Just think! Little kids ready for the First Grade this year will be ready to vote in the November 2020 presidential election. Looking back, those old enough to vote on November 5, 2008 had their growing years during the Bill Clinton administrations.
There’s currently interest in education, as it pertains to civic affairs. I watch people on C-Span who, right and left, deplore the ignorance of youngsters when it comes to social science.
It almost seems as though school boards are reluctant to lay out a curriculum for fear it will offend someone. If you think I joke, consider the recent criticism over using Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” in English classes. And we don’t even have to venture into the murky territory of sex education. If the very term “Darwinism” is mentioned on a playground, children may take sides without ever having studied what the theory of evolution is. Yet on the evening news, some of their parents may be nodding in approval when their Congresspersons espouse more emphasis on Science in the Classroom.
What percentage of the population, grown or still growing, can fill in the names and capitals of the 50 states? And who can give more than the barest details about past US Presidents? George Washington couldn’t tell a lie. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. What about Andrew Jackson or Andrew Johnson? Or Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt?
A national effort is being made to help children study about the Presidents. I know because my Representative (Jimmy Duncan, Republican of Tennessee’s District 2) taped an announcement for the evening news, asking for children to become involved. He voted against the Iraq War and the surge. When Speaker Pelosi gave each House member a chance to speak, he gave a thoughtful presentation. Several letters to the editor of our local paper were against the Iraq war, but I found no one wrote to give him any recognition.
Like many interested in politics, I would like to see more modern American history taught. And without any doubt, more instruction in how the constitution works should be there. I personally would like to see some knowledgeable person write a pamphlet for the high school level, which would explain how the Ten Commandments, the Bill of Rights, and the court system are relevant in their lives.
Youth of today are being courted to participate in the political process, at least to cast a ballot. And that is a positive development which can endure for many years to come. I note on some blogs there are often members who have to ask each other the most elementary questions. In the short term, it might enhance their participation at the polls if someone with more web skills than I possess, could put together Clift Notes, YouTube style. Any volunteers?