Civics Across the Curriculum: Educating for Democracy
In recent years, political and social turbulence have given rise to a new urgency around civics education in the United States. Civic leaders, educators and politicians across the ideological spectrum claim that reviving civics in schools will compensate for decades of neglect and ensure the future of our fragile democracy. But more civics learning doesn’t necessarily mean better civics learning. Even when civics is taught, it is typically relegated to history-social science classes, isolating it from core subjects and offering students limited support to help them understand and act on the real-world issues they see and experience in their everyday lives.
"Civics Across the Curriculum" brings together a panel of educators whose teaching and research offer new possibilities for making civics education relevant and impactful. Rather than treating it as a discrete content area, they use disciplines as varied as math, literature and gender studies to help students investigate and reason about complex civic issues. And they demonstrate that practices such as inquiry, respectful discourse and action projects can be incorporated into every class, infusing a democratic sensibility into all facets of school life and helping students practice the skills they need to engage with meaning and purpose in our diverse society.
As we welcome the new school year, we invite you to join us for an inspiring discussion about one of the highest priorities in education today: preparing young people to uphold our constitutional democracy, now and in the future.
Please come early to enjoy a reception before the program, with complimentary wine, soft drinks, and light snacks.
Dr. Garcia will sign copies of his new book, Civics for the World to Come, after the program.
NOTES
This program is part of The Commonwealth Club’s civics education initiative, Creating Citizens.
Speakers
Melissa Gowdy Baldwin
Teacher, English and Women's & Gender Studies, River City High School, West Sacramento, CA
Antero Garcia
Ph.D., Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University
Tesha Sengupta-Irving
Ph.D., Associate Professor of Learning Sciences & STEM Education, University of California, Berkeley
Joseph Kahne
Ph.D., Ted and Jo Dutton Professor for Education Policy and Politics, and Co-Director, Civic Engagement Research Group (CERG), University of California, Riverside—Moderator
