White Paper #1

I believe there should be heavier emphasis on learning American Government, but not in a way that it feels overwhelming to students. When I took A.P. Government my sophomore year of high school, it was only an one semester class. Since the teacher only had 18 weeks to cover a year-long college course, everything was extremely fast paced. Therefore, I felt that I was rushed to memorize facts instead of actually taking the time to actually learn and understand the concepts. If you asked me today to list all the amendments in order, I would be lucky to get a few right. I was shocked to read that, “ … three courses in civics, democracy, and government that were common until the 1960s” (Civic Education and Political Participation). I believe that trend should have continued as students would be required to retain the knowledge learned in civics in order to succeed in the democracy class and so on.

Since I do not feel like I have the knowledge I need to understand what is going on in politics, I am afraid to make a vote that does not truly line up with my beliefs. Although shocking, it makes sense that only one-third of eligible 18-29 year olds voted in the 2000 presidential election because the way civics is taught now in high school is only set up to pass a certain exam instead of actually learning what the U.S. stands for (Civic Education and Political Participation). It is also difficult for young adults to be able to pick out any misinformation, especially if they do not have the basic knowledge behind our government. The younger generation may not realize this, but “the deliberate distribution of misinformation by some politicians, political organizations, and interest groups is common” especially in campaign advertisements (Educating for Democracy in a Partisan Age). This can be dangerous as they head out to vote with the wrong ideas in mind and possibly voting for someone they do not truly stand with. By emphasizing a different curriculum that is slower paced, yet covers important details, students can learn more about how their government and politics work in order to better judge the information that is spread by elected officials.