WASHINGTON– The Atlantic and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) convened various leaders in education and business to discuss civic education on Wednesday at the Newseum in Washington D.C.
The conference, Civics and the Future of Democracy, included six panels that discussed the meaning of civic education and the role of schools and institutions in teaching it to students.
“Civic education is providing kids with a deep knowledge and history about how the government works, it means critical analytical skills, it means learning democratic values, it means experiential opportunities and it means living in a civic society which means a diverse society,” said Michael Rebell, professor of law and educational practice at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Louise Dubé, executive director of iCivics, recommended that civic education begin in elementary school.
“We need to be able to weave this throughout the entire schooling experience and then continue at the higher ed level,” she said. “Whether you’re going to college or not, you’re going to be a member of the community and we have to recognize that that’s important. We have to live together and try to find a way to solve what are now very complicated problems across a lot of differences.”
Ahmed Sesay, a recent graduate of Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island began to understand the importance of civic education after an incident with a teacher. A few weeks before graduation, Sesay was handing in late work and his math teacher said that he “should be in jail for [his] attendance.”
As an African-American student, Sesay wondered “why a White woman would think that’s her place to be like, ‘oh you should be in jail.’”
