Civic Education Must Be Ongoing Process in Democracies

Quigley and Hill speak to Namibians

By Jim Fisher-Thompson
USIA Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- The skills involved in democratic participation -- such as debate and lobbying techniques -- are part of a process that needs constant nurturing, says Center for Civics Education Executive Director Charles Quigley.

He added that such skills can also often be more effective for minorities in promoting their causes than civil disobedience.

Quigley told an audience of Namibians May 12 that Americans have an obligation "to pass on to students the knowledge, skills, and understanding that will not only enable them to perpetuate our (democratic) heritage but also to help further close the gap between the ideals of our society and the reality of our day-to-day lives."

The process in America is known as civics teaching, the educator explained, adding that his organization works with primary and secondary schools to establish curriculum in history and government to do just that.

Speaking via a U.S. Information Agency television hookup linking Washington with Windhoek, Quigley declared that democracy is an effective system in America, "but it is something that needs constant nurturing."

"We have a marvelous country," Quigley added, but there are still social and economic inequities, especially for minorities, that need to be addressed, and "we have a lot of work to do."

Asked if there was a place for civil disobedience in a democracy, Quigley said, "Civil disobedience is certainly a legitimate form of participation" in a democracy, but it should be "a last resort." Usually in a democracy, he explained, people not in the majority can get more action through effective political organizing than through simply protesting.

What civics education should do, he said, is to go beyond teaching students just to vote and "write a letter to their congressman." It should "empower students to participate and have an impact on government in all the ways that are typically seen as more legitimate" than protesting in the streets.

Quigley explained that this means teaching and helping students develop skills at "lobbying, open inquiry, debate, discussion -- at going down and testifying at public meetings -- doing all the homework that is necessary to have an impact on the decision-making process, whether it's local, state or federal government."

He noted that one way schools in America are approaching the teaching of civics is to have students identify a problem in their community that should be handled by government like gang warfare, illegal drugs, and graffiti writing. Next, they identify public policy solutions that have been proposed to solve the problems. The students then choose and articulate their own solutions and, last, develop a political action plan or strategy for getting government to adopt their solution to the problem.

The educator said this method teaches students to: look at local problems, examine them, do the homework required to come up with intelligent solutions, and talk about how they can implement them within the democratic process. "It's a model that might work in your country," Quigley concluded.

A. Philip Randolph Institute President Norman Hill, who joined Quigley on the program, said that in America "we have learned a number of things in our democratic experience," including:

Hill, who is a union organizer with the institute, told the Namibians that "the various skills and participation in decision-making" union members learn to exercise in their labor deliberations can also "be used in general society as a whole."

The goal, he emphasized, for trade union leaders and educators in America and Namibia "is to make the link between the experiences, lessons, and skills developed by participating in the union hall or the workplace and apply them toward broader goals that can protect the gains won at the workplace already.