I like to write about creating a new system of learning for kids, one that personalizes learning for each individual young learner. The current system was not built to individualize learning for every kid and doesn’t seem interested in learning how to do it now. Furthermore, the current system seems too occupied with what I call “the business and politics of school,” instead of “teaching and learning.” The current system focuses too much on an adult agenda and doesn’t pay enough attention to the young learner’s needs.
You would think civics education would be one of those issues we could agree was important enough to keep it away from “the business and politics of school” agenda. When I was a kid, “patriotism” was more about “love of country, including its cultural diversity and political differences.” Today, it seems “patriotism” is defined as a “certain way of loving the country,” with cultural diversity and political differences seen as threats instead of accepted conversations.
Recently, EducationWeek’s Ileana Najarro reported on Florida’s newest attempt at connecting civics education with patriotism. Najarro wrote “For years, Florida has been cited as an exemplar when it comes to investing in access to K-12 civics education. In the 2010s, it boosted civics coursework and related tests, and inspired other states to do the same.”
Najarro continues: “Now, the state’s approach to civics is evolving in a new direction: towards an overtly patriotic approach that some educators say is imbued with Christian and conservative tenets. And all of that is occurring as Florida’s law limiting classroom discussions on race – a key theme in social studies, takes effect.”
According to Najarro, “In all, the revisions emphasize American exceptionalism while downplaying hands-on instruction, such as conducting mock elections. A new set of training courses for teachers focuses on the country’s founding ideals and religion’s role in that foundation. And an influential conservative private college, Hillsdale College, has played a role in reviewing the new standards and consulting on the course.”
The article continues: “Already, the state’s approach is generating imitations. Civics Alliance, a conservative coalition of policymakers and academics, used Florida’s new civics standards as a model for its own national set of proposed guidelines, released last June. Arizona passed legislation in June containing passages lifted straight from a 2021 Florida law that, among other things, requires students to learn about the ‘blessing of liberty’ and the ‘victims of other nations’ governing philosophies.’”
One Florida educator, when responding to a request for public comment during the legislative process, pleaded “Please stop telling students what to believe when comparing the U.S. to other nations. It is acceptable to compare nations but the students should come to their own conclusions. It is our job as educators to teach children how to think, not what to think.” Another educator said “Please remove references to religious values in civics. There is no reason to include this except as trying to promote specific religions.”
Florida teachers are being trained on the new civics standards this summer. According to EducationWeek, “High school teachers attending one of these training in South Florida were alarmed at the focus on ‘Christian and conservative ideology.’ Training slides published by The Miami Herald include messages, for example, stating that it’s a misconception that ‘the Founders desired strict separation of church and state, and the Founders only wanted to protect freedom of worship. A separate slide state that “2/3 of the Founders held slaves – [but] even those that held slaves did not defend the institution,’ seemingly downplaying the Founders’ role as enslavers.”
The article concludes “And the conservative Civics Alliance coalition cites Florida’s new civics standards as a source for it national social studies standards called ‘American Birthright.’ The group contends that ‘far too many education professionals work consciously or unconsciously to minimize, delegitimize, or eliminate the history and the ideals of conservative Americans – and, indeed, the history and the ideals of moderate Americans and of classical liberals.’”
What I just shared from Florida is one of the reasons a new system of learning needs to be invented for the welfare of our children. Traditional schools, through no fault of many of them, have become battlefields between conservative America and its liberal opponents. State legislatures, state boards of education, and school boards are currently torn apart because of blind partisanship. “The business and politics of school” has reared its ugly head and I’m afraid it’s not going away anytime soon.
Instead, let’s create a system of learning whereby the young learner and their family engage in a planning process that builds civics education into each young learner’s individual learning plan. Questions like “What civics lessons do we want to learn?” “How do we know the young learner has learned their civics lessons?” and “What do we do if the young learner doesn’t learn their civics lessons” should carry the day, instead of what is happening in Florida these days.
I guess there might be a chance a group of young learners and their families could hijack the learning plan process by agreeing to learn civics non-facts or what Stephen Colbert termed “truthiness” awhile back. But I’ll put my money on the civics dialogue between a young learner and their learning coach over Florida’s legislature any day, anyway.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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