Opinion: We need to bring civics back to national stage

In the last legislative session at the Roundhouse, lawmakers took some significant strides toward improving the practical value of a high school diploma in this state by giving greater emphasis to financial literacy, world languages, career technical education and other subjects that will better prepare our graduates for the real world.

But I didn’t hear any talk about civics, arguably the most important subject of our time.

Civics, defined as “the study of the rights and duties of citizenship,” prepares us to be responsible Americans. Of course, it’s already being taught in various social studies classes, but lately there’s been a disconnect between how we’re taught to behave in the public arena and how we actually behave. E pluribus unum (“Out of many, one”), our national motto, just doesn’t seem to apply anymore.

We need to get back on the same page — the “civics” page, that is, where we learn that we’re a nation of laws, and that there are ways to seek “redress” for our grievances within the law, without resorting to violence; where we learn about majority rule and minority rights, and what must be respected for our democratic-republic to function properly.

We need to advance the notion of “civil discourse” not just to lower the temperature but to allow for understanding and respect for the opposing point of view. Insults, distrust and outright contempt for those who see things differently — all commonplace in today’s public and political arenas — do nothing to advance the public interest, and they make civil discourse next to impossible to maintain.

Interestingly, our knowledge of civics has been on the increase. Annenberg Public Policy Center has been conducting a civics survey since 2006, when it found that 33% of American adults could name all three branches of the U.S. government (executive, legislative, judicial). In 2022, the same survey found that number to be 47%.

Maybe the all history-making presidential elections, the near-constant tug-of-war for power in Congress, and the highest court in the nation reshaping our laws in tumultuous ways piqued people’s interest in how our federal government really works.

Still, we don’t need a survey to tell us that the civility of our discourse has gone downhill. I’m sorry to say that’s owed in part to the “Fourth Estate,” where too many news outlets have given in to the temptation to place audience wants over the need for good journalism.

In 2021, a consortium of educators put together Educating for American Democracy (EAD) and launched an initiative seeking to provide a “roadmap” to enhanced civics and history instruction in classrooms at all levels.

“Our constitutional democracy is in peril,” EAD states on its website. “After years of polarization, the United States is highly divided, and there is widespread loss of confidence in our very form of government and civic order. For many decades, we have neglected civics and history, and we now have a citizenry and electorate who are poorly prepared to understand, appreciate, and use our form of government and civic life.”

Additionally, educators will tell you that if we’re going to raise up civic-minded and civics-educated children and youth in preparation of their adult lives as taxpaying, voting citizens, it needs to start at home. Talking with your kids about current events, without demonizing the other side; explaining the importance of a free press and informed voting; and helping them to understand they can be part of the solution rather than the problem are all good starting points.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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