Time Magazine: Teach History and Civics as the Founders Intended

(Source: The New American)

“Teach citizenship the way the founders intended.”

As unbelievable as it may seem, that is the headline of a story in the latest issue of Time Magazine. 

The article’s authors — Sal Khan and Jeffrey Rosen — open their story with a bleak report:

New data released by the Department of Education — known as the Nation’s Report Card and widely regarded as the best assessment of how well we are educating our future citizens — paints a stark and worrying picture. Eighth-graders scored worse on the history section this year than in any other since the test was first administered on the subject in 1994, and civics scores dropped for the first time since it was first tested in 1998. Fewer than 1 in 4 students scored as proficient.

Uh oh. American kids don’t know history. It could be that American kids aren’t taught history, but let’s see Khan’s and Rosen’s solution to this unfamiliarity with our Founding:

We need to teach students not just history and civics, but also the virtues of democratic citizenship, beginning with the ability to consider arguments with which we disagree and to engage in dialogue and deliberation with people who hold views different from our own. In practice, this means giving students a rigorously nonpartisan education in American history and civics. We must expose them to the best arguments on all sides of the major constitutional debates past and present, and give them the tools to make up their own minds.