Boot Camp For Citizens

[Valin]

WSJ:

As we learn more about the American political tradition, we may see a shared commitment to freedom and equality behind partisan disputes.
PETER BERKOWITZ
12/9/11

America's crisis of civic education is acute, requiring a major change in the way students are taught about the workings of American government and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. So contends David Feith, an opinion editor at The Wall Street Journal, in his introduction to "Teaching America," a well-crafted collection of essays from a distinguished and diverse group of authors—progressives and conservatives, policy makers and professors, jurists and political commentators.

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To protect civic education from becoming indoctrination, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor and master blogger at Instapundit.com, recommends starting with the uncontroversial basics of how government is structured and then ascending to various contested matters—concerning constitutional interpretation, for instance. He stresses the importance of presenting without ridicule—and in their own terms—both conservative and progressive views and of relying on original documents, as much as possible, rather than summaries and commentaries.

Michael Kazin, a professor of history at Georgetown, pursues a related theme by faulting history books that are too tendentious to be helpful to students. He cites in particular Woodrow Wilson's "A History of the American People" (1902) and, more recently, Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States," whose "romantic simplicity is a form of civic mis-education." A reliable work of history, Mr. Kazin says, should balance evidence and argument, make history come alive for readers, and show empathy for the actors in history's unfolding drama.
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Teaching America: The Case for Civic Education