How Lack of Civics Education Helps Disinformation Succeed Against Democracy

by | Mar 8, 2024 | Opinions & Commentary

Petitioners taking the oath of citizenship at Yellowstone National Park, 2015. Image: Neal Herbert, NPS Photo

How Lack of Civics Education Helps Disinformation Succeed Against Democracy

by | Mar 8, 2024 | Opinions & Commentary

Petitioners taking the oath of citizenship at Yellowstone National Park, 2015. Image: Neal Herbert, NPS Photo

A long decline in civics education over the past 60 plus years has left the American population vulnerable to false data about how our government and Constitution work.

A few days ago I saw an episode of an old crime series called Monk, the lead character—a highly paranoid and OCD detective, played by the great Tony Shaloub. In this episode the character makes an observation to an Asian woman that she will be doing her examination to become a naturalized citizen. She is shocked that he knows this and asks how. The reply, “I can see the pamphlet of the Constitution that you’re studying for the examination. No citizen would read that.”

The writers of that episode were quite prophetic in inserting this line. The series ran from 2002 to 2009. But as writers do, they sometimes predict the future—witness The Simpsons repeated accuracy to this point.

The study of Civics as part of a standard American education ended in the 1960s and was generally replaced with social studies. That was a change I experienced and lamented as I actually really enjoyed Civics and understanding the three branches of our government, their checks and balances on the power of each other, the rules of the road basically. To this day I have no idea what “social studies” was about other than a waste of my time. Civics was actually a true “social study” because it was about how the underpinning of our society, the Constitution worked.

In later years I loathed politics. But when Trump ran for President and worse, won, I realized I really needed to bone up on this again. I suspect I was not alone in that realization.

Our Constitution and its Amendments are unique in the world. The day-to-day workings of it can be quite messy and confusing, but it has held up generally for nearly two and half centuries, outside of the issue of slave holding states wanting to set up their own “paradise.” And more than a few members of Congress pining for that past “glory” of sitting on the veranda, sipping mint juleps while gazing over their plantations and watching the overseers whip their slaves to greater production.

The lack of civics education is now coming back to haunt the country. According to the National Education Association:

Only 25 percent of U.S. students reach the “proficient” standard on the NAEP Civics Assessment.  White, wealthy students are four to six times as likely as Black and Hispanic students from low-income households to exceed that level. Here’s why: Students in wealthier public school districts are far more likely to receive high-quality civics education than students in low-income and majority-minority schools.

When people are not educated in the facts of a subject, data from just about anywhere can be shoved at them and accepted as a substitute. The result is that nowadays a wide swath of people get their civics information from propaganda outlets like FOX, OANN, Newsmax or talking heads on YouTube and TikTok. The carefully crafted disinformation from these operations sounds factual to the uneducated and so becomes a fact to them.

And to this segment of the population, a candidate that says he’s going to tear down the government structure based on the Constitution and turn it into a dictatorship, well he sounds about right.

Maybe this has something to do with why Republicans dislike immigrants so much: when they decide to become citizens, they learn the correct data. And when they take the Oath of Citizenship, they pledge to vote. Today’s worst nightmare for Republicans trying to set up a fascist regime is an educated voter—and an educated immigrant voter is worse. How many of these folks, on attaining citizenship would entertain voting for the party that called them invaders, rapists, murderers? You get the idea.

There are mountains of true and useful information available about how our government and Constitution work. It is easy to find and not hard to grasp. Encourage people to find out instead of asking a friend listening to FOX.

Update:

A  non-profit called Citizens Academy has been created to fill this gap in our social education. They have published a book that begins by clearing up what people don’t understand about the most basic portion of the Constitution, the Preamble—which defines its very purpose. One can order copies from the site or read it fully online.

Marty Kassowitz

Marty Kassowitz

Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.

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