“The United States' failure to educate its people raises questions about whether the United States can still maintain a republican form of government.”
Wilfred McRae, a history professor at Hillsdale College, wrote in a recent policy brief for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
In his book, “Restoring Civics in Higher Education,'' McCrae argues that “the severity of the current crisis of civic ignorance outweighs maintaining the academic status quo.''
The scholar believes that current efforts in several state legislatures to require public universities to offer robust civics courses on America's fundamental principles are the best way to overcome concerns about academic freedom. It is written as a solution.
In an interview with university fixMcCray said the shift in K-12 education and higher education to emphasize “global citizenship rather than national or local citizenship” is what he calls a “common treasure” of American republican self-government. He said that this leads to ignorance about what to call.
“I think this is a mistake. There is really no such thing as global citizenship, and it leads to the marginalization of the most meaningful areas of citizenship,” he said in an email.
He said “the apparent willingness on the part of state governments and state agencies to address this challenge” is a step in the right direction.
In his policy brief, he raised the thorny issue of academic freedom concerns, writing that while academic freedom is important, “it is not a be-all and end-all trump card whose requirements transcend all other considerations.” .
Pointing out that public institutions should be accountable to the people, he wrote that public institutions have a responsibility to “instill a celebration of freedom and an awareness of responsibility.”
To make matters worse, patriotic education within such educational institutions is now often dismissed as “a form of propaganda and chauvinism, and a form of favoritism that itself constitutes a kind of moral violation.” , he wrote.
However, a patriotic belief in American democracy is essential to achieving active democratic participation, and education “introduces young people to the full range of our political and cultural heritage as Americans.” , we need to ensure that they are literate and familiar with its many features so that they can take full advantage of it.” That’s all that we have to offer them, including both privileges and responsibilities,” McCray says.
The report cites legislative efforts in North Carolina and Utah as positive ways to address the crisis.
The North Carolina REACH Act, which has stalled in North Carolina, would require “at least three credit hours of coursework in American history or American government to graduate from a bachelor's degree or community college at a member institution of the University of North Carolina.” . I have an associate's degree. ”
Although it failed in the state Legislature, the University of North Carolina, which operates 16 campuses in the state, plans to implement a program called the Foundation for American Democracy to advance the same goal.
Utah's proposed legislative effort under Senate Bill 226 is broader, as the bill would require students in the public Utah University System to “complete 42 credit hours of the Common Core Curriculum.”
The core curriculum will be administered by the newly created Department of General Education and will consist of “a series of courses on Western and world civilizations, economics, science, U.S. history, government, and literature to which the university may not add.” university fix Previously reported.
McCray wrote in a preliminary letter that a common core curriculum “would go a long way toward solving civic education problems.”
However, McCray said: correction “Legislative solutions cannot automatically translate into educational solutions, and we need to find the best way to pass civic knowledge to the next generation.”
“One size does not fit all individuals or situations,” he said, adding that academics and administrators also need to take some responsibility.
“[C]”Universities have to come to the table and recognize that they have a role to play in rectifying that problem,” he said.
More: 'Land of Hope': New history textbook aims to tell America's story honestly and with context
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