Civics Education Now

One year ago at the AFSA convention, newly elected president Ernest Logan called on the delegates to push for a return to civics education.

"We put citizenship and history on the back burner in our schools and it is past time that everyone in this room, and AFSA as a whole, calls upon each and every school in the nation to restore History and Citizenshipor call it Governmentto the top of the curriculum."

These themes outlined by Logan are taking shape.

Stephen Sawchuk, associate editor for Education Week, recently wrote a story headlined "Americans Say Civics Is a Must and Religion a Maybe in Schools." In the story, he writes, "Americans overwhelmingly believe civics should be taught in school, and almost 70 percent of them think it should be a requirement to graduate."

"And a surprising majority, 77 percent, say students should have the option to take a comparative religion class and 58 percent said they should be able to study the Bible, according to a new survey. A very small number said that those topics should be mandated, however, in contrast to the finding for civics."

"The data released in the annual PDK poll are just a sampling of the entire survey," Sawchuk writes. "But these questions hit on a number of specific curriculum areas that have received increasing attention of late. Broadly, they suggest that Americans see the value in understanding how the foundations of government and religious traditions shape communities and civic life."

Read the whole story here.