This paper examines the state of civics education in American high schools and argues that traditional instructional methods are failing to prepare students for active democratic citizenship. Drawing on national assessment data, the paper documents widespread deficiencies in students' knowledge of government, history, and civic responsibility. It then introduces Marc Prensky's concept of "digital natives" — young people who have grown up immersed in technology — and explains how their distinct cognitive styles demand new pedagogical approaches. The paper makes the case for incorporating educational games, simulations, and web-based tools into the civics curriculum, and concludes with recommendations for schools, teachers, and communities to prioritize citizenship education in the 21st century.
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." — Thomas Jefferson
Given the increasingly complex and dangerous nature of the threats facing the United States and its interests abroad, young people today desperately need to understand how important it is to remain vigilant in the exercise of their constitutional rights — particularly their right and responsibility as citizens to vote when they turn 18 years old. Lawson and Scott (2002) report that citizenship is a status afforded to those who are full members of a community: "There is no universal principle that determines what those rights and duties shall be, but societies in which citizenship is a developing institution create an image of an ideal citizen against which achievement can be measured and towards which aspiration can be directed" (181). Black's Law Dictionary (1990) defines the role of "citizen" as: "One who, under the Constitution and laws of the United States, is a member of the political community, owing allegiance and being entitled to the enjoyment of full civil rights" (244).
In 2002, the federal government announced a new set of history and civic education initiatives intended to foster national identity and pride. These initiatives, President George W. Bush maintained, would serve to "improve students' knowledge of American history, increase their civic involvement, and deepen their love for our great country." The president added that in order "to engender a sense of patriotism in young Americans, we must teach them that America is a force for good in the world, bringing hope and freedom to other people" (quoted in Westheimer 608). Unfortunately, many civics classes in the nation's high schools are still failing to instill this sense of responsibility to the political community, and many young people are entering their adult lives as lifelong taxpayers without any true sense of what it means to be an active citizen in a democracy.
Parker (2005) emphasizes that "people who customarily refer to themselves as taxpayers are not even remotely related to democratic citizens. What taxpayers do not do, and what people who call themselves taxpayers have long since stopped even imagining themselves doing, is governing. In a democracy, by the very meaning of the word, the people govern" (344). The nation's high schools are both tasked with this responsibility and well positioned to rectify this situation by refining their existing civics curricula to better meet the needs of young learners today (Parker 344).
The purpose of this study is to describe the current challenges facing young people as they seek full participation in the political community and to explain why many of them lack the education to do so. A review of the scholarly and peer-reviewed literature provides relevant background and context, an analysis of recent changes in education, a discussion of the need for alternative civics education approaches, and an examination of the implications of failing to act. A summary of the research and key findings is provided in the conclusion.
The need to educate the next generation of voters concerning the responsibilities and benefits of citizenship has assumed increasing importance in recent years. According to Beckerman, Kim, and Parks (1996), a growing number of high school students in the United States lack a sound understanding of American civics, and studies have shown that a majority of these students do not have any depth of understanding of this important subject or what it means to be a citizen. For instance, while almost all high school seniors possessed a rudimentary knowledge of civics in terms of elections, laws, and constitutional rights, only about half of them understood specific government structures and functions (Beckerman et al. 171).
The trends emerging in recent years are even more alarming. Only 6% of the high school seniors surveyed by Beckerman and colleagues had any meaningful knowledge of governmental institutions such as the cabinet or the judiciary. Likewise, the results of a 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Report Card in Civics indicated that just 38% of eighth-graders in the United States knew that Congress was responsible for making laws (Beckerman et al. 171). The results of the 1998 NAEP civics examination were equally disheartening: fully 33% of fourth-graders could not explain the meaning of "I pledge allegiance to the flag" on a multiple-choice test, and a majority of fourth-graders were unable to answer why "citizens elect people to make laws for them" in a democracy (Paige 2003: 37).
The results of the NAEP 2001 U.S. History Report Card reflected a similar lack of proficiency. Fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-graders were tested, and the results indicated that 89% of high school seniors, 84% of eighth-graders, and 82% of fourth-graders ranked below the "proficient" level (Paige 37). According to Paige, "The most recent data we have on the current status of civics knowledge in the United States is discouraging, to say the least. Some might even say that we have reached a crisis in this country with regard to civics education" (37). In this environment, high school teachers are scrambling to identify better ways to deliver educational services. However, the playing field has changed in substantive ways for today's young learners, and educators must take these changes into account for any new initiatives to succeed.
Although the fundamental function of public schools in the United States has not changed in recent years, the curriculum and the student body certainly have — in ways that can be used to good effect for civics education, but only if these differences are recognized and understood by educators. Prensky (2005) reports that "our students are no longer 'little versions of us,' as they may have been in the past. In fact, they are so different from us that we can no longer use either our 20th-century knowledge or our training as a guide to what is best for them educationally" (8). According to Salopek (2003), young people today have been accustomed to using technology throughout their lives and now work and play at a completely different pace from previous generations — what Prensky has termed twitch speed.
In January 1998, Prensky described the new learning environment for young people as follows: "This generation grew up on video games ('twitch speed'), MTV (more than 100 images a minute), and the ultra-fast speed of action films. Their developing minds learned to adapt to speed and thrive on it… The under-30 generation has had far more experience at processing information quickly than its predecessors, and is therefore better at it" (3). The key differences in learning styles between what Prensky calls "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" are summarized in the table below.
Table 1. Differences in Learning Styles between "Digital Natives" and "Digital Immigrants" (Source: Prensky 1998: 3)
Twitch Speed vs. Conventional Speed: Little in real life moves as fast as the stimuli that confront learners on a daily basis. MTV, video games, and streamed media all develop an unprecedented level of media expectations; learning offerings are challenged not only to meet the pace of twitch speed but to exploit this capacity to its fullest extent.
Parallel vs. Linear Processing: Multi-tasking has become the norm among young learners — whether listening to music while studying, downloading files while browsing the web, or speaking on the phone while writing a paper. The capacity for extensive parallel processing exists among today's young people.
Random Access vs. Linear Thinking: New media has created a generation of learners who diverge from a single-path approach. Hyperlinks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, and the internet have all been designed to allow maximum flexibility in navigation. The learner today has access to numerous resources that have never previously existed, allowing students to create and explore in exciting new ways. The challenge is to structure learning experiences that give students new opportunities to be creative and to exercise their access to knowledge.
Graphics First vs. Text First: Graphics were previously regarded as a learning aid reinforcing messages communicated through text. Today the opposite has become the norm. Modern learners, heavily influenced by music and visual culture, increasingly perceive text as an aid supporting audio and visual messages.
Connected vs. Stand-Alone: The communication revolution has moved from a world connected by telephone to one linked by email, bulletin boards, broadcast messages, and chat rooms. New learning tools have developed accordingly to provide access to knowledge through these connected channels.
Active vs. Passive: There is much less tolerance for passive situations such as lectures. Digital natives need and want interactive learning opportunities.
Payoff vs. Patience: The same attributes that keep young people engaged for hours while mastering a computer game can be tapped to improve civics education. The challenge for educators is to develop similarly interactive reward dynamics for learning content.
Fantasy vs. Reality: Young learners' lives are pervaded by fantasy elements through television programs and video games; therefore, learning experiences should be structured to include such elements in order to be more engaging.
"Educational games and interactive tools as solutions"
The research showed that the need for citizenship education and civics instruction in America's high school classrooms is greater today than ever, but the manner in which students learn has changed in fundamental ways from years past. The research also showed that educational games designed to impart civics lessons to high school students need not be complicated, but they must be relevant. Hannafin and McDonald (2003), for instance, designed a civics curriculum that incorporated elements from the popular television shows Jeopardy! and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to enliven student interest and participation. Other educators report developing educational games based on available materials at hand, with only their imaginations as the limiting factor.
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