The Jane Addams School in St. Paul, MN is important to me. In the summer of 2001 (when it was 102 degrees in the Twin Cities), I visited the school. As on most nights, there were scores if not hundreds of people present: mostly college students and neighborhood residents. The majority of people who live in St. Paul’s West Side are new immigrants and refugees (Somalis, Hmong, and Latin Americans). I observed a staff meeting and then participated in a project, the “Hmong Circle.” We tutored Hmong immigrants to take the Federal citizenship test, and in return they told us about Hmong culture. I was so impressed with the buoyant, democratic, creative spirit of the place that I decided I wanted to start something similar in Maryland. When I found partners with similar motivations, we created the Prince George’s Information Commons.
Monthly Archives: March 2004
the frozen north
what does it mean to be “civic”?
I spend most of my time in and around groups and institutions that have explicitly ?civic? goals: CIRCLE, the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, the National Commission for Civic Renewal, the Kettering Foundation, and the National Alliance for Civic Education?to name just five. Civic rhetoric seems to be spreading and deepening. But what does it mean to be ?civic? today?
Good citizens care about issues and debates?often passionately. They want to save unborn children or to defend women?s reproductive freedom, to rescue the environment or to promote growth, to achieve world peace or to punish America?s enemies. These are matters of life and death, so naturally we want our positions to win, and we are entitled to fight for public support.
But a civic attitude begins when we notice that a great democracy is always engaged in such debates. It matters not only which side wins each round, but also what happens to the nation?s public life over the long term. Are most people inclined to participate in discussions and decisions (at least within their neighborhoods and schools), or are many citizens completely alienated or excluded? Do young people grow up with the necessary skills and knowledge to allow them to participate, if they so choose?
Do we seriously consider a broad range of positions? Do good arguments and reasons count, or has politics become just a clash of money and power? Can we achieve progress on the goals that we happen to share, or have our disagreements become so sharp and personal that we cannot ever cooperate?
Being civic means asking these questions. It is compatible with fighting hard for a position?even a radical one?but it requires avoiding collateral damage to the civic infrastructure. It asks us to worry about long-term civic health, not just immediate tactical victory. And it obliges us to care about our public institutions, not just particular policies.
More specifically, being civic means keeping the following principles in mind:
new article
The winter issue of the National Civic Review contains an article by me on The Civic Mission of Schools. It’s a short summary of the major arguments about civic education, meant for people who are into good government, community development, and civic renewal.
Media Coverage of WMD
Susan Moeller has written an excellent paper about press coverage of weapons of mass destruction. (Short version; long version.) It’s based on detailed analysis of major US and British news reporting during both the Clinton and G.W. Bush administrations. Moeller finds: “Poor coverage of WMD resulted less from political bias on the part of journalists, editors, and producers than from tired journalistic conventions.”