Educating Citizens versus Sheep, Part 4: Education Framework

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana

I developed this framework during Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series and work I did earlier on serious games. If government funds education, I suspect it depends on the goals of politicians whether they gear education to manage sheep or citizens. If we gear education to manage sheep, the goal is prosperity for elites and control over the sheep. If we gear education to citizens, the goal is individual and national prosperity and liberty. The framework above is to educate citizens and create prosperity and liberty as discussed in the Preamble to the Constitution. I’ll leave it to others to develop a framework for sheep, although there are clear historical precedents for it.

The framework has three major components designed to work together to deliver on the prosperity and liberty. Most schools cover the academic component of the individual skills, many cover some form of life skills, but few seem to cover 21st century skills. Likewise, I suspect that most do a poor job of teaching the citizenship skills as attested by the surveys that show less than two-thirds of citizens can even name the three branches of government, let alone the details in the Constitution that enumerate their powers and responsibilities. Capstone efforts are very rare in K-12 education, and even colleges and universities, rarely include them.

This blog post will introduce the major elements of the framework and subsequent blog posts will cover the components in greater detail.

Citizenship Skills

Citizenship Skills comprise history, civics, law, and culture. The intent is to help citizens understand why we have the government we have and how it works.

History

The opening quote is generally attributed to George Santayana in this general format. But even this seemingly obvious statement about history has…well history and a bit of controversy as Quote Investigator’s analysis shows. History is nuanced and complex. History cannot be understood by simply memorizing some facts. History needs to be experienced. No, I do not mean like the Society for Creative Anachronism or Renaissance Faires. I mean through deep analysis and looking to understand them and how of history. How did events influence each other and what do they mean for today? The founders of The Republic certainly understood history and used this understanding to shape our Constitution. That is clear from The Federalist Papers.

Culture

In Democracy: Is the US Defining the Right Target for National Security?, I argued we cannot expect states to transform immediately into a representative democracy if they do not have the cultural and historical background to support it. The US Constitution did not spring up out of nowhere. It arose from a long culture of some form of representation and voting, dating back to England’s early Anglo-Saxon days and backward to Rome and Greece. Without the Magna Carta and the Enlightenment, the culture we inherited from the British would be very different. While many social justice advocates insist all cultures are equal, as I discussed in Part 5—Does Culture Matter?, they are not. Different cultures produce different results. The western/northern European culture is well suited to developing prosperity and liberty. One final thought in this introductory paragraph. Why did western states conquer so much of the world?

Law

History and culture shape law. Our law is based on precedent, in addition to codified law. Studying history is crucial to understand precedent and whether precedent should even apply or be relevant. We now also see culture influencing law…or at least its enforcement or lack thereof.

Civics

As noted above, less than two-thirds of Americans can name the three branches of government, let alone how the branches are organized and function. This is a powerful indicator that civics education in the US is broken or ineffective. To make matters worse, some schools/school districts intentionally teach the founders were evil and obscure the founding of The Republic. If voters do not understand how and why the government was formed and how it works, how can they vote intelligently?

Individual Skills

Colleges state that high schools do not prepare students for college and the colleges need to teach remedial courses. Employers state that colleges and high schools do not prepare students for work. The three groups that comprise individual skills should take these comments to heart and reform their approach.

Academic

This is the traditional purview of education, especially with reading, writing, arithmetic (the 3 Rs). But by most assessments, US students’ mastery of these skills is falling at the same time education spending is rising. Clearly, we are not preparing students for a complex and highly competitive world. Now teachers’ unions and other education administrators blame this failure on “underserved” communities. But many of these “underserved” communities actually receive more money per student than “served” communities. I have seen some analyzes that say the US would be ranked in the top countries if we remove the inner cities. I suspect that this problem in the cities is two-fold: too much money spent on non-academic activities and a cultural aversion to education. The academic skills are the foundation of the other skills sets in the framework. If students do not master these foundational skills, they will struggle with the other skills.

Life Skills

Schools seem to have removed home economics and shop from the curriculum. These courses taught life skills that all citizens needed, even if they never cast a metal eagle in their life. Understanding tools and how to use them is important, as is the ability to cook and manage a household. Citizens need to understand basic first aid, how to keep a household budget and basic repairs.

21^st Century Skills

Batelle’s 21^st century skills project identified key 21^st century skills and provided tools to teach them. However, the site is no longer active. While I find that interesting, there are other sites to provide resources for these 21^st century skills. These skills are critical for liberty and prosperity. They teach citizens to reason effectively and solve problems.

Keystone

Capstone events provide students with opportunities to integrate skill sets and employ them to understand complex situations and solve problems. Yet few schools provide capstone activities. The literature on capstone projects and programs is somewhat sparse compared to the vast literature on other aspects of education. National University has a good definition of a capstone project.

“A capstone project is a multifaceted academic experience typically required for students during the final year of an academic program. It is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary project that often requires students to apply the knowledge and skills acquired throughout their academic careers to solve real-world problems or issues.

Capstone projects come in all shapes and sizes, including research papers, case studies, creative works, internships, and field placement projects. They are designed to challenge students to think critically, solve complex problems, and demonstrate their readiness for work in their field. Capstone projects are often a highlight of a student’s academic career and can provide valuable experience and skills for their future endeavors.”

I will update NU’s definition by using serious games as a vehicle for the capstone project. But most of the literature on serious games focuses on the use of computer-base simulations. I will extend this to a more hybrid approach that uses simulations in addition to group work off the simulation, as the Army does in its Mission Command Training Program.

The final difference I propose is that capstone programs start as early as the third grade rather than waiting for college. These programs should capture the students’ imagination and unleash their curiosity and creativity.

While none of the elements of the framework is new, putting them together in a holistic and consistent framework that engages students from third grade on is new and representants a significant overhaul of the education system to bring US education into the 21^st century and position it meet increasingly complex challenges as we approach the 22^nd century.