Taking Advantage of (and Promoting) Nonpartisan Civic Education
6. Civic Knowledge and Skills
"Civics" or "Government" used to be required courses in middle school and/or high school in the United States, but this is no longer true. The curricula for these courses got to be so controversial that many school districts decided it was easier just to eliminate those courses. The result is that a disturbing number of people in the U.S. really don't understand how U.S. government works, and why. They don't know the structure; they don't know the laws upon which it is based; they don't know what government can and what it cannot do.
For that reason, civic education, both for school-aged children and adults is very important. If people don't understand these basics of governance, they will not be able to understand whether political candidates are proposing good ideas or bad ones. They will not be able to understand how they can get involved in governance, or why they should.
But partisan education is not nearly as helpful as nonpartisan education. Both adults and teens need to have an unbiased understanding of governmental processes and structures. After they have that, they can then consider partisan ideas about ways to change those processes and structures. But before they do that, they need to understand what is in place now, why, and how it affects them.
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