Thursday, January 12, 2023

The Sudden Disappearance Of Civics From Public School Curriculae, And How George Carlin Would Restore Civics To Public Instruction


Dear Betsy

Thanks for your email.

I'm glad you're already tuned in to Heather Cox Richardson.

She is wonderful.

Major universities would do well to build courses around her daily "Letter From An American."

Civics 101. 

Speaking of which, what's the status of Civics at Honeoye Central?

Search Results


Mar 16, 2017 — But civics offerings were slashed as the curriculum narrowed over the ensuing decades, and lost further ground to “core subjects” under the ...
Sep 5, 2018 — That's because civics is already a part of almost every high school curriculum and required for graduation in just about every state. It's usually called US ...
80 answers · Top answer: 

Jan 11, 2022 — For decades, civics has taken a back seat to priorities like math, reading and college preparation, educators say. There are no mandatory ...
Jun 4, 2020 — The 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education examined the status of civic education and found that while reading and math scores have ...
by S Shapiro2018Cited by 21 — Civic knowledge and public engagement are at an all-time low. A 2016 survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that only 26 percent of Americans ...




Until the late '60s, three different courses in civic studies were common in American high schools, and they often focused on helping students apply the dry ..





If we are to have a functioning citizenry capable of keeping democracy alive, it is indispensable that a critical mass of citizens "get a life." 

It is inconceivable to me how one can "get a life" without a rudimentary knowledge of civics/history.

Although I disagree with George Carlin's view that voting is futile (at least when it comes to well-informed voting by people who can think critically), very often Jesuit-trained George nails it:

"Americans are fucked. They've been bought off. And they come real cheap: a few million dirt bikes, camcorders, microwaves, cordless phones, digital watches, answering machines, jet skis and sneakers with lights in 'em. You say you want a few items back from the Bill of Rights? Just promise the doofuses new gizmos."  George Carlin

"There is just enough bullshit to hold things together in this country. Bullshit is the glue that binds us as a nation. Where would we be without our safe, familiar, American bullshit? Land of the free, home of the brave, the American dream, all men are equal, justice is blind, the press is free, your vote counts, business is honest, the good guys win, the police are on your side, god is watching you, your standard of living will never decline… and everything is going to be just fine— The official national bullshit story. I call it the American okie dokie. Every one, every one of those items is provably untrue at one level or another, but we believe them because they're pounded into our heads from the time we're children. That's what they do with that kind of thing—pound it into the heads of kids, ‘cause they know the children are much too young to be able to muster an intellectual defense against a sophisticated idea like that, and they know that up to a certain age children believe everything their parents tell them. And as a result, they never learn to question things. Nobody questions things in this country anymore. Nobody questions it—everybody is too fat and happy. Everybody's got a cell phone that'll make pancakes and rub their balls now— Way too fucking prosperous for our own good. Way too fucking prosperous, Americans have been bought off and silenced by toys and gizmos. And no one learns to question things."




George Carlin


"Shopping and buying - and getting and having - comprise the Great American Addiction. No one is immune. When the underclass riots in this country, they don't kill policemen and politicians, they steal merchandise. How embarrassing."  

George Carlin Describes America's Dumbf*ck Quandary

"You Have NO Choice," A New Frame For George Carlin's Classic Shtick "The American Dream"

"The Decisive Distinction Between People Who Can Think And Those Who Can't"

How Do We Know What We Think We Know? "Sound Thinking Is An Acquired Skill, Seldom Possessed By Trump Followers." Trump Cultists Confuse Noisy Echo Chamber Opinionization With Thinking. They Are, In Fact, Too Stupid (Or At Least Too Stupefacted) To Know They're Stupid.


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Love

Alan

PS I just watched a Netflix documentary called "Mission: Joy" featuring Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. It focuses the essence of homo sapiens' compassionate nature and how our failure to participate in compassion destroys us because it leaves our "hardwired destiny" unfulfilled. 

PPS 

Pax-Barbaria Compendium Of Best Posts On Education, Followed By "The Trashing Of Civics By The People Who Run America." Sooner Or Later, The Dominant Oligarchs And Plutocrats Will Enforce Curricular Standards, As They've Already Done By The Widespread Elimination Of Civics Instruction In America's Public Schools.

Compendium Of Best "News From Barbaria" Posts Concerning Democracy - And The Indispensable Role Played By Education In The Survival And "Thrival" Of Democracy


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An aside...
If we intended to promulgate Truth in America's Civics and American History courses, we would follow the paradigmatic lead of George Carlin:

George Carlin Describes America's Dumbf*ck Quandary

"You Have NO Choice," A New Frame For George Carlin's Classic Shtick "The American Dream"

How To Save "Conservative" "Christians" From Themselves: An Experiment In Reading About Notable Human Beings

Education Or Catastrophe (With Special Emphasis On The Teaching Of History)

Compendium Of Best "Pax" Posts On The Cornerstone Necessity Of Education

 Compendium Of Best Pax-Barbaria Posts On Education (With A Failsafe Proposal For National Restoration)

History As Bullshit - And What We Can Do About It: ""Human History Becomes More And More A Race Between Education And Catastrophe"

 Two Full Years Of American History Taught Dialectically Is The Swiftest, Surest Path To Restoration Of Social And Political Health In The American Body Politic

The Swiftest, Most Efficacious Way To Restore Integrity And Vigor To America's Sick Body Politic: 
Two Years Of American History - Taught Dialectically - Will Be A Pre-Requisite For High School Graduation
(Here's How It Works...)

"A Failsafe Way To Restore Integrity And Vigor To America's Sick Body Politic: Two Years Of American History - Taught Dialectically - As A Pre-Requisite For High School Graduation"

Education, "Official Story" Deception, And Pressing Need For A New Way To Teach American History: Democracy's Survival In The Lurch
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/12/education-official-story-deception-and.html

A BRILLIANT Animation About German Lutheran Pastor Deitrich Bonhoeffer (Hung For His Role In A Plot Against Hitler) Who Concluded That 'Stupidity Is More Difficult To Remedy Than Malice'

Compendium Of Best Pax-Barbaria Posts On Education (With A Failsafe Proposal For National Restoration)

Education Or Catastrophe (With Special Emphasis On The Teaching Of History)

Compendium Of Best "Pax" Posts On The Cornerstone Necessity Of Education

Two Full Years Of American History Taught Dialectically Is The Swiftest, Surest Path To Restoration Of Social And Political Health In The American Body Politic
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/09/two-full-years-of-american-history.html

Native America: Why Don't Middle School And High School American History Texts Tell The Truth?

"Thanksgiving": One Person's Justification For Thieving Genocide Is Another Person's Rage At Being Ripped Off And Mass Murdered

"The Rotting Of The Republican Mind"
David Brooks

Teaching Civics And American History: Humankind's Race Between Education And Catastrophe
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2018/11/teaching-civics-and-american-history.html

"The Paranoid Style In American Politics," The Definitive Essay By Richard Hofstadter

A Majority Of Republicans Hold Negative Views About Higher Education
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-majority-of-republicans-hold-negative.html

Reprise: Trump Is The Symptom Of A Broken Educational System. (Howard Zinn Is The Fix)
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/03/reprise-trump-is-symptom-of-broken.html

Native America: Why Don't Middle School And High School American History Texts Tell The Truth?

"How To Make Lasting Political Progress"
(Marine Commandant, Major General Smedley Butler, Teaches Us To Win It All Through Our Persistent Determination To Keep On Losing)
Add to "good ideas for the body politic"

Why Hasn't A Consortium Of Well-Informed Celebrities And Progressive Philanthropists Created A Truth-Friendly Alternative To Facebook?
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2021/03/why-hasnt-consortium-of-well-informed.html

Trump Comments On Voter Fraud: People Can Only Be This Stupid When Their Identity Depends On Being Stupid

"When The Electorate Is THIS Stupid, Is ANY Delusional Thinking Out Of Bounds?"

The Insuperable Stupidity-Perversity-Ignorance Of Diehard Trump Supporters


 "The Death Of Epistemology": Update

What The Good Guys Are Up Against: People Who Say, "I Wouldn't Believe That Even It Was True"


In 2020 Obama Identified "An Epistemological Crisis" As America's Central Toxin. Here's How I Identified This Toxin In 2012 (This Post Has Been Updated)

"Obama Just Identified Our Biggest Problem Of All" 

*****

The Trashing Of Civics In Public Instruction
If you don't know who you are AND where you came from as an individual -- and as a culture -- the oligarchs and plutocrats will push you around like chaff in the wind.


Legislators Fight to Control the Content of Civic Education

https://www.governing.com › now › legislators-fight-to...
Feb 22, 2022 — Scores of bills have been introduced to limit or forbid classroom discussion of topics at the heart of modern civic life, including race and ...

Put Civics Back in the Classroom, Right Now - Bloomberg.com

https://www.bloomberg.com › opinion › articles › put-c...
Nov 28, 2020 — As of 2018, only eight states required students to take a yearlong civics and government class. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, ...

Say no to censorship! Renew civic space. - The Fulcrum

https://thefulcrum.us › civic ed
Nov 28, 2022 — Civic education is essential · How we arrived here: Civics and history pushed to the margins · Renewing public schools as civic spaces.

Model K-12 Civics Code - Сivics Alliance

https://civicsalliance.org › model-k-12-civics-code
Civics education cannot be reformed piecemeal. Proper civics education reform requires a larger reform of each state's social studies curriculum, ...

Revamped Florida Civics Education Aims for 'Patriotism.' Will It ...

https://www.edweek.org › teaching-learning › 2022/07
Jul 12, 2022 — In the 1990 and 2000s, states disinvested in the subject area and social studies. iCivics, a nonpartisan curriculum and advocacy group, ...

Revitalizing K-12 Civic Learning in California

https://www.cde.ca.gov › cltffinalreport
the necessity of investing in the reduction and ultimate removal of inequitable outcomes in California public schools. Revitalizing civic learning ...
66 pages

The Crisis of Civics Education - The Cornell Policy Review

https://www.cornellpolicyreview.com › crisis-of-ci...
The responsibility to provide public education can be found in U.S. state ... the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced NCLB, but did not eliminate.

Florida is revamping civics education—and OCPA is playing a ...

https://www.ocpathink.org › post › florida-is-revampin...
Nov 2, 2022 — What a concept: public schools teaching the truth about American history and ... of our young nation but warned: “If destruction be our lot, ...

AGAINST CIVIC SCHOOLING - Content Delivery Network (CDN)

https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com › files › 2013/04
by JB Murphy2004Cited by 40 — They also share a second assumption, namely, that civic education aimed at civic virtue is a primary responsibility of public schools. Because of the nearly ...
45 pages

Legislative Restrictions on Civic Education in US Public ...

https://www.hartwick.edu › uploads › 2022/05
by K Kremsner2021 — Legislative Restrictions on Civic Education in US Public Schools to Suppress a POC Electorate. Kristopher Kremsner. Political Science Thesis.

Reset this: Change how we teach civics in America | The Hill

https://thehill.com › opinion › education › 3765799-res...
Dec 13, 2022 — Civics education can help students connect with each other, ... the Social Contract & Public Life, designed to build civic skills, ...

The Civic Purposes of Public Schools - EdSource

https://edsource.org › CivicReport_Final
Sep 11, 2022 — ing for public schools to make sure they capture this moment of opportunity to ... mental for advancing society and eliminating poverty.



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