)

Welcome to this initial entry of a blog dedicated to civics curricular issues. I hope you find it informative, thought provoking, and that you will see it as a call to get involved in an essential element of a democratic society.

CIVICS CURRICULUM, PROFESSIONAL CONCERN

(September 10, 2010)

In this second posting, I would like to provide some context for the content of subsequent postings. They will be a series of short arguments that will present and defend a newer view of civics curriculum. In so doing, the blog will bring to the general audience an overall argument about a professional concern. Civics education is an area of concern among professional curriculum developers, school district administrators, school administrators, and social studies teachers.

THE MEANING OF CURRICULUM AND CONSTRUCT

(September 13, 2010)

The previous posting informed you that the aim of this blog is to engage you in a professional area of concern, civics education and its curriculum. What is meant by the term curriculum? Simplifying the term, a curriculum is a strategic plan that informs school personnel as to the content, processes, priorities, and values of what they are to teach.¹ There are a variety of issues and concerns a curriculum addresses. My efforts here will be concerned with only one of these issues; i. e., its scope or its preferred content. Without getting into it right now, the field is engaged in a lively debate as to what should constitute the scope of civics education. There are two conflicting constructs: natural rights construct and critical theory construct. In the future, I will want to explain these views, but for now I am concerned with the notion that these views represent and reflect two distinct mental representations - two constructs - of what civics and civics education are and what they should promote among the citizenry.

1Within the field of curricular studies the definition of curriculum is the source of quite a bit of debate. The definition offered here is judged by me to provide the most practical approach for the purposes of the blog.

FIGHTING A NATURAL FORCE?

(September 17, 2010)

A certain level of anxiety has been expressed in the media of late. It has to do with tolerating the non Judeo-Christian tradition of Islam. Let me admit to a bias. I believe that we, as humans, are wired to distrust the other, the foreign, the “not us.” This might have been useful in our ancient past when resources were scarce and boundaries between people were necessary for survival. I use the word “believe” advisedly. Plato made the distinction between ignorance, belief, and knowledge. This arrangement indicates a continuum. At one end of the continuum is what we know to be true without doubt. At he other end is what we simply do not know at all – ignorance. Somewhere between these extremes is what we believe with some level of reservation – our beliefs. I hold as true that I am typing these words right now. I am ignorant as to what I will be doing at this time tomorrow. I believe that there will be a tomorrow for me. Belief is somewhere between knowledge and ignorance. I believe that we have a bias toward not trusting strangers or people not like ourselves.

SOCIAL STUDIES EQUALS CIVICS

(September 20, 2010)

Social studies equals civics. That is, social studies’ main goal is civics and the knowledge it attempts to impart is primarily dedicated toward those insights, generalizations, concepts, principles, and theories useful in promoting good and effective citizenship. It is not dedicated so much to producing amateur historians, economists, political scientists or the like, or to providing the initial steps in becoming professionals in those fields. The knowledge of those fields provides the general content used to promote effective citizenship, but that knowledge and its related instruction is not the ultimate end of social studies.

CIVICS EDUCATION: JOB ONE

(September 24, 2010)

Let me drive a point home: if good citizenship were not a dominant goal of public education, one would be hard-pressed to justify public schools. I am arguing that civics is the core of not only social studies, but of all public education. Short of this aim, people, in paying their school taxes, would be subsidizing private interests. A person being educated or trained to secure employment, for example, would be using public expenditures to advance his or her economic interests. Taxes are collected in a coercive manner, you either lose some property or go to prison if you don't pay them. Therefore, their use should be limited to public welfare, not private welfare.

A CRUCIAL ELEMENT OF DEMOCRACY

(September 27, 2010)

As you follow this blog, keep your eyes and ears open as you read newspapers or hear the news on TV or radio. Be conscious of stories indicating how often an uninformed or ill-behaved citizenry pops up in the course of reporting the issues of the day. From obesity among children to poor voter turnout to short sighted activities by some group or other (labor, business, teenagers, the elderly, not to mention those who engage in crime), the news often presents these conditions with a tacit message. That is, if citizens only knew or believed or felt as they should, the issue would not be so challenging. I believe that if the schools engaged in more effective social studies instruction with a civics focus, this factor would be addressed and the reported problems not so burdensome. A good social studies curriculum, by definition, would promote better citizenship. Our mutual interests, therefore, are at stake and negatively affected when our schools fall short of providing effective social studies instruction.

A CONTEXT FOR CRITICISM

(October 1, 2010)

I wrote earlier in this blog that I would present a series of criticisms directed at the level of effectiveness civics curriculum and instruction achieves in our public schools. I also indicated that there is in these criticisms a certain lack of accusation. At least, I am not targeting any single group or individual. Let me explain.

INEFFECTIVENESS OF CIVICS INSTRUCTION?

(October 4, 2010)

As I indicated in a previous posting of this blog, for parents and most social studies teachers, social studies and civics seem pretty straightforward. Teach students our basic history, our basic laws, our basic constitutional ideals, and be done with it. The academic professionals of the field, however, do not take their responsibility so lightly. Just to give you an inkling of how weighty their interests become, many of them think seriously about how their work shapes our assumptions of the worth of our fellow citizens, how we formulate economic beliefs, or how we view minorities. To the extent that curricular decisions come to fruition and are effective, the resulting views among students and, as they grow older, voting citizens, may very well affect which governmental or corporate policies will be sustained or eliminated and which options will be brought forth or which ones will not even be considered.

TOWARD CLARIFYING THE CIVIC PROBLEM

(October 8, 2010)

In my last posting, I presented evidence as to whether or not our efforts in civics education have been sufficiently successful. One might consider my argument a bit equivocal. So let me go on the record about what I think is obvious: we have not been sufficiently successful in our efforts to teach the youth of this nation how to become democratic citizens. Actually, the overall quality of our citizens is better than we deserve given our efforts in the classroom.

If you care to see one of the above postings, request a copy by sending an email to gravitascivics@gmail.com .  One requested posting per email.