Did you know that:
voter turnout rates have been on a fairly consistent decline since the 1950s;
people get together with their neighbors less often today than they did 30 years ago;
people distrust both their government and their neighbors more today than they did 30 years ago?
Even without citations, most people probably accept these trends as more or less truthful (the source is Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone (2000), if you are interested). Many authors have cited this information as an illustration of how rotten our world has become. They long for the "good ol' days" when everyone knew their neighbors and people generally trusted one another.
I'm not so sure that the "good ol' days" were always as "good" as we remember or as "ol'" as we think they are. In fact, when I went to church yesterday, I saw a lot of people participating and know that many of them are engaged in the church by being on committees, service programs, and the like. I also saw quite a few runners out this weekend and every one of them said hi as I passed them.
To be fair, my arguments above are personal, not backed by any scientific evidence. That being said, other academics have questioned the "decline scenario" as well. What is more striking to me is that whether one takes the "decline scenario" position or the "social stability" position, both use Putnam's findings as a reason why we should teach about democratic engagement. Even though we all "feel" that community was/is important, we don't use that as a baseline for our discussions and educational decisions. Why is that?
I think that we have fallen into a trap regarding educational initiatives. Since the 1983 Nation at Risk report, which argued that American's students weren't up to par compared to Soviet students, we seem to only create new initiatives when there is evidence that things are going horribly wrong. Civic education is just one example; the "No Child Left Behind" as well as the fight against obesity are two more really poignant examples. They have all started from a place of "We [teachers] are failing our children!"
What would education look like if we began with what we would like the future to look like and work towards something? Even in a plurality, I'm sure that there are at least a couple things that we could agree on. How about healthy children who know what various fruits and vegetables look like? How about curious children who want to spend time after school developing experiments based on what they learned in their classes? How about juniors and seniors in high school having the opportunities to explore different careers through focused internships related to their coursework? How about students are equally adept at using their iPhones as they are with meaningful, face-to-face conversations?
Are there more places that we can agree? If so, wouldn't working toward a goal make more sense than trying to play catch-up all the time?
