taking a sidestep from our usual topics surrounding God, faith, the Bible and reality, Keith examines what’s involved for the modern student as the learn civics in the public school system.
Based on legal documents from the state of Illinois that layout the educational requirements, Keith remarks on a few points that are used for guidance at the top levels of education. Directives to guide school districts, superintendents, and school boards as they provide guidance for teachers. The scope of this particular document doesn’t cover curriculum, only guidance for the general expectations to be taught and a classroom. In Illinois, refer to: Public Act 99-434 and Public Act 99-485.
For the broad umbrella of civics: Two years of social studies, of which at least one year must be history of the United States or a combination of history of the United States and American government. At least one semester must be civics, which shall help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives.
Civics course content shall focus on government institutions, the discussion of current and controversial issues, service learning, and simulations of the democratic process.
School districts may utilize private funding available for the purposes of offering civics education.
There are several pieces of vital information in the text above:
• Two years required social science courses
• 1 year must be U.S. history (or combination of US history and American government)
• 1 semester of civics
Additionally, clarification is also provided about the content of the civics coursework:
• The intent is which shall help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives.
• Civics course content shall focus on:
o government institutions,
o the discussion of current and controversial issues,
o service learning, and
o simulations of the democratic process.
School districts are free to determine how to incorporate civics education into their current curricula in a way that best meets the needs of their students.
To clarify, below is a list of key ideas discussed in the Graduation Guidance Document.
• Civics Education must:
o “help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives”;
o address government institutions; (This should include ideas of discussing foundations of our American government, branches of government, and other institutions)
o discuss current and controversial issues; (Current and controversial issue discussions should link issues to core curricular goals as well as address meaningful and timely questions about public problems that deserve both students and the public’s attention.)
• and include service learning and simulations of the democratic process (Service learning is NOT in reference to having students just gather community service hours. Service learning addresses the idea of taking informed action upon learning and service learning should connect to the content within the classroom. This could take the form of a traditional service project connected to content or could be to advocate or take action about key components of learning.)
o and include simulations of the democratic process (The goal of simulations is to engage students in practices of citizenship through role-playing, scenario consideration, or problem-based case solutions.)
• Civics instruction should also align to the Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science which…enumerate the knowledge and skills that students should acquire in civics during the high school experience. (The Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science should guide learning in all social sciences. All social science courses should strive to incorporate the Inquiry Skills simultaneously with the Disciplinary Concepts. Cross-curricular integration is highly encouraged in all courses. For example, civics coursework should include the civics standards as well as any other applicable standards from the other areas of the disciplinary concepts.)
• Course of study must be a minimum of one semester
• School districts are free to determine how to incorporate civics education into their current curricula in a way that best meets the needs of their students. (School districts have the discretion to determine how to implement Civics. They can have a standalone course, but they may also infuse a semester’s worth of civics course content into another course. In other words, it is NOT a requirement for the civics coursework to be a stand-alone course. Though the coursework is required to be at least a semester, required coursework may be incorporated into existing course structures.)
Listen to the episode to hear how Keith puts his own interpretation on these academic standards. There is plenty of room to botched the job and gives students less than they deserve in this area. To put it briefly, there seems to be way too much on social studies, and very little on the heart of what civics actually means, having good citizenship.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:22 — 21.4MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | Podchaser | RSS | More