Real Civics Education Must be an Ongoing Project in Our Democracy

Sunday, August 06, 2006 In June 2002, the Office of Democracy and Governance of the United States Agency for International Development ("USAID") published a study of lessons it learned in conducting civics education in the Dominican Republic, Poland, and South Africa. Although these countries have been going through serious transition that the United States have not, I think we can learn a great deal about democracy in the findings of this study. For one, we learn that civics education strengthens community and political participation. The study found that “civic education does have a significant, positive impact on certain democratic behaviors and attitudes.” Research cited by Margaret Stimmann Branson, in her article “Civic Education: An Antidote for Political Apathy” finds that civics education contributes significantly to increased rates of political participating among participants of good civics educational programs. This study focused its attention primarily on what education techniques were most effective to engage a citizenry. It found that single session educational programming was ineffective compared with programming where participants engage over a period of time. Underlying this finding was the principle that a participant who is simply exposed to democratic principles in a single day is less likely to adopt or own those principles than a participant who is repeatedly exposed to them and thinks about them over the course of a period of time. The study also found that participatory education was far more effective than lectures. This underlying principle of participation is so important that it also found that educational programming that provided participants with outlets for ongoing civic engagement were more effective than those that simply inculcated its participants with an interest in civic involvement but failed to inform as to available outlets for such involvement. These results should come to no surprise to those familiar with the “Federalist Papers” and DeToquville’s “Democracy In America.” A democratic republic functions best when its citizens are well educated about the system of government under which they live, and are familiar with ways to influence it, and be involved in it. A civics education program that does not take each aspect of this serious is not worth its salt. Civics in this country must be oriented towards civic engagement.Obtaining a legal education means gaining real exposure to the fundamental subjects to go into a real civics education. Additionally, lawyers are more empowered than others to act on their education. Consequently, I believe lawyers should be more involved than others in teaching civics and providing exposure opportunities for citizens to learn about civics, the legal structure under which they live, and other things that might be considered required education for a citizen.