Arm students with civics education to fight Trump’s attacks on democracy
One of the most troubling aspects of Donald Trump’s presidency is his disregard for the basic constitutional tenets of our democracy. He often debunks the checks and balances the U.S. Constitution places on the executive branch and the president. Whether it’s disparaging the other two “separate but equal” branches of government or ignoring the First Amendment’s freedom of press protection, calling the media the “enemy of the people,” he proves over and over again that he does not understand the Constitution or, perhaps more to the point, has no interest in abiding by it. Urging the Republican National Convention crowd in Charlotte to call for 12 more years was a direct challenge to our constitutional system that limits a president to two terms.
With Trump’s march toward authoritarian government, the protections against tyranny that our founding fathers embedded in our Constitution now more than ever before must be front and center in any understanding citizens and their elected officials have of their government. Members of Congress, for example, must know their constituents are aware of the constitutional checks legislators have at their disposal to thwart a runaway presidency. And they must be willing to hold those officials accountable when they fail to use them to check executive power gone rogue.
Informed and educated citizens are the best defense against elected officials who abuse the powers granted to them by the Constitution. Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, in his recent book, “The World: A Brief Introduction,” a primer on global affairs, reminds us how critical civic education is to our democratic way of life. He tells the story of meeting a Stanford University student majoring in computer science and engaging him in a conversation about his studies. Haass asked him if he had taken courses in history, economics and politics, and the student told him he took the minimum number of courses required outside of his major and those he did take had little to do with the basics.
That surprising admission led Haass to search graduation requirements at universities and colleges where he learned it is possible to graduate from nearly any two- or four-year college or university in the United States, whether it be a community college or an Ivy League institution, without gaining even a rudimentary understanding of the world. He laments a recent survey of over 1,100 universities and colleges finding only 17% requiring students to take courses in U.S. government or history, with only 3% requiring coursework in economics.
It wasn’t always that way, at least not in my experience as a student and a professor teaching political science and public administration over the years. In my first year as a student at a small liberal arts college, we were required to take two semesters of the history of Western civilization.
In my first teaching experience, I taught four sections of American government and politics at a community college. The course was required of all students, regardless of major. I can still remember connecting students with little or no interest in government or politics with issues in the local community that brought to the fore the importance of citizen engagement in decisions that affect their lives and how a knowledge of governmental agencies and institutions enabled them to get involved and hold their elected officials accountable.
Is there any hope for a return to those days when graduates leave universities and colleges with a basic understanding of their nation’s history and government? Not as long as those responsible for the undergraduate curriculum worship at the altar of specialization, and basic coursework, such as government and history, is squeezed out by the requirements of the almighty major.
With the explosion of knowledge in our fast-paced world, faculty are regularly assessing whether the curriculum of the major adequately treats the discipline’s growing knowledge base. Balancing the requirements of the major against the broader requirements of a liberal arts education, including coursework in civic affairs in the general studies curriculum, is not a task for the faint of heart. Plenty of curricular battles have been waged by faculty and administrators over efforts to arrive at that perfect balance, but too often, the general studies curriculum gives students many options and too few required courses. And what is required ranges far afield from the basics of history and government.
To the best of my knowledge, never before in the history of the Republic has a president stood before the American people and refused to commit to accepting the results of a presidential election. A president who violates the most basic guarantee of free and fair elections must be checked by members of Congress and citizens who hold them accountable.
These are scary times, indeed, and while basic coursework in history and government could be pushed aside in the past, now is the time to re-examine the general studies or core curriculum. The objective should be to produce graduates who are knowledgeable enough to serve as guardians of our democratic way of life, even if our elected officials at the highest levels of government in America turn a blind eye to the U.S. Constitution and the democratic norms and rules of our democracy that have served us well over the years.