We disagree so much in this country that it’s heartening to find an idea that nearly everybody supports—at least generally.
The increasingly popular notion of requiring civics instruction at every level of education is one supported—for different reasons—by people who sometimes hold very different world views.
I’m for it. Surveys show that college-educated people are more likely to vote, volunteer, and support democracy in general. What better way to defend a system than to understand how it works, see where the vulnerabilities lie, and know what we mean by a civil society?
Among our most significant vulnerabilities are serious knowledge gaps: More than a third of Americans cannot name the three branches of government, according to last year’s Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey. Just 39% of respondents recognized freedom of religion as a First Amendment right.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, noted that only about half of Americans know which political parties control the U.S. Senate and House.
“Civics knowledge matters,” she said. “Those who do not understand the rights protected by the Constitution can neither cherish nor invoke them.”
Education beyond high school, including the more general subjects leading toward a bachelor’s degree, can help promote our democratic system even while improving the nation’s economic well-being. There’s general agreement about the value of civics education on both sides of the political divide. Consider these college initiatives in both red and blue states:
- At Arizona State University, the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership is a state-funded effort to “focus on classical ideas in civics and economic liberty.”
- The State University of New York added civic discourse to its system-wide requirements for all undergraduate students to learn how to deliberate ideas and work through conflict.
Like America’s founding documents and formative Enlightenment ideals, nobody owns this debate. Anyone who thinks their side alone is the arbiter of solid citizenship should watch the compelling PBS series, “Citizen Nation,” a four-part documentary following teenagers from diverse political backgrounds competing in the national “We the People” civics championship. The students learned how to participate actively in civic life while exploring different viewpoints and unpacking the complexities of political issues.
As another example, several colleges across different states have adopted Third Way Civics, an undergraduate curriculum where “the immediate goal is to introduce participating students to major developments and debates in the history of American self-government, while helping them relate their learnings to their own public lives and values in practical, nonpolarizing, commons-building ways.”
This is about more than simply knowing the three branches of government. Civil discourse, the ability to hash out differences and find solutions to common problems, is a key element of good citizenship.
To that end, more than 60 colleges and universities have joined forces with the Institute for Citizens & Scholars to develop courses and other programming to promote open communication, free speech, and civil discourse. The group’s goals, or Civic Commitments, are:
- Educating for democracy, which is central to the mission of higher education.
- Preparing students for a vibrant, diverse, and contentious society.
- Protecting and defending free inquiry.
And civic engagement doesn’t stop at the campus edge. It extends into communities, through efforts like Indiana Town Halls, which promotes civil discourse in communities with colleges as hosts and supporters.
Higher ed has its own difficult subjects to engage. As Gallup has found, confidence in higher education is at an all-time low, with only 36 percent of Americans saying they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education. That is a 20-point drop from eight years ago.
That trend won’t be reversed overnight, and it won’t happen solely by addressing the economic payback for college degrees. Those survey results reflect a hunger for competence and leadership from college graduates. And a broad general education, including civics and civil discourse, helps develop those leaders.
Through education and community-building, colleges equip students with the skills to engage thoughtfully and compassionately, thus shaping the leaders and citizens of tomorrow. They do this partly by reminding us of a key element of civil discourse—the critical difference between rigid certainty and the willingness to learn and change.
This article was originally published in Forbes.