Otto Koester Advocates for Civic Education

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Permalink Reply by Lowell Jaeger on October 6, 2010 at 2:53pm

As a father of 5 and an educator for 30 years: I have much appreciation for Otto Koester's bemoaning our national dumbness. We do this a lot, don't we. Even on the Jay Leno show. But I don't think that more mandatory coursework and national testing standards are the answer. The best way to gain a civic education is through civic engagement. New efforts such a the service-learning movement, Campus Corps, AmeriCorps, and other volunteer service opportunities for students are learning environments beyond what's possible within classroom walls. How much would a kid understand the rules of baseball or the dynamics of being a team member without playing the game? This is the challenge of civic education: How do we promote civic engagement? Some one needs to do the research. Are students with a history of civic engagement more informed? I know how I'd bet on this one.

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Permalink Reply by Geoff Badenoch on October 18, 2010 at 1:16pm

Clearly, students learn by doing and by seeing examples of the behavior they are expected to demonstrate. Parents, teachers, bosses--all adults, I guess, who demonstrate civic engagement by voting in elections, volunteering, donating, etc. are part of passing these values on to the next generation and others. Yelling at the TV, grousing about the state of things, tsk-tsking the state of things--none of these ever change anything. That's what kids need to know.

I think kids today ought to be a little more rebellious toward today's Establishment. I'm afraid that they aren't, and that simply means they don't view us as relevant.

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Permalink Reply by Lowell Jaeger on October 18, 2010 at 1:59pm

Thanks, Geoff, for this comment. I'm especially struck by your thought: "kids today ought to be a little more rebellious toward today's Establishment. I'm afraid that they aren't, and that simply means they don't view us as relevant." I see a real split in the attitudes of the young people I work with. One side lives with pessimism, a dark vision of uncertainty and chaos. These young ones also seem to feel helpless, overwhelmed by the odds against them. The other side seems to think the world is still a fixable place. Guess what, the latter category is comprised of AmeriCorp and Campus Corp volunteers. I do wish someone would do the research. Maybe someone has done the research. Getting up and getting involved -- volunteerism, civic engagement -- is the best chance we have in our society for positive change. I do see the AmeriCorps volunteers I work with as a rebellious lot -- they are rebelling against apathy and pessimism.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Margolis on December 1, 2010 at 2:34pm

As my friend Sam Chaltain says "the schools our kids need must tend to not just their formal academic needs, but also their social, emotional, ethical, vocational and aspirational needs. And the public intellectuals we need are people who, with inquiry and openness, help us better understand, and then imagine in new ways, how to get there from here".

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Permalink Reply by Lowell Jaeger on December 1, 2010 at 3:41pm

Dear Heather . . . I wish you would say more about the quote you posted from Sam Chaltain. What are your thoughts about "how to get there from here"??

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Permalink Reply by Heather Margolis on December 2, 2010 at 11:25am

Hi Lowell,

Is civic knowledge lacking ? I used to give training that included a picture of Homer Simpons and Ed Rendell, yes this was in Philadelphia. All of the 18-24 year olds knew Homer, only a few could identify the current Governor of PA. There are a few pieces to the problem here for me. One, testing is doing its best to suck the life out of education. But I believe there are amazing teachers who persevere and kodos to them. Two, there is a lack of access to hands on experiential education, civic does need to be practiced. I love the baseball analogy. Three, we need to create better teacher training, and scale up what is working. As per Otto's recommendations, they appear viable, perhaps we can add a few elements to flush it out a bit more.

I wonder why Otto reccomendations, while all good don't involve a youth perspective or include a youth strategy for change. It treats youth a passive recipient of knowledge rather then an active engaged learners. It seems as if all change must happen on a statewide policy level. An additional approach could include grassroots campaign led by students to support making service-learning school credits available in all schools, for all students not just the "AP" students. Montana students have asked for this. Service-learning is not new, nationally or here in Montana. There are amazing examples of students being powerfully engaged citizens improving their communities. I agree with Otto there needs to be an enormous push to encourage more teachers to infuse more experiential civic engagement opportunities in the classroom and access to the training needed to achieve that. I also believe there needs to be balance between the need to test which is a benchmark and the goal to educate. Hopefully, somewhere in between we can get to a place as Sam Chaltain says, we get to a place "where we value both measures and meaning, and where our schools are incentivized to create environments that nurture the academic, emotional and spiritual needs of our children (and communities)?"

We should be supporting programs like JMG and Young Adult Service Corps is in every Montana school. This is a 300 hour service opportunity where students receive $1,000 education award, they should also receive school credit helping connect their service to academic learning . High school grads & college students should be able to take a year to be an Americorps volunteer and receive college credit. ( I'm talking about creating a multidisciplinary portfolios that allows for on going assessment of students academic learning, communication/discourse, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, civic engagement and cultural appreciation as well as impact). All Montana higher eds would be well served by offering Americorps Alumni credit. It would incentive more students to go college and find their pre college schooling much more relevant and engaging.

In fairness, I feel like I should share a little of the recipe for the the cool-aid I have been drinking for the past 12 years. My own major influences would include my americorps experience and that as a Director of Education and Service-Learning for City Year, working with Shirley Sagawa " The American Way to Change, Alan Khazie "Big Citizenship", The Civic Mission of Schools Campaign, The National Service-Learning Partnership and Sam Chaltain's 5 Freedoms, and "The Art of Creating Democratic Learning Communities: American Schools".

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Permalink Reply by Dean McGovern on October 29, 2010 at 3:57pm

Thanks, Lowell. Obviously, in our business, the business of the Montana Campus Compact, we feel real engagement in the world's issues advances the cause for civic education. It helps students 'feel' it. There is certainly nothing wrong with history, political science, and social studies lessons, but that content combined with real world engagement makes learning deeper, more meaningful, maybe more profound. Kolb's research on the power of experiential learning is helpful. As for Campus Corps, we know that kind of engagement keeps them in school...helps get them to college graduation day. Around 92% of our members end up graduating college, compared to less than 50% of all students.

I, for one, hope they're a bit angry...less complacent...more rebellious. I was disheartened by the popularity of recent song by John Mayer---"Waiting on the World to Change." I was afraid it might become an anthem of sorts for today's 18-24 year olds. It seems to me that "waiting" is far too passive for what our society needs at the moment.

Thanks for the commentary, Otto, Geoff, and Lowell.

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