23 Sep 2007
I often promote civics learning and understanding among my friends. One of things I wax on incessantly about is creating a curriculum for teaching civics to junior high and high school students. Why? Because civics learning was blatantly absent from my curriculum when I was in school and remains so.
It's nice to see that the leading local government organization realizes it, too.
ICMA is the International City/County Management Association. Their article mentions that students and adults are "alarmingly" unaware of civics. Given the context the article gives, use of this word is accurate. But if you've been paying attention, as ICMA does, there is nothing at all alarming about our lack of knowledge on civics - even students at elite universities don't know much about this stuff.
That's why ICMA has been working on this issue, in depth, since 2005. Check out the article for some links on curriculums and how to foster a civic ethic in your community.