While I normally cover the school board or library meetings, this month I want to focus on a specific course that I believe has the potential to have a long-lasting impact on our students and our communities.
In March of this year, I wrote about the return to civics education in our schools. That legislation was authored by former State Representative Tony Cook. It took three attempts to get the bill passed into law.
Based on the discussions at the Statehouse, it is my opinion that some of the goals behind this legislation were to teach our children about the thinking behind how our government was designed, start to overturn some of the negative feelings of what America stands for, and return a sense of duty to our community and our country. The purpose of having that class taught in the sixth grade was to inform our kids earlier and have an alternative to what they may hear elsewhere about our country.
Let me recap some of the standards that were developed by the Indiana Department of Education, as they are extensive.
Students are to learn the key principles and purposes of government as stated in the Preamble to the United States Constitution, identify and explain essential ideas of constitutional government, and explain the concept of separation of powers and how and why these powers are distributed, shared, and limited in the constitutional government of the United States. Standards included the teaching of the primary and general election process for local, state, and national offices as well as identifying the three branches of the United States government and explaining the functions of each. Included is a section explaining the major purposes of the Indiana Constitution. Last but not least is a discussion of the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Every school corporation had to internalize these standards and develop a curriculum around them.
Our first set of sixth-grade students just finished the first civics course this year. This would be a great time to ask those students what they learned in this class.
For some of you, it will help to reinforce the behaviors of a good citizen that you are teaching your children, for others it can serve as a reminder of what you learned when you were in class, and for a few, it may help to clarify what you think civics entails. Finally, every parent, grandparent, aunt, and uncle can give feedback to the middle school teachers about the curriculum.
Since this is the first class to go through this civics course this is a great time to make adjustments if they are needed.
For a more detailed look at the entire civics standards, please go to tinyurl.com/2023CivicsStandards.
Melba Kiser is an outspoken advocate for financial responsibility and transparency in government at all levels. Her column appears at least once each month in The Hamilton County Reporter Newspaper.