Civics is Losing, Big Time

I’ve largely abandoned Facebook. not because I have nothing to say but because I have little to add. Fact-checking for people who refuse to acknowledge fact is a waste, and serial offenders are often the most staunchly certain of their own inerrancy.

This observation is neither original nor astute, and Western civilization in general and the English language in particular will likely evolve and survive, although in what permutation I can’t imagine, given that the millennials prefer hieroglyphics over the mystifications of subject/verb agreement. :(

My greatest fear arises from the fact that presumably educated Americans will not embrace and fulfill their obligations as informed citizens. They confuse party affiliation with civic engagement, which leads to gridlock and/or balkanization. Political parties seek power, while civil engagement requires informed principle, and public schools must do a better job teaching this — across the curriculum, and every damn year.

To that end, we must assign the best teachers available, and we must employ more of them. Then, we must provide them whatever time, training and materials they require. If it means higher pay and better work conditions, so be it.

We must appreciate that the job of teaching social studies is more than merely guilt-tripping eligible voters into filling out a ballot and punching a "Submit Ballot" button. It’s training them to analyze, dissect, deduce and vote intelligently, based on verifiable fact instead of partisan bromides and bumper sticker slogans.

Here’s a scandalous tidbit: In 2016, the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that only a quarter of Americans could name all three branches of government, the poorest showing on that question in a half-dozen years. One in three could not name any of the three branches of government.

The Annenberg researchers also found that, despite massive media coverage, only 84 percent of those surveyed could name the Republican presidential candidate — Donald Trump — two weeks after the GOP convention. How is that possible? And how can we expect uninformed citizens to understand checks and balances, advise and consent, the role of a free press, the implications of the Emoluments Clause or the long-term effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
As Newsweek reported in April, 2018, one in three Americans think "substantially less" than 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. By the way, it should be "substantially fewer," so we need to do a better job there, too.

So, what did any of this have to do with my column, given that it was titled "Game On" and dealt with prep sports?

According to a 2017 article published by the Brookings Institute, teachers who specialize in social studies constitute roughly nine percent of the total teacher workforce. About 40 percent of these teachers come into the classroom with an undergraduate major in history, and then slightly fewer come in from other social science majors like political science, economics, or sociology. About 30 percent have degrees in either elementary or secondary education or some other degree.

The authors of the article, Michael Hansen and Diana Quintero, found that nearly 34 percent of social studies teachers coach an athletic team, lead a physical education class, or do both. This is about 13 percentage points more than the rate at which mathematics teachers take on these extra duties, and even farther above the rates for teachers of other subjects.

This too is no great revelation, and I’m not suggesting in any way that athletic coaches are inadequate or dispassionate classroom teachers. I am suggesting that, while they’re paid to teach, they’re employed to coach, and they continue to be employed so long as they win, and so it is unreasonable to expect them to devote as much time to grading essays and polishing lecture notes as they do to drawing up X’s and O’s.

I read an article on the challenges of teaching and coaching that stated, “Coaches teach all day and then coach after hours,” which suggests that other teachers punch in at 8 and finish up at 3. This has not been my experience. 

I may catch grief for writing this, but I fear that, in this precarious moment, the survival of our democratic republic is more important than any ball game. 

— published in the November/December, 2018, issue of Texas School Business magazine, official publication of the Texas Association of School Administrators