"I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
With 4th of July around the corner, here is a sobering reminder of the state of civic education among American youth (via Stanford professor of education William Damon):
For the past ten years, our research team at Stanford has interviewed broad cross-sections of American youth about what U. S. citizenship means to them. Here is one high school student's reply, not atypical: "We just had (American citizenship) the other day in history. I forget what it was." Another student told us that "being American is not really special….I don’t find being an American citizen very important." Another replied, "I don’t want to belong to any country. It just feels like you are obligated to this country. I don’t like the whole thing of citizen...I don’t like that whole thing. It’s like, citizen, no citizen; it doesn’t make sense to me. It’s like to be a good citizen—I don’t know, I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
What's especially striking about the above responses is how these students feel no sense of responsibility or duty toward their country. I think that this is, in part, the result of a larger phenomenon among the youth--the fact that young people, self-focused as they are, do not want to exert their efforts or feel obligated to something larger than themselves. Being a good citizen, after all, requires work: voting, paying taxes, being engaged, etc.
Damon, meanwhile, provides another explanation: the ideal of being a "citizen of the world" has displaced idea of national citizenship:
While the lofty ideals of cosmopolitanism and world citizenship are understandable, they do not in themselves provide a realistic route to civic education. For one thing, the serious tasks of citizenship that students need to learn are all 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 army or peace corps; and we are not called to jury duty in any world courtroom. When we write e-mails to our congressional representatives or vote and campaign for candidates running for elected office, these activities are part of our national civic life, not part of any global event.
In the wise words of Michael Walzer, "I am not a citizen of the world…I am not even aware that there is a world such that one could be a citizen of."
Let's hope that on this 4th of July weekend, young Americans take a break from the hamburgers, beaches, and pool-side lounging to reflect on the historical significance of what happened 235 years ago.
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Dec '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Of course not. You first have to prepare the culture for that.
May '11
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Another of the reasons we should not have public schools.
Oct '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Alfredo Delgado
Of course not. You first have to prepare the culture for that. · Jul 1 at 4:21am
the culture of multiculturalism.
Mar '11
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Take a full serving of contempt for the evil, slave-owning, dead white men whom are referred to reverently as "the Founding Fathers" by know-nothing, red-state dwelling Neanderthals. Mix in a healthy dollop of chi chi, fru-fru, po-mo, multi-culti twaddle and crimes against every conceivable interest group. Leaven liberally with a sense of self-esteem bordering on malignant narcissism. Bake at a environmentally responsible temperature.
Serves: us right.
Jun '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
The public schools in my town do an exemplary job of instilling patriotism. It was the private schools we sent our kids to that pushed the "citizen of the world" and "America is a vallue-less society" garbage.
Mar '11
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
StickerShock
The public schools in my town do an exemplary job of instilling patriotism. It was the private schools we sent our kids to that pushed the "citizen of the world" and "America is a vallue-less society" garbage. · Jul 1 at 5:16am
Where do you live? Because in most places, it's the exact opposite situation.
Sep '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Another of the reasons we should not have public schools.I can agree with the notion that our schools should be should view producing viable US Citizens as a primary goal. That being said we as conservatives should be careful about throwing around policy proposals like abolishing public schools. I send my children to private school, but I do not in a million years think that abolishing public schools is a good option. Open them up to competition sure, but abolish, heaven forbid. Also, (meaning no disrespect) this sounds crazy or at least mean to the average independent voter we need to vote Republican.
Jun '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
I say we drop a few of these kids off on a beach in Somalia and see if that clarifies their thoughts on American citizenship.
Sep '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
I have some vague recollection that a cuneiform tablet that shows one of the oldest examples of human writing has a compaint not dissimilar to this. Have we been in a 5,000 year downward spiral?
One thing I have learned is that people will often prefer not to step up and take responsibility for what needs to be done until it is apparent that no one else will do it. This sounds like an expample where these kids are free to say crazy and stupid things as long as they don't matter, but when it is their turn to govern their common sense will likely function similar to ours.
At least that would explain why things have generally continued to progress despite the historical flakyness of young people.
May '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
These poor kids have been given over to be taught by people who don't know anything.
Oct '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
They simply need to travel about the globe to temper this type of thinking.
Recall that is why there are things called Passports.
May '11
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
The greatest obstacle to improvement in our education system are complacent parents content with publicly funded daycare for children between the ages of 5 and 18.
Edited on Jul 1, 2011 at 5:44pmJun '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Doing away with public schools is a really bad idea. If we want citizens then we must teach them to be citizens. Limiting education to those of the proper class is a good recipe for revolution. Maybe we could take a tip from Robert Heinlein and make citizenship a required class that can only be taught by veterans.
Aug '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Let's not forget, the whole point of publicly funded education is (1) to ensure a level of literacy in the populace, and (2) to prepare children to take up the responsibilities of citizenship (including informed voting).
Everything else--arts, music, higher forms of math, even science--is optional; nice to have, but ultimately not requirements a state would need to pay for in order to keep the state running smoothly.
If public schools fail to provide that second aspect, they are failing half their mandate, regardless of what their standardized test scores show.
May '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Our own Dennis Prager is trying to fight this ignorance. It's a start.
http://www.prageruniversity.com/4th-of-july-declaration.html
Jul '10
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
wilber forge: They simply need to travel about the globe to temper this type of thinking.
Recall that is why there are things called Passports. · Jul 1 at 10:19am
The problem is, more often than not, when they get to college they fly of to Europe to "study" abroad, which furthers their thinking along these lines. It always amazed me how much foreign accents, good food and impressive architecture could brainwash thousands of empty-headed undergrads.
Edited on Jul 1, 2011 at 11:17amMar '11
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Define "we". Those tablets were describing the civilization of the writer. And he was right. His civilization died. It just looked familiar to you because all civilizations have decay, and all come to an end, and thus all have similar characteristics that anyone could recognize.
We should be careful of "the sky is falling!", but we should be more careful not to ignore warning signs of trouble.
Mar '11
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Who says it has to be done in government schools?
Mar '11
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
Not really. Do some reading on the origin's of American public schools. John Taylor Gatto's book "Dumbing Us Down" is a good start. Public schools as we know them were basically created to make mass waves of competent workers for America's growing factory empire. Education was not an end unto itself to make better, smarter citizens, but a practical matter for employers. Our schools were designed to churn out literate, obedient workers. The author is a retired teacher-of-the-year from New York State, btw, not some random nutjob that just hates authority.
May '11
Re: "I don’t want to be a citizen...it’s stupid to me."
I don't want schools teaching citizenship any more than I want them teaching religion. If my child can read and write well, he will be well prepared to value the grace of American citizenship which like religion comes from many sources but is most often abused by formal education.
By the way, Emily thanks for depressing me before this holiday weekend.
Edited on Jul 1, 2011 at 11:47am