September 24, 2012

Civics is Alive and Well in American High Schools

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Tom Edsall quotes some guy complaining that people are stupid these days because high schools don’t teach civics anymore. “The students don’t know about civics, they don’t know about our history, our government, our constitution. Politicians say they are going to give people things for free to get elected.” Atrios comments:

It’s certainly possible it’s true in some sense, in that there’s no course of study actually called “civics” but it’d be nice if Edsall provided some judgment about whether this guy is just mainlining Limbaugh or if he has an actual point.

Say what? No course of study called civics? I took senior-year civics from Mr. Avis back in 1976 because I had to if I wanted to graduate, and the California minimum course requirements continue to include “a one-semester course in American government and civics.” Ditto for Pennsylvania. Here’s a PDF describing the civics requirement in detail for all grades, including high school.

Looks to me like civics is alive and well, and continues to be called “civics.” So what’s the problem?

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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