Do Our Schools Encourage or Discourage Democratic Engagement

I recently read an interesting article by John W. Whitehead entitled "Teaching Totalitarianism in the Public Schools" first published on June 24, 2010. He wrote that totalitarianism is effectively being encouraged by adopting the mindset that students have no rights. From a curricular standpoint, the focus is contributing to the economy rather than knowledge of civics and Constitutional principles.

The article additionally provides the example of a school which prohibited the distribution of a student newspaper because it disapproved of an editorial questioning if student athletes should be required to take gym classes. Although Whitehead's article did not comment on whether the school prohibits other speech, I would presume that if gym class for athletes is too controversial, an article addressing other controversies would likely be censored.

For instance, what about a controversial article regarding immigration, affirmative action, or whether American history is taught from a too liberal or too conservative stance? What about an article frankly discussing drug use or sexual behavior among students. Any of these articles could be extremely newsworthy, yet might go unwritten or unexamined by the student press due to their being "too controversial."

This article hits a chord. I recall in high school that in many classes, the memorization of facts was favored over insight. History was presented as series of facts, rather than an exploration into human nature and why different people do different things.

The article raises another point I had not considered. The article says that "young people today are immersed in a drug culture—one manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry— almost from the moment they are born, and you have the makings of a perfect citizenry for the Orwellian society in which we now live: one that can be easily cowed, controlled, and directed."

This seems particularly troubling. Not all problems are chemical, and thus not all problems can be treated chemically. Some people need discipline, need love, need to exhibit their artistic and other creative endeavors. Unlike the article, I am not advocating a particular purchase or a particular result, but I would like to see an expanded conversation about how students can be seriously invited to join the creative civic discussion.

What Legal Understanding is Essential to Citizenship?

In my most recent post, I complemented Michigan for instituting a course for ordinary citizens on fundamentals of the legal system. I further articulated my view that there are fundamental aspects of our legal system of which all citizens should be apprised. I have since been asked to articulate my views of what legal principles are so essential to American civil society that familiarity among the general public should be a priority of the legal profesion.

In that article, I identified four fundamental aspects of the legal system, namely, (1) how to locate the law and vindicate rights in court, (2)fundmentals of the Executive Branch for the purpose of determining what administrative procedures are available to adjudicate certain kinds of cases; (3) the art of reading case law and (4) certain fundamental rights and the role of the Supreme Court (and the lower courts of course) in determining them.

These fundamental aspects of the legal system are the building blocks upon which other aspects of the legal system are built. Any American taught these four things is well suited to figure out his or her rights, and thus be a little less reliant on lawyers.

However, as discussed, in addition to the principles that underly our legal structure there are specific legal regimes that affects all citizens to such an extent that basic knowledge about them may also be considered essential aspects of citizenship. To be clear, it is not that I am making any specific theoretical claims about these topics. Instead, I am pointing out that these topics are those that are likely going to affect average citizens and thus average citizens should have a general understanding of the applicable legal frameworks:

1. Fundamentals of Housing Law (including renting rights and responsibilities, home ownership rights and responsibilities, and essential aspects of land and property purchase);
2. Fundamentals of Consumer Rights, and Consumer Responsibilities, such as what are the reasonable expectations a consumer may have concerning a product's functionality and safety, and when certain product uses are well outside the scope of anything the manufacturer may be held liable;
3. Family Law--rights of individuals in a marital and non-marital relationship and legal protections relating to domestic violence;
4. Education law--rights of parental involvement in their children's education, and limits of those rights; rights to participate in school boards;
5. Fundamentals of Corporate and Nonprofit Governmance Law; Specifically , one's right to create a business or nonprofit; when a permit is required; and when one must communicate with the government about their business and its expenses;
6. First Amendment Law;
7. Fundamentals of Intellectual Property law
8. Fundamentals of Insurance law
9. Fundamentals of Employment Law
10.Fundamentals of Zoning Law
11.Traffic Law
12.Basics of Banking Law
13.Trust and Estates Law
14.Malpractice Law (from the perspective of the consunmer of professionals goods)
15.Government Benefits

In coming up with this list, I do not mean to proclaim in any way that the average citizen has a good reason to understand each of these topics in a thorough manner. Instead, I raise topics and legal topics that arise in everyday life to such an extent that the average citizen should be encouraged to at least have an appreciation of the subject matter's foundations, and thus, when a particular type of transactions is governed by a legal regime and when the law is likely to have no impact on one's course of conduct.