Ensuring Well-Informed Citizens through Public Education, Then and Now
In October, I had the privilege of participating in a Tedx event sponsored by the University of South Carolina. The subject of my talk was the danger our democracy faces when we fail to ensure equal and adequate public education. I offered warnings and lessons from both the perspective of our nation’s founders and those who rebuilt our nation in the period following the Civil War. The number of parallels between the post-Civil War period and today are striking, particularly the advent of new technology—the penny press newspapers then and the 24-hour news cycle and blogs today. The challenge today is use yesterday’s lessons to solve today’s problems in school funding, critical literacy, and democratic participation. The following is a couple of highlights from the talk:
Democracy is a double edged sword. It places political power in the hands of the people, but to succeed, those people need to be informed well enough to make smart decisions. An educated citizenry cannot be easily manipulated. Not easily oppressed. And educated citizenry will guard its freedom jealously. And when these citizens get it wrong—and they will—they will disagree with one another. And this slows down any major moves in the wrong direction.
So the inherent tension of democracy revolves around the need to place power in the hands of people who may or may not be well-informed. Our founders—the people who wrote the federal and state constitutions we live under—firmly believed the only solution was the only solution was to make sure we have public education system that cultivates the skills that citizens need to participate in democracy.
The problem
In today’s world, civics knowledge and critical literacy are, well, critical. By civics I mean how our government works. A large chunck of the public has next to no idea. . . . [But] we also need critical literacy to evaluate what we learn about government and its policies. About one in three Americans are either illiterate or rudimentary readers. Half can’t read a book written at an eighth-grade level and comprehend it. And the sad thing is, that CONTINUE READING: Education Law Prof Blog