of global education. Although it’s
important to convey concerns about
universal human rights and social
justice, these topics do not in themselves provide a realistic route to
civic education. The serious tasks of
citizenship that students need to learn
are played out on a local or national
level rather than a global one. We do
not pay taxes to the world; we do not
vote for a world president or senator; we
do not serve in a world military or Peace
Corps; we are not called to jury duty
in any world courtroom. To conduct
citizenship activities intelligently and
responsibly, our students must know
how the American system operates—
and they must care enough about it to
get involved.
motivation to learn about citizenship.
Why would students exert any effort to
master the rules of a system that they
don’t respect?
To acquire civic knowledge as well
as civic virtue, students need to care
deeply about their country. More than
this, in times of national peril, they
must care enough to sacrifice for the
common good. Over the course of
history, love of country has been a
foremost motivator of such sacrifices, in
battles against tyrannical forces abroad
and social injustices at home.
It is especially odd to see the neglect
of teaching about the American identity
in schools with large populations of
immigrant students, which includes
most public schools these days. Edu-
An Untapped Opportunity:
Teaching the Civil Rights
Movement
Informed citizenship and civic purpose
grow out of a basic sense of attachment.
Young people become motivated to
act when three conditions are in place:
They identify with the object of concern,
they perceive that something needs to
be done on its behalf, and they have
hope that their efforts can accomplish
something. Teaching students to think
critically about their society is beneficial
because it helps establish the need for
action. But at the same time, we must
give students hope that their efforts
can achieve results and belief that their
society is worth their efforts and their
sacrifices. For this last condition, stu-
Fostering National Pride
and Identity
For many schools in the United States
today, these last two recommendations will require an adjustment of their
present approach. Many educators
are turning to “cosmopolitanism” and
“global citizenship” as the proper aim of
civics instruction, deemphasizing a particular attachment to America. As global
citizens, it is often believed, students
should primarily identify with humanity
worldwide. This global perspective is
sometimes augmented by an emphasis
on critical thinking regarding America’s
failings.
It is true that today’s students must
learn to operate on a global plane, for
both economic and civic reasons. It is
also true that students should learn to
think critically about their own country’s past acts and present policies. But a
global perspective need not be acquired
in opposition to an identification as a
citizen of the United States, and critical
thinking does not mean ignoring or
negating the positive achievements of
American democracy. Discouraging
young Americans from identifying
with their country, or from celebrating
the historic American quest for liberty
and equality, is a sure way to remove
students’ most powerful source of
We are surprisingly casual about
passing along the interests, skills, and
knowledge required for U.S. citizenship.
cation historian Diane Ravitch relates
that on a visit to a New York City
school, she heard the principal speaking
proudly of the school’s efforts to celebrate the cultures of all the immigrant
students. Ravitch (2006) writes, “I asked
him whether the school did anything
to encourage students to appreciate
American culture, and he admitted with
embarrassment that it did not” (p. 580).
These students were being urged to
identify with the customs of the native
lands they had left as well as with the
abstract ideals of an amorphous global
culture. Lost between these romantic
affiliations was their essential identification with the nation where they
would actually practice citizenship.
Adding to the dysfunctionality of this
misplaced instructional choice, Ravitch
(2006) writes, was the absurdity of
teaching “a student whose family fled
to this country from a tyrannical regime
or from dire poverty to identify with
that nation rather than with the one that
gave the family refuge” (p. 581).
dents need to learn about success stories
of our past.
Fortunately, such success stories are
not hard to find. One opportunity that
is currently wasted in too many schools
is the landmark civil rights movement of
the mid-20th century. A recent study by
the Southern Poverty Law Center (2011)
concluded that, fewer than 50 years after
its great successes, this movement is
now rarely taught in our schools and is
little known among students.
The civil rights movement is an
ideal subject for conveying an understanding of citizenship and a sense of
civic purpose. It contains every one of
the attributes of compelling civics education. It is recent enough that living
people still remember it and students
can easily recognize the goals, struggles,
and social conflicts that defined the
major events.
The civil rights movement made
tangible progress in extending rights to
millions of previously disenfranchised
people, yet it is not entirely completed.
