Patricia A. O'Malley
Social Policy & Programs Consulting ~ Community Matters
412 - 310 - 4886 ~ info@patomalley-consulting.com
Copyright Patricia A. O'Malley ~ All rights reserved
Established 1993
Patricia A. O'Malley
Social Policy & Programs Consulting
Training and Services for agencies working toward social and economic justice
Pat's comments to the US Department of Education
on its proposal to revamp civics education.
May 4, 2021
ED-2021-OESE-0033-0001
Mia Howerton
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue SW
Room 3C152
Washington, DC 20202.
My name is Pat O’Malley.
After a career as a social service provider, public policy advocate, and lobbyist, I’m now a freelance writer and consultant for nonprofit organizations working toward social justice. In my online column, Community Matters, I teach seventh grade civics to adults because our schools won’t do it.
I fully support the priorities outlined in the proposal. However, I am appalled that the United States Education Department doesn’t know the difference between history and civics. They are not the same thing.
History is the study of the past.
Civics is the study of the structure and function of government, and the rights and duties of citizens.
It looks at the ways that our governments are organized, how they're supposed to work, and how they really do work.
Civics is not history. It is current events.
Americans conflate the two because our schools teach civics wrong. No one ever learned anything from that bogus express-implied-reserved-delegated-concurrent-magic-super powers stuff. The New York/New Jersey/Virginia/Connecticut Plans, the Iroquois Confederacy, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the Federalist Papers are not civics. They are history and political theory. Teaching that history is important, but it doesn’t teach HOW government works. It ignores the very concept of lobbying, which is enshrined in the First Amendment, but is wholly demonized in our culture.
On January 6, nearly a thousand Americans invaded the US Capitol, determined to stop a process that doesn’t exist. Some sought to murder certain members of Congress. If those people knew how elections work, they wouldn’t have been there. Yet five people died, hundreds were injured and terrorized, and the Capitol was trashed because our schools refuse to teach what Americans need to know. And our journalists spread those lies.
Nearly one-third of Americans think that social distancing and mask-wearing orders are unconstitutional, and ignore them. They’re only too happy to spread germs that kill people.
That recalcitrance has caused countless confrontations in public spaces. Some ended in violence.
Civic participation is one of the most important activities that adults can perform. But Americans are utterly unqualified for it. Successful democracy requires citizen participation every day, not just on Election Day.
Participation requires an educated public.
We need to teach civics properly. Immediately.
Our schools successfully produce financially, economically, politically, and socially illiterate citizens.
This stuff doesn’t happen by accident. The people who control our schools require political ignorance because it’s easier to control an ignorant populace. If they wanted you to know this stuff, they would teach it to you. They choose negligence. The stuff they teach now is junk.
We must require more from our kids and from public education.
Teaching civics is no more difficult than teaching any other subject, when the teachers are qualified and competent. Civics education should run from kindergarten through high school. Teachers can incorporate civics lessons into every course, so it won’t be necessary to carve out special class time for it until the middle school level. They should use every opportunity to include the information into the regular class work.
Integrating civics concepts with the standard curriculum will improve every course. Instead of using lame, boring passages to teach reading to first and second-graders, give them interesting content geared to their grade level.
Government terms and concepts can easily be incorporated into reading, spelling, writing, dictionary skills, research skills, history, map reading, and geography lessons. It sure beats See Spot run and Mary has a dog.
Four of my articles …
- Defective Teaching Methods Produce American Political Ignorance: What’s wrong with our civics education and how to fix it.
- Stay-at-Home and Social Distancing Orders ARE Constitutional: Americans need to learn what our schools refuse to teach.
- Congress Doesn’t Certify or Reject Electoral College Results: That’s not their job.
- Teachers and Journalists Created Americans’ Political Ignorance: It’s too bad we can’t sue them for malpractice.
… are enclosed with these comments. They give more detail on all of my points.
I urge you to adopt them before more people die from educational negligence.
You can read Community Matters at bit.ly/community-matters.
Just imagine what this country could be if we had decent schools.
Thank you for your attention.
Patricia A. O’Malley
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Community Matters
January 11, 2018
Defective Teaching Methods Produce American Political Ignorance
What’s wrong with our civics education and how to fix it.
Civics courses are supposed to teach how our government works in real life. Americans' anger at government has been growing for 30 years. We've seen griping, grumbling, ranting, and raving about government's size and its role in our lives. False information causes much of the noise. Civil, healthy debate is valuable, but it's impossible when the participants are uneducated.
To mark its first anniversary in 2016, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate commissioned a national survey of Americans’ knowledge about the Senate.1
- Only 46 percent know that each state has two U.S. senators
- Only 16 percent could name both of their state’s senators
- Only 36 percent know that the Senate confirms Supreme Court justices nominated by the president
- But 85 percent agree that educating our youth about government leads to a better-functioning democracy.
All U.S. states require some level of civics instruction in elementary and high schools. So, if they’re teaching it, then why aren’t we learning it? Most Americans are politically ignorant because those who control our schools want it that way. They don’t want students to learn civics because it’s easier to control an ignorant populace. A defective education produces defective citizens, leaving the one percent free to wield their power.
TEACHING IT WRONG
Our schools teach civics wrong. No one ever learned anything from that bogus express-implied-reserved-delegated-concurrent-magic-super powers stuff. Our schools do a great job of producing socially, politically, and economically ignorant citizens.
All potential new U.S. citizens must pass a civics test administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Applicants are asked ten of 100 possible questions and must answer six questions correctly. Ninety-seven percent of applicants pass the civics test.2 But a Xavier University survey found that only 35 percent of voting age Americans can pass that test.3 What does that tell us?
There has been some talk about requiring graduating high school seniors to pass that test. I don’t like that idea. That test is not nearly hard enough.
TEACHING LIES
Some schools are teaching blatant lies.
A few years ago, I began seeing references online to the president’s duty as the “Chief legislator”, so I looked it up. I got 3.2 million hits for various teacher resources and study guides, including some from otherwise reputable sources like Scholastic, SparkNotes, College Board, William and Mary University School of Law, California State University at Sacramento, and C-SPAN.
The U.S. Constitution grants ALL legislative power to Congress. The president is the chief executive. Her/his job is to execute the laws passed by Congress. The president is not any kind of legislator. I dare you to tell Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan that Donald Trump is the Chief Legislator of the United States.
I also Googled a claim that the federal bureaucracy is the “fourth branch of government”. Right-wing organizations like Fox News, Reference.com, South Carolina Representative Mark Sanford, Investors.com, and FreedomWorks.org like that one. They claim that the bureaucracy is completely uncontrolled, oppose any kind of regulations on business, and will do anything to prevent it. Their lie is gradually infecting our schools.
For the record, the bureaucracy is the meat and bones of the executive branch of government, which is led by the President of the United States.
Congress – as the legislative branch of government – created the bureaucracy to execute its laws. The president leads the executive branch, and manages the bureaucracy. Government agencies get their power from laws enacted by Congress. Congress, through its committees, maintains strict control over all bureaucratic agencies. Televised news reports in which Representatives and Senators interrogate high-ranking government agency employees about their work are just one example of Congress controlling the bureaucracy.
Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, has declared that lobbying is a corrupt activity and should be banned.5 And then he brags about all of the lobbying that he does. Lobbying is enshrined in the First Amendment. "Giving buckets of money to legislators" is not lobbying. Lobbying means trying to convince elected officials to support or oppose legislation and policies that you care about. Everyone can do it. And it doesn’t cost a dime. Corporate lobbyists control the government because they’re the only ones doing the talking.6
And teachers perpetrate those outrageous lies.
One day, while in Washington, D.C., I heard a tourist in the Capitol Building ask a tour guide where the Constitution states that Jesus is the foundation of our government. He was aghast when the guide said that Jesus is not mentioned even once in the Constitution. A casual perusal of news articles and social media sites amply demonstrates Americans’ endless political ignorance.
You won’t have to look far to find people who love to quote the constitution, but won’t read it, can’t solve minor bureaucratic difficulties, and don’t know that members of Congress can provide that service.
If teachers were teaching civics properly, Americans would know that:
- someone criticizing your words is not violating your free speech rights
- the president can not abolish the Second Amendment on a whim, and then come to your house and take your guns
- the Constitution does not guarantee your right to violently overthrow the government, pursue your happiness, and go to court with a jury of your peers
- the Constitution does not prohibit state secession and presidential executive orders
- the Constitution does not require that capitalism and the gold standard ground our economy, public officials take their oaths of office on a Bible, and limit us to only two political parties
- welfare and other public benefits programs are constitutional, and it doesn’t matter that they’re not specifically mentioned in the Constitution
- illegal immigrants get ZERO welfare, food stamps, and other government aid
- there is no such thing as “Congress and the Senate”
- members of Congress do not get 33 weeks of paid vacation and have a “Cadillac benefits package”
- the Constitution’s purpose is not to limit the federal government’s power
- all spending bills do not have to originate in the House of Representatives
- presidents do not spend tax dollars
- homeless people can vote
- the federal reserve system is government-owned and is frequently audited
- income taxes are constitutional
- the Constitution is not a list of laws
- “right to work” laws will never protect your job.
- a county clerk in Kentucky can’t deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples
- a U.S. Senator born in Canada is eligible to be president of the United States
- we can’t impeach a president just because we don’t like him
- an impeached president isn’t fired immediately
- there is a difference between a U.S. Senator and a state legislator
- the president can’t just barge into Flint Michigan and hijack the leaded water investigation
- the Constitution does not permit a national referendum on any subject, ever
- there is no such thing as a “filibuster-proof majority”, and they are necessary
- you can personally influence federal regulations.
In July 2016, Stephen Loomis, president of the Cleveland police union, asked Governor John Kasich to suspend Ohio’s open carry gun laws, in order to prevent gun violence at the Republican National Convention.7 Kasich replied that he had no such authority. As a police officer, Loomis swore an oath to uphold the U.S. and Ohio Constitutions. Does he not know that governors can’t suspend laws? Or does he not care? Either way, why not?
Hundreds of news reports across the country carried the story without Kasich’s explanation because the reporters and editors are just as ignorant as the rest of the public. They are ignorant because they didn’t learn this stuff in school. WHY NOT?
After the mass school shooting at Sandy Hook, Connecticut, every news reporter in the country went nuts crowing about “Obama’s 23 executive orders on guns”. President Obama never signed an executive order about guns, or on immigration for that matter. Clearly, they have no clue what an executive order is, or how they work, or how to find the list of them online. But that didn’t stop millions of other goofballs on websites and social media outlets from spreading the lies. This media negligence is offensive, dangerous, and intolerable. So stop tolerating it.
Even with the best intentions, teachers and administrators don’t know these things either because they endured the same defective civics education as the rest of us. So they drag out the old express-implied-reserved-delegated-concurrent-magic-super powers junk because they don’t know what else to do. They assign ridiculous tasks like poems, acrostics, and analogies to “demonstrate” government in action. I know of a high school student whose assignment was to compare the United States government to the parts of a bicycle. Like which government agencies are the seat, wheels, handlebars, paint, etc. Who thinks up this stuff?
Teachers who don’t know their subject matter are irresponsible and lazy.
I wish we could sue them for malpractice.
WHY IT MATTERS
American politics are in chaos because Americans don’t know how their government works.
People who know how government works know how to influence it.
Political ignorance breeds political impotence.
Civic participation is one of the most important activities that adults can perform. But Americans are utterly unqualified for it. Successful democracy requires citizen participation every day, not just on Election Day. Participation requires an educated public.
I discuss this topic a lot, with all sorts of people. Most of them think that studying civics is far too lofty a pursuit for “regular people”, like nuclear physics, existentialism, or brain surgery. That’s just not true. Actually, I know of a prominent brain surgeon who has no idea how government works. He ran for president. And now he’s the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He thinks he’s qualified because he used to live in a house.
All American adults need to know how government works. Voter turnout keeps dropping because younger people think that voting doesn’t matter and that all politicians are alike. I’ve known many politicians. Believe me, they are not all alike and voting does matter.
Many of those who screeeeech the loudest about cherishing the Constitution refuse to read it. "We the people" can't begin to solve our problems until we understand the governing process. And no, governing itself is not an evil activity.
When you know how government works, you will:
- understand Congressional committees and the power that Congressional staffers hold
- understand why bills live or die - and the evening news
- know how to find and read the text of a bill online and to influence Congress
- be able to solve your own bureaucratic glitches with government agencies
- know how to obtain documents under the Freedom of Information Act
- evaluate your representatives' work so you’ll make good choices on Election Day
- stop wasting your time “liking and sharing” petitions online.
When you know how your government works, you can learn who, when, where, why, and how to lobby. That’s right. Lobby. Then your life, and your children's lives, will improve.
America will work for you when you know how America works.
TEACHING IT RIGHT
Teaching civics is no more difficult than teaching any other subject, when the teachers are qualified and competent.
I’m not a traditional teacher, but I’ve been educating Americans of all ages about their government for 35 years. The political ignorance still astonishes me. Our schools have used the express-implied-reserved-delegated-concurrent-magic-super powers method for generations. They’ve beaten the Federalist Papers to death. And generations of Americans still don’t know how their own government works. So why are we still doing that? Americans will not know how their government works, why it works, how they can participate in it, and why they must participate, until we change our teaching method.
Albert Einstein said “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”8 Teachers must stop patronizing their students. As a student, educator, and mother, it’s my experience that teachers routinely treat their students as though they’re about two years younger than their actual age.
That’s why most kids hate school.
I implore school administrators to adopt the Marva Collins teaching method.9 Collins was a substitute teacher in the Chicago public school system. In 1975, she opened her own school for poor black children who were deemed to be “unteachable”. Thousands of her students became successful professionals.
She refused to infantilize her students. She expected their best work and she got it. Instead of creating sacred boundaries between subjects, she embraced the blending of science and math with spelling and geography.
This is the way human brains work. So why aren’t we teaching the way we learn? Children will live up – or down – to our expectations.
Civics education should run from kindergarten through high school. Teachers can incorporate civics lessons into every course, so it won’t be necessary to carve out special class time for it until the middle school level. They should use every opportunity to include the information into the regular class work.
Integrating civics concepts with the standard curriculum will improve every course. Instead of using lame, boring passages to teach reading to first and second-graders, give them interesting content geared to their grade level.
For example, this paragraph is written at a second-grade reading level:
We live in the United States of America. It has fifty states. Our state is called (blank). Our town is (blank). We all follow the same rules, called laws. When someone breaks an important law, they go to a court where a judge hears all sides of the story and decides what happens next.
Government terms and concepts can easily be incorporated into reading, spelling, writing, dictionary skills, research skills, history, map reading, and geography lessons. It sure beats See Spot run and Mary has a dog.
(For comparison, this entire essay is written at a ninth-grade reading level.)
They can even include the concepts in math classes:
- Each of our 50 states has two U.S. senators. How many total senators are there?
- Since 1789, the Constitution has been amended 27 times. What is the average time between amendments?
- Senators serve six-year terms. Senator Smith has served 15 years. How many terms is that?
- Three-fourths of the state legislatures must agree to ratify a constitutional amendment. How many states is that?
- There are 100 senators and 435 House members in Congress. Two-thirds of each chamber must vote to override a presidential veto of a bill. How many votes are required in each chamber?
- Only about four percent of bills introduced in Congress become laws. If 3,486 bills are introduced in this session, about how many will become laws?
By the middle and high school levels, students will be prepared for a more rigorous civics course, which should include interesting and relevant research assignments, field trips to local government meetings, inviting representatives to meet with students in school, and analyzing news reports.
Older students should learn about:
- their voting rights
- lobbying
- the Freedom of Information Act
- how to file complaints with and about government agencies
- their rights as citizens, consumers, and employees
- the function of congressional committees
- making comments at public government meetings, such as city councils and school boards
- the government budget process
and more.
Schools should teach students what they need to know to be fully functional adults.
Help eligible students register to vote.
Give each student her/his own copy of the Constitution.
Make civics literacy a graduation requirement.
The civics education at my son’s school was no better than at mine. When he was young, I was a Cub Scout leader. For the citizenship badge, I led a brief civics lecture for the entire troop at a meeting which included their families. Everyone learned something, including the parents. It’s a shame that they hadn’t been exposed to it sooner.
I learned more about government from the news – when it was real news – and dinner table conversations at home than I ever did in school. But many children don’t have that advantage. Parents can’t teach what they don’t know. So school districts should extend their civics education to the communities. Conduct a public service marketing campaign to reach the adults. Sponsor an evening or weekend lecture series and a meet-your-congressperson event, open to the public. Encourage them to participate in school board meetings and school assemblies.
When I teach my noncredit civics course to older adults at the University of Pittsburgh, I see what all teachers see in that moment when they connect with their students. I see their eyes light up and hear that “Ohhhhh!” when they finally understand things that they’ve been hearing about all their lives. But our schools won’t give young students that pleasure.
HOW TO DO IT
On October 15, 2011, millions of people in more than a thousand cities in dozens of countries on six continents marched in peaceful protest of global financial corruption and economic injustice. Think about that. It’s never happened before. Even the multiple social movements in the 1960s didn’t organize an event like that on a single day. Woodstock in 1969 and Hands Across America in 1986 weren’t as big.
The Occupy Movement demonstrated, and the Kennedy Institute survey proved, that Americans want to participate in their government. They hunger for it. But they don’t know how to do it because our schools won’t teach it.
Unqualified, incompetent, irresponsible, lazy, uneducated, and devious – each of those adjectives describes some American civics teachers. Some teachers are all of those things. I suppose some civics teachers could teach the subject correctly. But I haven’t met any of them yet.
We don’t let just anyone walk into a classroom and teach chemistry, physics, or calculus. So why do we allow unqualified teachers to teach civics? If they were qualified, they wouldn’t be spreading lies. We must require teachers to know their subjects.
School board members generally think they’re supposed to produce drones to work for corporations. We need the political will and the drive to force them to adopt these changes. Turn them around. Convince them that true education is their priority. That’s lobbying.
Recruit qualified volunteers to help develop the curricula. Engage public libraries and community organizations to share their resources. That’s community organizing.
ULTIMATELY
My husband and I raised our son on dinner table conversations. We didn’t talk down to him. We explained everything and answered all of his questions.
We must stop accepting things we think we can’t change. It’s time to change the things we can’t accept. We can’t afford political ignorance. Knowledge is power. America struggles because too many Americans have abandoned their power. Reclaim yours.
The original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are displayed in the National Archives in Washington DC. A quote from Benjamin Franklin towers on the wall above them.
"It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins."
Don't idolize ignorance.
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Community Matters
May 14, 2020
Stay-at-Home and Social Distancing Orders ARE Constitutional
Americans need to learn what our schools refuse to teach.
For the last few weeks, astro-turfed organizations have been staging rallies demanding the end of all stay-home and social distancing orders. The protestors are white “patriots” – with guns. Since they’re probably not planning to shoot the virus, their real purpose is to threaten and intimidate the rest of us. Apparently, coronavirus is no longer a threat, because we’re bored with it.
These folks declare that government can’t do anything unless it is specified in the Constitution.
That’s true, but none of them ever bother to READ the document that they claim to revere just eversomuch.
You have to read all of the words. They’re connected.
Gee. I wonder what would happen if scores of black men showed up brandishing weapons at state capitols, town halls, and downtown streets all over America. But I digress.
LEGALITIES
Protestors claim that state stay-home orders violate their constitutional rights.
There are three reasons why they’re wrong.
1. The first amendment does include the right to peaceful assembly. However, in 1905 the US Supreme Court ruled in Jacobson v. Massachusetts – a case about mandatory smallpox vaccination – that all rights have limits, particularly where public health is in danger. The court held that:
Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.
2. The Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the power to ... provide for ... the general Welfare of the United States … And to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
“General Welfare” means that Congress can make any laws that are in the best interest of the United States. And it has the power to make any laws “necessary and proper” to implement those laws. It’s called the elastic clause because it stretches to give Congress just about any power that the Constitution does not specifically prohibit.
Sometimes the general welfare is more important than individual freedom.
3. The tenth amendment says
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
So even though the Constitution doesn’t specify that states can issue stay-home and social distancing orders, the Bill of Rights says they can. And every state legislature has enacted laws giving the governors emergency powers. You can find all state constitutions at the link below.
So “your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins”.*
MARTIAL LAW
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to a temporary emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. (Wikipedia)
Some protestors, and other folks, have questioned whether we might be headed for martial law. I doubt it. Congress has the power to … provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions…. (Article I. Section 8. Clause 15) So martial law can be imposed in the event of civil violence.
Normally, the government must produce an incarcerated person to a judge and explain why s/he’s under arrest. The court then decides whether the person is free to leave or will stand trial. A writ of habeas corpus is a court order to “produce the body”. During rebellions and invasions, the Constitution allows Congress to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. (Article I. Section 9. Clause 2) That means that they can arrest you and throw you in jail, without charges, indefinitely.
This tool can come in handy under martial law.
WHAT THIS IS REALLY ABOUT
The Black Plague lasted for about five years.
The 1918 pandemic lasted for almost two years.
World War II-era Japanese-American internment lasted for four years.
The Holocaust lasted for four years.
The Great Depression lasted for ten years.
American slavery lasted for 246 years.
Legal Jim Crow lasted for 99 years.
We’ve all been stuck inside for about two months. We are not oppressed.
Last week, a woman approached me in the grocery store, whining about how hard “all this stuff” is.
Me: “Yes, but it could be worse.”
Her: “Who has it worse than me?”
Me: “Anne Frank lived in a small attic with six other people for two years, until the Gestapo dragged her to Bergen-Belsen, where she died of typhus. Thousands of children have been in cages in this country for more than a year. We can't count the number of homeless people, with millions more soon to be homeless. Plenty of people have it worse than you.”
She walked away mumbling to herself.
I’m not happy about this stuff either. I wish I could do other things. We’re all stuck in boats.
Some boats are better than others. I’ll take mine.
Pay attention to the open-up protestors. They’re not demanding that they be allowed to work. They’re demanding that our lowest-paid neighbors – their restaurant servers, hair stylists, personal trainers, bartenders, and babysitters– go back to work. If the workers refuse, they'll lose their unemployment benefits. And their children will go hungry. The whiners demand that the servants risk their own lives, and their children’s lives, to make the whiners’ lives comfortable.
Then they call themselves “pro-life”.
Hell hath no fury like a white person mildly inconvenienced. Stay safe.
* According to QuoteInvestigator.com, this quote, in slightly different forms, has been attributed to several different people, as long ago as 1887.
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Community Matters
January 4, 2021
Congress Doesn’t Certify or Reject Electoral College Results
That’s not their job.
In 231 years, we have had 59 presidential elections.
Every one of them has gone through the Electoral College process.
Yes, I know the College should be revised or dismantled. That’s not the point.
This is the point right now.
The United States Constitution controls everything our governments do.
Yes, the Constitution says that all federal, state, and local laws must adhere to the Constitution.
Read Article VI.
It does not say that Congress “certifies” the Electoral College results.
It does not say that Congress can reject the results.
The vice president merely reads and announces the College votes from the states. That’s all.
Congress sits in the room to watch and listen. That’s all.
They have no further role in the process.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 and the Twelfth Amendment.
Yet dozens of our elected representatives have declared that they will “vote” against the Electoral College choice of the Biden-Harris team as our president and vice president.
They can hold all the votes they want. It means nothing.
Even if the majority voted against Biden and Harris, they will still be inaugurated at noon on January 20.
I get why #MoscowMitch wants this vote.
But shame on Nancy Pelosi for allowing it.
So the crybabies can cry their little hearts out.
Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris won the election.
And nothing will ever change that.
But what’s more truly awful than the whiny Republicans is the joyful fear-mongering of “journalists” who report this crap as though it’s a real thing that can possibly make a difference.
And politically ignorant Americans still fall for it.
If you’re a civics teacher, shame on you.
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Community Matters
February 3, 2021
Teachers and Journalists Created Americans’ Political Ignorance
It’s too bad we can’t sue them for malpractice.
On January 6, hundreds of Americans invaded the US Capitol, determined to stop a process that doesn’t exist. Some sought to murder certain members of Congress. Five people died, hundreds were injured and terrorized, and the Capitol was trashed because our schools refuse to teach what Americans need to know. And our journalists spread those lies.
The rioters wanted Congress to overturn the election results so that Donald Trump could remain as president because they thought that Democrats “stole the election” from them.
The rioters wanted the impossible. They believed the lies that Trump told them. They believed because our schools failed to teach the truth, and because our journalists were complicit. We need to teach civics properly. Immediately.
DEFINITION
Civics is the study of the structure and function of government, and the rights and duties of citizens.
It looks at the ways that our governments are organized, how they're supposed to work, and how they really do work.
Civics is an essential, but neglected, area of our education. The government operates by a set of rules.
We have the right and responsibility to participate in our government. But we can't participate fully if we don't know those rules.
You can't get what you want if you don't know how the system works.
WHAT THE PUBLIC DOESN’T KNOW
If teachers were teaching civics properly, Americans would know:
- The six purposes of the constitution.
- What the constitution says, and what it doesn’t say.
- Face mask, stay-home, and social distancing orders are constitutional.
- What impeachment means, and how it works.
- The constitution does not guarantee your right to violently overthrow the government, pursue your happiness, and go to court with a jury of your peers.
- There is no such thing as “Congress and the Senate”.
- Congress does not, can not, and will not ever certify, verify, modify, approve, accept, reject, validate, elucidate, or otherwise change election results. Our constitution gives them no such power. They gather merely to HEAR the Electoral College results. That’s all. They can not change the results. (Twelfth Amendment)
And so much more.
HOW OUR SCHOOLS FAIL
The people who control our schools require political ignorance because it’s easier to control an ignorant populace. If they wanted you to know this stuff, they would teach it to you.
They choose negligence.
Civics courses are supposed to teach how our government works in real life. Instead, they babble about that express-implied-enumerated-delegated-concurrent-reserved powers drivel. They force students to learn the Virginia-New Jersey-New York-Connecticut Plans. They drone on and on about John Locke, the Iroquois Confederacy, and the Federalist Papers.
That is not civics. It’s history and political theory. That stuff belongs in a separate course. When I mention “civics” to most people, they reply that they’re not good at HISTORY. Civics is not history. It’s current events, and should be taught as such.
Americans are incredibly ignorant. They don’t know our legislative, regulatory, and budgetary processes; the congressional committee structure, how to navigate our bureaucracy, or about the constituent services provided by every member of Congress.
They believe that we should ban lobbying as a corrupt activity because they don’t know what lobbying is or how to do it. Actually, we need more lobbyists.
Some teachers claim that “the government” tells them what to teach. And yet, neither the National Education Association nor the American Federation of Teachers make any effort to change those policies. I bet they couldn’t even tell you where those policies come from. But they choose negligence.
HOW OUR JOURNALISTS FAIL
Every media outlet in the country lied to the public. Journalists stated continually that Congress was in the process of “certifying” the Electoral College results when the riot erupted, thereby implying that Congress had a choice in the matter. And they’re still saying it.
Donald Trump and the GOP claimed that Pennsylvania violated its own state constitution by permitting mail-in voting.
Not even close.
Not one journalist mentioned that Pennsylvania’s constitution defines the eligibility criteria and process for absentee ballots.
It also gives the state legislature the power to manage all other voting (Article VII, Sections 14 and 6). The legislators managed the other voting when they enacted Act 77 of 2019, which authorized mail-in voting.
Our teachers and journalists are products of the same negligent schools as our rioters, but they have a professional duty to know better. They don’t try to learn the truth. They enabled the rioters when they chose negligence. They chose their professions, and then they chose not to rock the corporate boat. There are many more examples of their failures, but I’ll move on.
WHY IT MATTERS
American politics are chaotic because Americans don’t know how their government works.
People who know how government works know how to influence it.
Political ignorance breeds political impotence.
Political literacy breeds political power.
Civic participation is one of the most important activities that adults can perform, but Americans are utterly unqualified for it. Successful democracy requires citizen participation every day, not just on Election Day. Participation requires an educated public. We don’t have that. There are those among us who work diligently to prevent it.
A defective education produces defective citizens, leaving the one percent free to wield their power against us.
CURRENT EFFORTS
The US and Rhode Island Leagues of Women Voters are supporting fourteen public school students and their families in a lawsuit against the state, trying to get proper civics education. Jane Koster, president of the Rhode Island LWV, said “It is the responsibility of our legislators and education departments to ensure that our next generations of citizens understand the workings of our country’s government and its history.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Student Press Law Center trains student journalists how to research and cover their news accurately. Their website says “Not every student will be a mathematician or a physicist, but every student will be a citizen.”
Jack Elbaum, a student at George Washington University, published an article, Our Country Requires Better Civics Education, in The Fulcrum, December 2020.
He quoted Martin Luther King’s statement Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. In Elbaum’s words, America is experiencing a pandemic of both right now.
Since 2008, I’ve been using the U.S. Constitution and current events to teach seventh grade civics to adults through my column, Community Matters, because our schools won't do it. I don't report the news; I explain it.
WHAT WE CAN DO
Our teachers and journalists are responsible for much of the damage that our country suffers. There are sins of omission and sins of commission. We can’t change the past, but we can improve the future.
We can eliminate most of the stupid conversations we have by learning how our own government works.
Begin by reading the United States Constitution. It only takes an hour, and it’s well worth your time.
You can read Community Matters at the link below.
My article Defective Teaching Methods Produce American Political Ignorance, linked below, offers a sensible way to teach civics to all children, beginning in kindergarten. We must encourage every school board to adopt it.
We can lobby our school boards and legislators to require a proper, complete, civics education. A handful of organizations support the concept, but they’re not collaborating in a serious effort.
Dr. Jill Biden is a professional educator, a community college professor, and has had a front row seat to American government for 44 years. She has the perfect platform to invite interested parties to launch a major project to educate our people. I’ll present this opportunity to her. I hope you will too. Her contact information is below.
As Americans, we have a right and a duty to know how our own government works.
Our teachers and media obstruct that opportunity. Teachers and journalists should have some pride in their work. Just imagine what this country could be if we had decent schools and honorable media.