Families are busy adjusting to the new school year, gathering classroom supplies and arranging schedules to accommodate changes from summer activities. Teachers, cleaning crews and administrative personnel are also busy fine-tuning schedules and making sure that students are greeted by a clean, welcoming campus and classroom. At all levels of education, whether public or private, the fundamental goal is to prepare our children for life beyond the classroom. Basic skills are fundamental to this objective. In order to measure progress and success, a variety of tests and grading procedures allow students, parents and school personnel to evaluate this endeavor.
At the heart of academic programs are the fundamental requirements of society including the ability to read and write to communicate in our common language as well as understand basic arithmetic in order to take care of basic economic needs. A healthy body is also addressed through physical education activities. Additional subjects such as exposure to critical examination of data and the environment through science, artistic expression and social studies of history and current events are woven into the basic school curriculum.
One area that should be emphasized and may need to be strengthened is what used to be called “civics.” In order to prepare our future adults to become active, responsible and knowledgeable citizens, they need to understand the foundation of our society. Those who aspire to become “naturalized” citizens must pass a citizenship exam including knowledge of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, branches of government, terms of service for elected representatives and much more. It seems reasonable to expect our native-born students to achieve an equal level of understanding.
A standardized curriculum and testing focused on appropriate information for elementary and secondary levels, followed by a more comprehensive discussion for high school seniors, would achieve that goal. We all learn the pledge of allegiance, but how many understand the words? Some questions asked of those asking for citizenship:
- What is the U.S. Constitution?
- How does it differ from the Declaration of Independence?
- What are the branches of government for the United States?
- What determines the number of House of Representative members in congress from each state?
- What is the difference between the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives? How many members are there in each of these entities?
- Who is Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Military?
- What does the cabinet do? Who are they?
This a sample of the information our new citizens are required to know. Those of us lucky enough to be born as U.S. Citizens should also be familiar with this information as well.
“Citizenship is the chance to make a difference to the place where you belong.”
- Charles Handy
