Core lessons of good citizenship sorely needed by all Americans
Strengthening our democracy starts with teaching children about our values and electoral process from their earliest years.
One of the best ways American schools have done this for generations is through student government. When children have the opportunity to run or vote for student council, they learn how elections and campaigns work, how to wade through election materials with a discerning eye, and about the temptation to turn races into popularity contests. Teachers also can use voting as a hook to teach about American government, the Constitution, current events, polling and disagreeing with civility.
These are the core lessons of good citizenship sorely needed by all Americans, but we’re falling short. Civics education is in crisis, with eighth-graders’ knowledge and skills in democratic citizenship, government, and American constitutional democracy falling for the first time ever in 2022 data from the Nation’s Report Card.
Students need more knowledge about American democracy, so let’s lean into one of the best realworld primers we have for participatory democracy: student government.
A fifth-grader I know spent the summer excitedly planning a run for student council at his public elementary school in Texas. He and a group of friends planned to run as a ticket and worked on campaign materials and slogans. But months into the school year, the school administration first canceled the election and then brought it back after parent complaints. But there were caveats: Campaigning was forbidden. Candidates could make one poster each and deliver one speech, which they’d ideally work on at home. And candidates couldn’t form tickets.
One child was disqualified for doing what he thought you did in elections — he texted his friends, told them he was running, and urged them to vote for him, their friend. Another parent told her child candidate to avoid talking to “anybody about anything until the thing is over because I don’t want him to get kicked out of the election.”
The administration may very well have had good reasons for its decisions — like overworked teachers and an election process that has gone wrong in the past. But the school administration is missing an amazing opportunity for kids to learn by doing.
Instead of canceling — and then reinstating — a much reduced election with rules so strict parents were telling their kids not to speak to one another, the school could have used student government to provide an excellent opportunity to model why democracy is important and get kids excited about voting. That’s what our country needs right now.
It’s worth noting that many of the students at this school are immigrants or the children of immigrants, among the first in their families to be exposed to American-style democracy. School is the perfect place for young Americans to learn to become engaged citizens.
Of course, this is true of American-born children as well. It rapidly became clear that all the kids at this school needed basic lessons about voting and voting rights, about campaigns and integrity. One child tried to buy votes because he was never taught that he shouldn’t. (He was disqualified — briefly — until someone explained.) Another didn’t realize candidates could vote for themselves.
If we want all our children to grow up to be good citizens, we need to explicitly show them what that looks like and requires from each of us.
The Institute for Citizens & Scholars, formerly the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, released a survey in September showing that Americans between 18 and 34 lack basic civics knowledge, and just 4% were able to correctly answer four standard civics questions. Two were on the constitutional design of U.S. government institutions, one was on the Bill of Rights, and one was on current events/party control of the Legislature.
There’s no doubt that democracy can be messy, but teaching our kids about democracy is a sacred trust. If we ever want Americans to come together again with shared democratic values, we must start by bringing that to life in our children’s classrooms.
Margot Habiby is deputy director of communications at the George W. Bush Institute.