Skills, Skills, Skills

“Self-government requires far more than voting in elections every four years. It requires citizens who are informed and thoughtful, participate in their communities, are involved in the political process, and possess moral and civic virtues.”

Gould, J (Ed.). The Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics, (2011).Guardian of democracy: The civic mission of schools. p.6

     This quote lays the groundwork for why the authors of the report believe that it is crucially important for students in a democracy to have a thorough and interdisciplinary grounding in civics. They believe that merely pushing a button, filling in a circle, or any other method of voting every four years only barely scratches the surface of democratic action. Voting is a key component of democracy, especially when compared to other methods of government, but it represents at best a passive form of self-government. Many people, certainly more than would be willing to admit it, only go that far in their involvement and then sit back and complain about the result of said elections. To truly have self-government, people need to get involved in the process at every level (local, state, national). Not everybody will be involved to the same extent, but a real democracy requires people to be continually engaged in the democratic process, not just engaged for a few minutes every few years. Where the authors of this report eventually tie it into schools and education is in terms of of how citizens get the background and interest in the appropriate level of involvement. The authors believe that this is best accomplished in the schools for several reasons. One is that everyone up to a certain age has to attend school, and public school is the option open to the greatest number of people. Schools then serve as the place of instruction for not only specific subject areas, but for democratic, self-governing life itself. They do this both through explicit instruction of concepts as well as important interdisciplinary skills.

     Where I find the greatest connection between this quote and my own beliefs about the purpose of teaching social studies is in the emphasis on skills. These skills can be things like critical thinking, effective oral and written communication, or how to discuss divisive issues, among others. Aside from their applicability to life in general, these issues are not only important in the social studies but also in other subject areas. While students certainly need exposure to a wide range of concepts and topics, often skills can be most important. Whether a Socratic seminar is focused on Ancient Chinese philosophies, Civil War leadership, or competing economic systems, if students can use their reading and discussion skills well, they will have increased access to future knowledge on all sorts of topics. If only by virtue of possessing these skills, students will become more involved in the world around them. What I don't completely agree with, if only because there are a lot of unstated specifics about the matter, is the single-minded focus on democracy as opposed to creating generally well-rounded thoughtful individuals who just happen to agree that democracy is a worthwhile system of government. If people are well-educated on good principles for daily life which just so happen to also be central principles for democracy, then why obsess over whether you're teaching them for democracy or not? If these principles are so worthwhile (and I believe they are), then they should be worthy independent of their alignment with democratic ideals. As an aside, I wouldn't want students to be aware that they are being taught with democratic ideals (except in classes like Civics or US History where the connection is blatant) as students (particularly those relatively unfamiliar with democracy) should discover the merits of these ideas and their connection to democracy themselves in order to make these ideas their own and central to their being and acting.