Data released in May showed only 22% of 8th-graders scored at or above #NAEP Proficient in civics; for U.S. history that number was only 13%. Understanding these subjects is critical to participating in society and living up to our nation’s ideals. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e7TG9Pgv
Mark Dillon
3mo
No wonder parents across this great nation are ticked off at their local school boards and the massive education bureaucracy--it's them, not our kids, who are failing. And they've been failing our 8th-graders for decades. Knowing civics and our nation's history isn't some new or novel concept. Its foundational to a functioning republic or permanent union. President George Washington wrote about the importance of civics (he called it the science of government) in his 12/7/1796 address to Congress. "The more homogenous our citizens can be made in these particulars the greater will be our prospect of permanent union; and a primary object of such a national institution should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic what species of knowledge can be equally important and what duty more pressing on its legislature than to patronize a plan for communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?"
That is why we need more new teachers, and more innovative methods and techniques. The Internet, social media, and video games are the greatest competitors in the classroom today. Since teachers are trained and skilled through these books on theory and less creativity (as it appears in this assessment), who bears the most fault when students fail? Teachers or Students or Parents?
Instructor at Practical Aeronautics
3moI never took a classic Civics class (my Navy dad kept PCSing right before I would've taken it). But I wish I had and I think I picked up enough along the way despite not having the class. I think Civics should be a required part of the curriculum. I also think that to graduate from HS, students should have to pass the US citizenship test, not to become citizens (with some exceptions, they already are and besides, schools don't have that authority anyway), but to show they have the knowledge all citizens should have about this country.