By John Fensterwald, EdSource, September 28, 2021
Responding to acrimonious debates over history and politics nationally and in school boards across California, some of the state’s leading advocates for civics education are urging schools to equip students with democratic principles and practices to counter growing “anti-democratic forces that threaten the stability of our fragile republic.”
“Political extremists are calling for either whitewashing our nation’s historic failings or fixating on nothing but our country’s past and present shortcomings,” said the statement by a new organization, Californians for Civic Learning. While schools may not be able to avoid “the tumult,” they can and should provide ways to “navigate these dangerous tides,” the statement said.
The 10 signers included Dave Gordon, Sacramento County superintendent of schools; Bill Honig, former state superintendent of public instruction; Michelle Herczog, past president of the National Council for the Social Studies, and two well-known school superintendents, Michael Matsuda of Anaheim Union High School District, and Bob Nelson of Fresno Unified, the state’s fourth-largest district. Californians for Civic Learning is a new, unfunded organization relying on volunteers working to promote civic learning.
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