Right now, millions of students across the country are comfortably in their seats for the 2023-24 school year. Meanwhile, almost 40 percent of the American public still questions the results of a free and fair election, and with the 2024 federal election just around the corner, political polarization in the United States seems endless, leaving democracy in a potentially fragile state.
Fortunately, in light of the fragility of democracy, there has been a steady increase in initiatives from federal and state governments to incorporate civic education into K-12 classrooms. In 2020, California adopted a State Seal of Civic Commitment that high school students can earn upon graduation. Starting in 2022, 38 states required a semester of civics education in high school; That same year, the federal government increase in spending on “American History and Civics” quadruple. This year in Indiana, sixth graders will take a inaugural civics course in the spring semester.
These are all great steps in the right direction, but I think there is still a lot to do. disrespect for the importance of history and civic education. Despite living in incredibly tense times where we can’t even talk about history without fomenting a fight – or worse, inciting a civil war —we have not adequately discussed how the history classroom can create a stronger, more reflective and engaged citizenry. If we truly want to equip our students to understand and navigate the political environment that exists today, we need to think about how we teach the discipline of history more broadly.
A good civic education includes history
When teachers, administrators, and legislators talk about history education, we must consider it an exercise in civility. Typically, civic education is synonymous with learning about overtly political topics like the structure of government and voting, but what if good citizenship goes beyond our nation’s history and political processes? To reach all students in America, we must reprioritize history education as a whole, not just in parts.
A good history education enables students to actively engage with the past they study, rather than being passive recipients of historical narratives. When students learn to ask deep questions, analyze texts, and construct evidence-based arguments, they gain skills that go far beyond a history classroom. Thinking historically is the root of those skills.
When I was a full-time history teacher at Stella Middle Charter Academy in Los Angeles, my eighth grade students had just finished a Socratic seminar discussing various issues about race and immigration in 19th-century America. During class reflection, one girl said, “Going into the seminar, I planned to write an argument for my essay, but after this, I think I’m actually going to argue the opposite.” Immediately, I heard some excited kids in the class yell, “Flip flop!” but I quickly posed a key question to ponder: “Isn’t one of the reasons we engage in these conversations learning to base our arguments on evidence rather than our intuitions?”
Thinking about this moment in class, I wonder: can we imagine a political atmosphere in which it is okay not to be dogmatically attached to our own presuppositions, but we are willing to be swayed by quality evidence? This is at the center of historical thought.
Thinking historically empowers students
Thinking historically It is empowering: it gives students agency and allows them to grapple with complex ideas. However, historical thinking is not limited to academic skills. When we study a time and place different from our own, we learn to listen better, build empathy for diverse perspectives and experiences, and become better people.
I currently serve as executive director of thinking nation, a nonprofit organization working to change the paradigm of social studies education. In this position, he regularly visits classrooms as a guest professor and frequently sees evidence of this type of historical empathy.
For example, last spring, I was in a high school classroom participating in one of our prompts that asked students to analyze how the enslaved resisted their slavery. The students thoughtfully discussed the small acts of resistance such as feign illness or stop working in an effort to understand how people demonstrated their own agency in the midst of systemic oppression. Last fall, during another visit, I sat with high school sophomores comparing the perspectives of people who experienced the french revolution. While many high school students were quick to side with the third estate, made up of French commoners who felt the inequality of the monarchyThese students also had to learn about those who opposed the revolution, noting the countless crimes and chaos that created deep instability throughout the country.
While the students held fast to their morals and beliefs, they demonstrated empathy by recognizing that the historical moment itself was more complex than a simple binary between good and evil. Their ability to listen to and empathize with the different perspectives and sources they interacted with is a benchmark we should strive for in our democracy.
Imagine if our political system were shaped by this search for understanding instead of tribalism and polarization that has come to define him. By empowering our students to think historically, they can redefine the political sphere. They can learn to humanize those around them in ways that strengthen our country’s pluralistic democracy rather than perpetuate the culture wars that continue. sabotage our Constitution.
Historical thinkers can preserve democracy
The future of our democracy will depend on our ability to provide quality civic education, but we must expand its definition. Being equipped as citizens goes beyond our ability to name the three branches of government or the history of political parties. Rather, it is in the discipline of history more broadly that we can develop skills, dispositions, and principles that can guide our democracy forward.
Those of us involved in social studies education must take clear steps as a discipline to relegitimize our discipline and better prepare our students for the future. In that future, citizens will not take advantage of opportunities to demonize people with different opinions, believe in conspiracies without knowing the facts, or remain apathetic to the injustices experienced by different people.
Instead, students will feel confident in their understanding of history and how it shapes their political values, and they will be better equipped to share the nation’s mottoout of many, one
