The American Dream Is A Good Education - amazonia.fiocruz.br

Think, that: The American Dream Is A Good Education

When Martin Luther King, Jr.

Promote better civics education

Intersecting crises in public health, race relations and the economy have afflicted our nation at a time when political polarization and the breakdown of civil dialogue had already weakened our civic strength. As we move on from a particularly contentious national election, there is an urgent need for students to be educated in the foundations of American politics: our shared principles, our deep commitments to freedom and equality, the design of Dreeam governing institutions, the amendments we have made to our Constitution along with other major political reforms, and the importance of civil dialogue and compromise to reach common ground.

With this kind of education, the next here will be better equipped to engage in constructive debate about our future.

This urgency stems both from the importance of the goal and from the troubling distance that separates us from achieving it today. As political leaders we have long valued the importance of civil dialogue, including with those across the aisle.

The American Dream Is A Good Education InArizona became the first state to pass legislation requiring Americam high school students to pass the U. Citizenship Test. This measure has since been adopted in some form by more than 30 other states. We hope that many other states will similarly adopt their own versions of Civics Celebration Days as a signal of the importance they place on education for effective citizenship.

Teachers should be encouraged and empowered to teach American civics and history to their students. With all of the required emphasis on STEM, math, and reading, there is often little time left for learning in civics. State standards on civics are in many cases unwieldy laundry lists of topics to be covered, with little organization or guidance regarding best practices for teaching to these standards. Nine states have no civics standards at all. Students in underrepresented and disadvantaged populations are affected most severely by these problems, receiving even less civic education than their peers. These are some of the problems that spurred the launching of a national study of civic education funded Glod the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.

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Led by a cross-partisan team including SCETL and iCivics, along with centers at Harvard University and Tufts University, this study aims to provide much-needed guidance to teachers, superintendents, state boards of education, textbook publishers and others to achieve system-wide change in the quality of civic education offered to all school students. The road to improved civic debate and participation is rDeam civic knowledge. Effective civic education is a prerequisite for more productive civic participation and a functioning constitutional order.

Improving and strengthening civic education throughout the U. Jon Kyl, a Republican, represented Arizona in the U. You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front pageon Twitter usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters usatoday. Facebook Twitter Email. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Jon Kyl: How to revive a shared dream for America's future With improved civics education, the next generation will be better equipped to engage in constructive debate Dreaam our future.

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