_____More Broder_____ • High Cost Of Inaction On Health Care (The Washington Post, Jun 1, 2003) • The Tax-Cut Skeptics Back Home (The Washington Post, May 28, 2003) • A Call for Service (The Washington Post, May 25, 2003) • About David S. Broder Add David S. Broder to your personal home page. _____What's Your Opinion?_____ • Share Your Views About Editorials and Opinion Pieces on Our Message Boards • About Message Boards E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version

By David S. Broder
Sunday, February 16, 2003; Page B07

When I was a schoolboy in Illinois (a long time ago), we celebrated Abraham Lincoln's birthday on Feb. 12 and George Washington's birthday on Feb. 22. They were the twin models of leadership in this republic.

Now the two have been squished together into something called Presidents' Day, a concession to commerce and convenience, the twin icons of our era. I share the sentiments of those who complain that something important has been lost in the erasure of the names of the men who led us through our two greatest crises and the substitution of a generic tribute to our assorted chief executives.

But on this holiday, we need to think beyond the traditional bargains offered by department stores and auto dealerships. Tomorrow a White House forum on American history, civics and service will discuss responses to the widespread concern over the decline in Americans' knowledge of our history. While we talk of building democracy in a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, we need to deal with the atrophying of active citizenship here at home.

The preface to all this is provided by 55 scholars, teachers and practitioners in a report titled "The Civic Mission of Schools" that was released last week.

The report, drafted by Cynthia Gibson of the Carnegie Corp. and Peter Levine of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), addresses the well-recognized problem of the erosion of political participation by young people in this nation. The concern is bipartisan. William Galston, the University of Maryland professor who heads CIRCLE, is a former domestic policy adviser to President Clinton, but he will be speaking at the forum organized by the Bush administration.

Why the concern? Voting rates among Americans between 18 and 30 are barely half those of their parents. The 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a massive test, found that almost one-third of high school seniors lack a basic grasp of the structure and operations of American government.

What to do? The report acknowledges that parents, churches and other voluntary organizations can play a critical role in fostering civic spirit, if they try. But the political parties, which ought to be contributors to that process, often turn off young people by financing negative ads that send a message that politics and politicians are crooked and sleazy.

That leaves schools. And, as the report says, schools have several advantages as labs of active citizenship. They are "the only institution with the capacity and mandate to reach virtually every young person in the country" and to reach them in the early years when basic attitudes are formed.

Schools are also well equipped to impart basic knowledge of government and politics. And schools are "communities in which young people learn to interact, argue, and work together with others, an important condition for future citizenship."

The report is admirably clear about what it is not recommending. That is the traditional civics class in which a teacher is "instructing students on the minutiae of federal legislative procedures or election law, without encouraging them to wrestle with larger public issues, underlying principles, and ways for them to participate in local government and civil society."

In many high schools today, the single required course in civics or government is no more than that kind of rote learning. Instead, what this report recommends is a program that takes a variety of approaches:

• Instruction in government, history, law and democracy. Such knowledge is valuable in itself and can provide a spur to later civic involvement.

• Classroom discussion of current issues and events, especially if teachers make the conversation a model of openness and respect for differing viewpoints.

• Opportunity for community service, particularly in ways that students themselves say are meaningful and reinforce their recognition that their efforts can produce tangible results.

• Extracurricular activities that provide concrete examples of the rewards of participation.

• School governance arrangements that give students a real voice in aspects of the educational environment that are important to them.

• Simulations of adult civic activities, such as Kids Voting USA, which allows students to mark mock ballots at actual polling places on the eve of Election Day, familiarizing them with the mechanics of the process.

Schools face many demands, but Presidents' Day should remind us that inculcating the knowledge and skills of citizenship may be the most important of all their functions.