A profound convergence has taken place in American social understanding. In the past 30 years especially, almost every process and protocol has grown more difficult to navigate. At the same time, schools have had to address basic social problems and issues stemming from the opioid crisis and the decline of the traditional family.
The result is that the world has grown extraordinarily complex over the past several decades. That is not the fault of good people trying to keep up, whether in government or just normal life. Ask any elected official, or representative of one, and they will tell you that developing knowledge and understanding of how American life operates requires months of “drinking from a fire hose” to grasp the across-the-board fundamentals.
People living their everyday lives, taking kids to ball practice, going to work, keeping up with the house, and a million other things, often don’t have the time or energy after taking care of their life priorities to study the details and minutiae of issues that profoundly affect them.
Meanwhile, elected citizen officials have to navigate an increasingly complex landscape as they search for resources to address basic needs. Much of the complexity imposed stems from rules passed to prevent fraud or “taking advantage” of, or misuse of resources granted. West Virginia’s unfortunate heritage of sharp-dealing local government officials has helped to burden responsible government entities with mountains of regulations and protocols.
Thirdly, a capability gap exists in the Mountain State between places that have experienced leadership and areas that have less able human capital in key positions. When local officials struggle to understand the systems needed to get the resources that they need, their constituents do not get basic needs met.
That all said, the lack of understanding of how things work among both the citizenry and sometimes government entities themselves presents a real threat to solving problems at both the local and state level.
The West Virginia school system should consider a program of practical civics combined with the proper teaching of history.
First, establish that the teaching of history will not focus on grievance and error. United States history in particular offers much more positive than negative. The sins of America are far outstripped by her virtues and historical teaching should reflect that. History itself is about teaching to understand, not recounting grievances.
After all, if one teaches that the nation is fundamentally bad at every turn, why would the students taught thus feel any loyalty or obligation to her? Plus, teaching American history as a list of evils is fundamentally a form of falsehood anyway.
Equally important, the basic educational curriculum of civics and government needs to be West Virginia oriented and practically crafted. Here is a proposal.
In fifth grade, students need to master knowledge of the basic elements of government. That includes federal, state, and local, as well as the branches and officials’ responsibilities at each level. Again, do not use a nationally produced textbook that will confuse children with mentions of townships, boroughs, etc.
In eighth grade, introduce local level problem solving. One could break a class into units of five, with a mayor, three council members, and a city manager in each. A teacher could get very creative with using examples to teach how these bodies make decisions. One could even use AI to craft citizen bots that would come up with questions, concerns, and ideas that could either be very good or very bad, but the group must address them.
The AI bot could even be “trained” to be confrontational and abusive to the “elected officials” whose roles the students take, giving a realistic view of what these officials must confront in some circumstances. This is important because too few people treat elected officials like fellow human beings when they feel outraged.
At this level students also need to start understanding the basics of economics, working with supply and demand charts, understanding supply chains, and other important problems.
A capstone would come in 11th grade. Students as individuals can be turned loose on long-term projects, such as grant writing for infrastructure projects and other basic priorities. They could be tasked to “manage” a volunteer fire or EMS company and deal with the headwinds against those valued organizations.
Community and technical colleges can build on this by creating a “Grow Your Own” program for local officials similar to what has been done for teachers.
What should be discouraged, however, is the teaching and encouragement of activism as an effective and appropriate response to concerns. Shouting and waving signs rarely promotes understanding or changing of policies, let alone minds. Activism and protest do make those engaged in it feel productive without real accomplishment. It’s almost always akin to the old man shaking his fists at the sky, but often in reality only succeeding in inconveniencing others trying to get on with their day.
With repeated batteries of practical civics education, much can be done to expand learning and understanding while creating a direct local positive in a more knowledgeable citizenry. Some of those citizens could come directly into entry levels of local government staff after graduating from high school or also fire and EMS roles. Others could work in regional planning and development council positions. Active and involved minds need not move away to find success.
Students along the way would also need to develop understanding of how systems such as electric power production and transmission operate, how international trade works, and also, vitally important, personal finance and how that relates to microeconomics. Educating children on the reality of a community, as opposed to a social or ideological vision, will produce much better outcomes and a much more engaged young adult generation.
Education at the elementary and secondary level must focus on producing functional citizens and citizens cannot function well if they do not understand the world around them and how it operates.
This is vital because a free society in a Republic with democratic features needs a critical mass of people who understand how important elements work. We can no longer just assume that young people will absorb this along the way as they have in the past. We can no longer pretend that a society can function without knowing its own foundation and fundamentals.
The frightening question to consider is, do we have that critical mass currently?
