Does Correlation Exist Between Decline in Civil Participation and Civil Education

Civic Participation/Education Debate

CIVIC EDUCATION DEBATE: DOES a CORRELATION EXIST BETWEEN the DECLINE in CIVIC PARTICIPATION and CIVIC EDUCATION?

This work seeks to answer the question of whether there is a correlation between the decline in civic participation and civic education and if so then why and as well is not, then why not? In order to answer this question the work entitled "Join the Debate" will be examined. According to the work "How Political Socialization and Other Factors Influence Opinion Formation" it is believed by political scientists that the political values held by the individual are greatly determinative of the individual's attitude or opinion toward politically-based issues. The factors that influence the formation of individual political values include "the mass media, schools, peers....political events, the social groups one belongs to, the church one attends the demographic group one belongs to and the area of region one resides in.

According to the work entitled: "Join the Debate: Teaching Civics in American High Schools" over the past three decades a decline in civic education and specifically at the secondary level has been witnessed,.In fact this work states that "There may be a relationship between the decline in political participation and the lack of civic education." (Pearson Education, 2006) a study by Carnegie Corporation states findings that "student participation in the management of schools and classroom, as well as in simulations of democratic institutions and processes may increase involvement in the American political process." (Pearson Education, 2006) Civic education both encourages and teaches participation in a democratically governed society. It is the belief of this researcher that a correlation exists between civic education and participation and that the reason for this is quite simply the lack of knowledge on the part of individuals as to 'how' they can participate. This knowledge has not been routinely presented in education over the past thirty years and along with this has been witnessed a steady decline in civic participation except by the very few who presently participate. This work in its' research, while having answered the question presented finds that the question of whether this failure to educate citizens in the area of civic participation has been simply an oversight or a methodological and purposeful culling of citizen participation in civic politics, and if so then to what ends?