I’m working ineffectively on lots of separate projects, including trying

to fix the NACE Website so that it works for

older Web browsers. In between things, I’ve been writing a proposal for

a new kind of high school civics textbook. If I ever found a publisher

interested in it, I’d have to shelve a lot of other writing projects,

but it would be worthwhile.

The leading texts for high school government classes are basically political

science primers written at the tenth- or twelfth-grade level. They describe

the mechanics of the federal government as if from a distance, without

explaining how an ordinary citizen can play important roles in community

affairs, without addressing complex ethical and moral questions; without

helping students to reason about contemporary issues, and without describing

civic and political institutions other than the federal government (which

is remote from students’ lives).

Because textbooks deal mainly with the structure of the national government,

government classes have little connection to students’ direct experience

of civic and political issues, which they gain through community service,

membership in groups outside the school, and extracurricular participation.

Meanwhile, students’ practical experiences are largely separate from their

academic work, despite evidence that community service best encourages

civic development when it is combined with learning in the classroom.

In short, there is a profound need for a textbook that combines analysis

of political institutions; guidance about how to think about complex public

issues at all levels from the school to the world; a thorough and challenging

treatment of ethics; and practical instructions for meaningful community

service projects.

A long day that ended at 3:00 am when I finally submitted The Civic Mission

of Schools to the designers—10 hours late. I spent most of the middle

of the day participating in spirited email discussions about specific

points in the 40-page document that raised problems for some of our endorsers.

I think we have everyone on board.

This was a fairly short work day, because I was helping at home in the

morning and then took a 2-hour lunch to discuss with colleagues the final

grades for last semester’s graduate course. (Three of us taught something

called "The

Proseminar in Politics, Philosophy, and Public Policy," a graduate-level

introduction to the basic tools you need to analyze fundamental social

and moral questions.)

The big thing that is going on at CIRCLE

is our soon-to-be completed joint report with the Carnegie

Corporation, entitled "The Civic Mission of Schools." We

worked all fall to hold meetings and email discussions for about 55 people

who are contributors to, and potential endorsers of, the report. The final

draft is now with these people for their last comments, and they are to

decide whether to endorse. Monday is the deadline. Some participants want

changes; the big debate is about whether it is necessary to run schools

in a more democratic manner. For some of our participants, this is the

key to reform. For others, it is risky and unsupported by research evidence.

We are working to develop compromise language that is meaningful advice

to schools. I remain confident that we will have a solid report with 50

signatories. (Meanwhile, I’m spending a lot of my time on practical details

like layout, copy-editing, scheduling the launch, etc.)