UNDERNEWS

Online report of the Progressive Review. Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it.

October 22, 2016

A government official actually comes out for civics education

Washington Post - The scope of civics education should expand beyond explaining how government works to include teaching students about the importance of becoming active participants and problem-solvers on a wide range of issues, U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr., Jr. said in a speech  at the National Press Club.

Pointing to minority figures who took stances based on their civic beliefs — from Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman to Martin Luther King and Colin Kaepernick — King argued that schools have a special responsibility to prepare students for their role in a democracy. He said that purpose was one of the original goals for American public education, something that has become more important as the country becomes more diverse.

He called on schools and colleges to be “bold and creative in educating for citizenship,” and to make preparing students for civic duties “just as much a priority as preparing them to succeed in college and in their careers.”

King said data show that the vast majority of U.S. students have a dismal basic understanding of how government functions and that such ignorance continues into adulthood. Just a third of Americans know that Joe Biden is the vice president or can name even a single justice on the Supreme Court, King said.

at 10/22/2016
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest

1 comment:

Capt. America said...

That's the way educators want it. The emphasis
is on the job skills to perform disappearing
jobs, because that creates debt.

Adam Smith showed centuries ago that the wealth
of a nation is in its people. There needs
to be more emphasis on the arts, especially
music, theatre, communications, and history.

October 23, 2016 at 12:59 PM

Post a Comment

Newer Post Older Post Home
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Get Undernews and Maine News by email

Send ssmith@igc.org your email address with title ADD EMAIL

NEWS OF FREEPORT MAINE & NEARBY TOWNS

  • FREEPORT NEWS

TALES FROM THE ATTIC

  • Tales from your editor's past

ABOUT THE REVIEW

  • Sam Smith Essays
  • Our archives
  • About the editor
  • History of the Review

ABOUT THE EDITOR

The Review is edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington under nine presidents, has edited the Progressive Review and its predecessors since 1964, wrote four books, been published in five anthologies, helped to start five organizations (including the DC Humanities Council and the DC Statehood Party), was a plaintiff in three successful class action suits, served as a Coast Guard officer, and played in jazz bands for four decades.

A truly independent journalist with his feet firmly grounded in the reality of neighborhoods and everyday people. -- Patrick Mazza, Progressive Populist

A truly original voice in American journalism: humorous and plain spoken and filled with common sense -- Jay Walljasper, Utne Reader

Inimitable -- Mother Jones Magazine

Sam's a cynical cat -- Marion Barry

Sam's one of the few independent voices left. The press today is either extreme or special interest or else just establishment, an extension of the corporate spirit -- Sen. Eugene McCarthy,

One of a small group of whites with whom many blacks would trust their political lives - Chuck Stone, Washingtonian.

A reputation for wit, intelligence and anger. -- Claude Lewis, Chicago Tribune

Smith is an island of reason and information in a sea of narcissistic blather. -- City Paper, Washington

Whatever the debate, the Review's sharp critiques encourage us to look out our window, notice and act upon what we see, and also to look further -- to the rest of the country and globe -- to see how the organized big world interacts with our more spontaneous small worlds. - Utne Reader

SAM SMITH'S BOOKS

  • Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual
  • Why Bother? Getting a Life in a Locked Down Land
  • Shadows of Hope: A Freethinker's Guide to Politics in the Time of Clinton
  • Captive Capital: Colonial Life in Modern Washington

MULTITUDES: The unauthorized memoirs of Sam Smith

  • Introduction
  • Georgetown
  • Becoming
  • Friends: A Quaker education
  • Summer
  • Harvard: Magna cum probation
  • The canaries in Studio A
  • Suspect
  • Hooligan Navy days
  • Seeds
  • How the trouble began
  • Fire
  • Place
  • DC Diary: 1970s
  • DC Diary: 1980s
  • DC Diary: 1990s
  • DC Diary: The new century
  • Going Green
  • The loneliest mile in town
  • Rebel

SEARCHABLE ARCHIVES OF OUR PRINT EDITIONS

THE IDLER 1964-1967

DC GAZETTE 1966-1985

PROGRESSIVE REVIEW 1985-2003

SAM'S MUSIC

  • Sam played in bands - piano and vocals - for some 40 years. This link is to some of these band performances. (They begin after Songs From DC and Freeport)
  • Some songs about DC written by Sam Smith
Simple theme. Powered by Blogger.