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.
DETERMINISTIC
POLITICS?
(January
24, 2011)
For
those of you who might not be familiar with the term, determinism is
the idea that we do not really have control over our actions – that
we are deceived into believing we do because we are conscious of
going through some mental “decision-making” process before we
act. Of course, the exception to this process is when we react to an
unexpected change in our immediate environment. This would be the
case, for example, if you suddenly looked up and saw a ball headed
for your noggin and you duck. I'm always curious that while watching
a baseball game, from time to time, a foul lined ball will shoot
directly backward. The people sitting behind the plate duck when
that happens even though they know a fence is there to protect them.
Obviously there is no decision-making; there is just reaction.
A
FLOATING ORGANISM
(January
28, 2011)
To
date, in this blog, I have shared with you the basic tenets of a
construct that I believe provides primary guidance over what is
mostly taught in our civics classrooms around the country. I call
the construct natural rights. I have identified its main moral
positions as those associated with traditional liberalism.
Specifically, it holds that liberty is a trump value; that the
individual has the right to define his or her own views and ambitions
and, short of interfering with others' right to do likewise, to
behave in accordance with those views and ambitions. According to
this construct, no other right or value is more important in the
public sphere than liberty. The construct also contains a view of
politics and governance. This view mostly relies on the political
systems model which had prominence within the scholarly discipline of
political science during the middle of the last century. For the
most part, researchers who ascribe to this position rely on
scientific protocols to do their work. As outlined below, the more
progressive educators of our school systems – a relatively small
number of teachers – incorporate these methods in their
instructional plans and introduce secondary students to the research
techniques associated with the political systems model.
A
NATURAL RIGHTS DIRECTION IN OUR CURRICULUM
(January
31, 2011)
Over
the last few postings, I have been reviewing the elements of the
natural rights construct. This construct serves as the main view of
politics and governance among our citizens and guides civics
instructional efforts in US classrooms. In order to present these
elements, I have used the following questions to guide me: What
should the basis of civic morality be? And what is the nature of
politics and government? A review of the last handful of postings
will reveal answers to these questions from the perspective of the
natural rights construct. In this posting, I want to begin answering
a third question: What should the elements of civics curriculum be?
Included in this question is the concern over what the civic role of
schools should be. Since it is impossible to totally segregate these
topics – moral outlook, perspective of politics and governance, and
elements of civics curriculum – I have already given hints as to
what the answer of this last question is. I want to now begin
targeting this curricular issue more directly.
NATURAL
RIGHTS CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT
(February
4, 2011)
I
have characterized the natural rights construct, our dominate view of
politics and governance, as a highly objectified perspective. Given
that this construct is the central theoretical foundation for what is
taught in American civics and government classes, it has a profound
impact on what our young people are exposed to in terms of content
and values. This influence is felt in a variety of ways. Influences
range from the content found in most textbooks to national attempts
at assessing how well schools perform in this subject area. The
federal government has a hand in this latter effort. It funds the
Center for Civic Education and, through the Center, the Educational
Testing Service. Jointly, they produce the National Assessment
Educational Progress (NAEP) testing program known as the Nation's
Report Card, which includes testing in civics.
THE
AIMS OF A NATURAL RIGHTS CURRICULUM
(February
7, 2011)
These last few postings have
addressed the question: what should the civics curriculum (including
the civic role of schools) be? The overall trend in our schools,
where the natural rights construct has been the predominant mental
construct guiding those schools' efforts in civics, has been to
promote a consumer orientation to citizenship. I detect in the
literature, produced and promoted by natural rights educators, the
following goals:
- teach the structural components of government (the parts of the government like the Presidency)
- teach a view of government as a subservient institution which attempts to satisfy the collective interests of individual citizens
- teach the philosophical basis of government’s role as defender of individual rights
- convey the legitimate needs of government to encourage and facilitate degrees of support among the populous in order to maintain political stress to manageable and even useful levels
- portray a realistic account of politics within the nation so that students will be able to reasonably interact with governmental agencies and offices to pursue their political goals and objectives
- express the technical nature of political activity with ample respect for political expertise held by professionals which includes elected officials and bureaucrats
CAN
NATURAL RIGHTS BE NEUTRAL AND COMMUNAL?
(February
11, 2011)
There
has been criticism concerning the level of individualism
characterizing our civics curriculum. I have attributed, through
these postings, some “blame” for this individualism on a
particular view of politics and government, the natural rights
construct. Ironically, a scholar who has recognized the communal
role that civics should hold and promote is John Patrick. I write
ironically because he has had both enormous influence on the work of
the Center for Civic Education and in the Center's role assisting in
the National Assessment Educational Progress (NAEP) testing program
known as the Nation's
Report Card and which
reflects the assumptions of the natural rights construct. In
addition, Patrick has co-authored a widely used civics textbook based
on a natural rights perspective.
NEUTRALITY
DEFINED
(February
14, 2011)
In
the last few postings, I have written about the neutrality of the
political system. This language might be confusing. You might ask,
don't elected officials go to their legislative and executive
positions with platforms that promote a certain set of policy
positions that, once they are elected, they try to implement? Does
this not reflect a bias, a position? Isn't neutrality the opposite
when someone or some group avoids taking a positions?
W-X-Y-Z
(February
18, 2011)
The
title of this posting does not refer to a radio or TV station (I
think there exists both a radio and TV station with those call
letters). My reference to W-X-Y-Z is a shorthand way to designate
different types of politicians. The letters result from formulating
a two by two grid in which, along the horizontal plane, we gauge a
politician's motivation and, along the vertical plane, we gauge his
or her overall strategy. The grid forms four cells, hence W-X-Y-Z.
HIS
WAY WAS THE HIGHWAY
(February
21, 2011)
When
I was young, growing up in Miami, Florida, I remember the exciting
prospect of an expressway being built through the eastern part of the
city. Interstate 95 was constructed and it promised to revolutionize
our ability to travel north and south. What I wasn't aware of at the
time was the human cost that “improvement” meant in the lives of
thousands of people. Later in life, especially during the racial
disturbances of the eighties, I learned how I-95 disrupted
African-American neighborhoods like Overtown.
THE
ABSENCE OF A BALANCING ACT
(February
25, 2011)
In this blog, I have been
reviewing what I term the natural rights construct. I have outlined
this perspective's moral and theoretical foundations and reviewed its
methodological approach. Next, I want to critique this construct. I
have, through these postings, previewed what I find lacking with the
construct, but starting with this posting, I will more directly
express my judgments on its the utility.
