Functionally Illiterate About Our Own Democracy

When I was a public school kid - at the risk of sounding old - we had civics classes all year long (commonly called Social Studies), and I distinctly remember that we couldn’t advance to fifth grade unless we correctly named all nine members of the high court. But today, 31 states reportedly require only a half-year of civics education, and another 10 states require nothing.

In public education during the last half century, civics has taken a back seat to science, technology, engineering, and math. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with the STEM curricula - we need people on the cutting edge of those disciplines.

But two educators, making the pitch for civics, recently warned: “Without a basic understanding of our constitutional system, the foundations of democracy and the separation of powers enshrined in it, how can Americans discern fact from fiction? Without understanding what generations have fought and died for - those core principles of putting country before leader or party, the checks on power our Founders insisted on - how can they be informed and empowered citizens that our system requires to survive?”

Chief Justice John Roberts agrees: “(Our constitutional) principles leave no place for mob violence…We have come to take democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the wayside. In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital.”

He wrote that 13 months before the Capitol was stormed.

If we continue to ignore these warnings about our education system, too many Americans will remain putty in the paws of demagogues. As the current cult leader exclaimed on the stump five years ago, “I love the poorly educated!”

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Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com