Constitution Day Consternations - 2005 Editorial

Social Studies teachers have a plethora of calendar dates which provide excellent opportunities for us to submit 'timely' guest editorials to the print media on a wide variety of topics. Here is one sample which used the September "Constitution Day" federal requirement to grab the attention of Florida legislators convening in Tallahassee in the fall during the time that many submit bills prior to the opening of the session.
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Constitution Day Consternations
Jack Bovee, Sept. 16, 2005

This September 17 marks the first annual requirement -- sponsored by Senator Robert Byrd (Dem. WV) -- that all schools implement a program to instruct students about the Constitution. As one who has dedicated his adult life to that endeavor let me go on record as being strongly opposed to this law.

Why? Because there is a better law which both the Senate and the media continue to ignore. It’s time for Congress to finally pass some substantive legislation that would restore American History and Civics as part of the nation’s core curriculum. It’s time to place these subjects at least on an equitable footing with others that are assessed by what is commonly referred to as “The Nations Report Card”. How? By holding states accountable for how well they prepare our students to be citizens – by comparing them to one another and to a national average -- just as we do in reading, writing, math and science. What? We don’t do that already, you say? Of course we don’t. And that’s the reason for the drastic decline in civic knowledge for over the last 30 years!

Believe it or not, American History and Civics have been repeatedly discriminated against in the testing process and postponed on the national testing calendar. For decades, we’ve compared all the states to one another in reading, writing, math and science. Governors and Education Commissioners post bragging rights on their web sites when their states do better than the national average and they appropriate huge sums of money to remedy their academic deficiencies. The U.S. Department of Education even compares how well they effectively deter students from using drugs, alcohol or tobacco. In history and civics, however, we simply don’t care enough to even keep score. Nor does anyone seem to care! Look in earnest through the words of Diane Ravitch, Chester Finn, Charles Quigley and others for any articles in support of state accountability or for support for a revitalized NAEP, and you’ll be searching in vain.

When Charles Smith, Executive Director of the National Assessment Governing Board, recently testified to the Senate about the importance of U.S. History and how dismally our students perform in it, he bragged that under a ‘new’ testing calendar, U.S. History would be assessed more often. Good. It needs to be. What he forgot to mention, however, was that it was the plan of his own shop only a couple of years ago to basically eliminate testing this subject on future NAEP tests at Grade 12. Nor did he mention President Bush supported the evisceration of these subjects at the very grade when schools are registering students to vote. You can bet no one asked him why this plan was even proposed for a course in which our students ‘perform worst’. Nor did anyone have the foresight to ask Secretary Spellings about her plans to restore Civic and Historical Knowledge to the nation’s schools during her confirmation process. Can it be that no one cares?

Sadly, Senate Bill 860 -- which is designed to shed some light and accountability on the subject-- continues to languish in Congress. It died in the last Congress and appears doomed to die in this one. David McCullough’s appearance some weeks ago before the Senate on this bill apparently did very little to stir them into action. This is the subject that provides the “glue” which holds the nation together. Politicians love to point out that we are not united by a common religion, ethnicity, race or even perhaps now, language. It’s this ‘love of our sacred documents’, our understanding of how ‘America has served as a beacon of liberty to countless others around the globe’, and the realization of the ‘sacrifice of countless others’ who have preceded us that unifies us as a people. Sure, right. Read the reports over the last 20 years and tell me if anyone really thinks that Senator Byrd’s generation – or mine, for that matter – have kept the promise to properly provide young Americans today with the requisite knowledge and skills for citizenship.

Congress has been able to appropriate about a half billion (that’s with a “B”) dollars to train teachers to do a better job teaching American History, yet it can’t agree to pass a bill that would authorize a measly $10 million to end the second-class status this subject has in the U.S. Department of Education and in the 50 states. They can’t seem to pass a bill that would actually hold states accountable for what used to be the basic reason for a public education. As a result, we know with more scientific accuracy when the last time a typical middle school student in Michigan took a swig of beer than we do about that student’s knowledge of our Constitution. Why is this? You’ll have to ask Senator Byrd and his peers.

This isn’t rocket science – nor is it a novel idea. Surveys have been reporting these findings since Chief Justice Warren Burger’s “national civics lesson” in the 1970s. Thank goodness Burger, like the Founders, isn’t around today to see just how bad things have become. McCullough worries about this very real threat to America’s security and future. Like him, I’m very worried whether today’s young adults possess even the rudimentary knowledge to keep the Republic going when the mantle of authority is passed on to them. A Roper Survey in 2002 found Americans aged 18 to 24 coming in last or second to last when compared to their peers from among eight other nations in such things as: the ability to identify the location of our country on a world map, knowing the approximate size of the U.S. population, being able to identify what two nations each have over 1 billion people, or even knowing which of our enemies took credit for the slaughter of over 3,000 innocent Americans only months before. Mexican students beat their American counterparts on all of those questions. Perhaps we can just extend our right of franchise south of the border.

Without some form of accountability, states will continue to relegate civic knowledge to the educational backburner. Take Florida for example. Governor Jeb Bush and several of Florida’s leading legislators serve as ‘state directors’ to the Education Commission of the States. As such, they also serve on its subsidiary group -- the National Center for Learning and Citizenship. Both are charged with improving Civic Education programs. While serving in this capacity, Jeb Bush signed into law a few years ago an act that eliminated American History, American Government, and Economics as graduation requirements in Florida. Incensed, Tampa Congressman Jim Davis immediately introduced HR 3592 in the last Congress to threaten his own state with the loss of federal funds. It took a battle, but these courses were eventually restored as graduation requirements.

Why would Jeb Bush do such a thing? For the same reason the President delayed the Civics N.A.E.P. assessment some years ago. If no one keeps score – who cares? Funny, but I never hear anyone at the national level point out to the President or his younger brother that things such as non-accountability, the second-class status given to civic knowledge, advocating the elimination of such assessments at grade 12 or eradicating such courses as graduation requirements might actually give folks the impression that civic knowledge isn’t very important!

Let’s hope that Congress will not blow another chance to hold still yet another generation of young Americans and their state leaders accountable for what is the most important mission of public education! Perhaps if they got behind the Alexander bill, we could begin to treat these subjects equitably. Some state leaders might even take their responsibilities as ‘national directors’ and guardians of civic knowledge more seriously. And perhaps, if we’re lucky, we’ll begin to work on improving the glue that might actually hold this nation together in the future.

The writer has been a social studies educator, a former elementary school principal, and serves as Legislative Chair for the Florida Council for the Social Studies. He may be reached at JSBovee@aol.com.

Word Count – 1313
Jack Bovee, 319 Fifth Avenue
Lehigh Acres, Florida 33972
Ph: 239-369-1397 Email: JSBovee@aol.com