Polk Law Blog

There’s a great piece in the St. Pete Times by Bob Graham about the importance of civics education.  From the article:

Civic education can convert our democracy deficit into an abundance of civic knowledge and energy. This idea is not new. In describing the purposes of public education, Thomas Jefferson stated, “The objects of primary education … are to instruct the mass of citizens in these: their rights, interests, and duties as men and citizens … to understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either.”

I’ve seen that Jefferson quote before, and it always struck me as odd. Why would Jefferson, a true Renaissance Man by any reasonable definition, have such a narrow view of the purpose of eduction? Education is about far more than telling kids about their civic duty. Turns out, those ellipses leave out a lot. Here is the full quote, which describes a much broader and liberal (in the lower case sense) focus of public education, and, I believe, a far more useful way of describing what our schools ought to be doing in civics, science, math, language arts, history, and everything else:

The objects of this primary education determine its character and limits.  

These objects would be,

        To give to every citizen the information he needs for the
transaction of his own business;

        To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and
preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing;

        To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties;

        To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to
discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either;

        To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he
retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he
delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor,
and judgment;

        And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness
all the social relations under which he shall be placed.

        To instruct the mass of our citizens in these, their rights,
interests and duties, as men and citizens, being then the objects of
education in the primary schools, whether private or public, in them
should be taught reading, writing and numerical arithmetic, the
elements of mensuration, (useful in so many callings,) and the
outlines of geography and history.  And this brings us to the point
at which are to commence the higher branches of education, of which
the Legislature require the development; those, for example, which
are,

        To form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on whom public
prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend;

        To expound the principles and structure of government, the laws
which regulate the intercourse of nations, those formed municipally
for our own government, and a sound spirit of legislation, which,
banishing all arbitrary and unnecessary restraint on individual
action, shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate the equal
rights of another;

        To harmonize and promote the interests of agriculture,
manufactures and commerce, and by well informed views of political
economy to give a free scope to the public industry;

        To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their
minds, cultivate their morals, and instill into them the precepts of
virtue and order;

        To enlighten them with mathematical and physical sciences,
which advance the arts, and administer to the health, the
subsistence, and comforts of human life;

        And, generally, to form them to habits of reflection and
correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others, and of
happiness within themselves.

        These are the objects of that higher grade of education, the
benefits and blessings of which the Legislature now propose to
provide for the good and ornament of their country, the gratification
and happiness of their fellow-citizens, of the parent especially, and
his progeny, on which all his affections are concentrated.

From: Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia,  August 4, 1818

Civics education is NOT about teaching children about their duties as citizens. It is about teaching children to THINK CRITICALLY FOR THEMSELVES about our government and social constructs. They will get involved as adults because they know enough to care, not because they were taught that they had some sort of patriotic duty to do it. I do not think the Hon. Bob Graham would disagree with me on this point (I am quite sure he would agree), but I think Jefferson’s out-of-context quote misses a great opportunity to remind people what education (especially civics education) is really all about. From the article, here is what I believe to be the key statement of the problem:

Only 18 percent and 25 percent, respectively, gained their insight by writing a letter expressing an opinion or helping to solve a community problem.

We need that number to be 100%.