TEXAS—A group of eighth-graders in Texas may hold the key to restoring civil debate to American Society.
“I just like listening to other peoples’ ideas,” Nathan Lackey, 15, of Pearland, Texas, told The Epoch Times.
He joined dozens of other students in the Texas State Civics Bee, last Aug. 25 at the George Bush Presidential Center.
In addition to bringing home the $500 first prize, Nathan said he gained a new appreciation for the role of civil debate in American history.
“The most interesting thing about it is it gives an opportunity to listen to all these different perspectives of people who are participating,” he said.
Third-place finisher Elijah Munoz of Odessa, Texas, said preparing for the competition gave him an appreciation for the importance of civics, being active in public life, and learning to live with people he disagreed with. He said it’s a message that everyone should hear.
“[Civics] is how everything around you works,” Elijah, 13, told The Epoch Times. “A lot of our problems would be solved if more people cared.
“It would make a big difference.”
Lance Wyrick is a civics teacher from Idabel, Oklahoma. He agrees with the students on the importance of civics.
Civics goes beyond the mechanics of government, he said. It provides students with a sense of shared history and a common culture. It enables people of diverse backgrounds to work toward a common goal.
“It connects them to the larger community. We really have more that unites us than divides us,” Mr. Wyrick told The Epoch Times.
He believes that tribalism and division are inevitable when that sense of shared history and culture is lost.
The survey reports that 29 percent of respondents blamed social media, 24 percent blamed traditional media, and 19 percent blamed political leaders.
Engaged Citizenry Is Important
“But all three of these threats ... would be ameliorated by a more knowledgeable and engaged citizenry,” reads “Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools” published by the Institute in 2011.The report states that only one-third of those surveyed could name all three branches of government, and one-third couldn’t name any. Just over one-third thought the founders intended to divide power between the three branches, with the president having the final say.
Almost one-third thought a Supreme Court decision could be appealed.
According to the Foundation’s website, participating sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students compete for recognition and cash prizes.
Representatives of the Foundation, the Lenore Annenberg Institute, and the National Civics Bee did not respond to requests for comment.
Elijah said he was initially attracted to the competition by the prospect of winning the $500 first prize. But he said that, after competing, he feels he has a deeper understanding of the importance of citizenship. The icing on the cake was the $125 he got for finishing third.
Nathan competed as an eighth-grader from Manvel Junior High School. Elijah attended St. John’s Episcopal School in Odessa. Both got involved when their schools received emails from their respective Chambers of Commerce announcing the competition.
The students entered the contest by writing an essay on an issue in their community and how they think it can be addressed by local government.
Nathan wrote about the problem of people driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He said he chose that issue because he saw so many car accidents on the notoriously busy roads in the Houston area where he lives.
“And so, I was like, this is an issue that’s prevalent, and I could do more research on it to write an essay about,” he said.
Elijah’s essay addressed the need for civics education right up front. He said that as he researched the topic, he was surprised at how little people know about their government.
It’s difficult to solve problems if you don’t have basic information, he said.
Chambers of Commerce Sponsored Students
Judges selected by the sponsoring Chambers of Commerce chose the top 20 essays. Those students competed in two rounds of testing, further narrowing the list to five students who went to Dallas to represent their communities at the Texas State Civics Bee.According to The Civics Trust website, 80 Chambers of Commerce in 23 states are participating in the Civics Bee.
Pearland Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Jim Johnson said Pearland’s businesses jumped at the chance to be involved. According to Mr. Johnson, developing future leaders is vital to building a healthy community.
“By lifting up our next generation of workers, it ultimately lifts our entire community and therefore lifts our businesses,” Mr. Johnson told The Epoch Times.
“I feel confident that the students will see this as an opportunity to further their own knowledge.”
Idabel High School is much like any other rural American high school. The cinderblock building was built in the late 1970s. The school hosts just over 300 ninth- to 12th-grade students, faculty, and staff.
Mr. Wyrick teaches Advanced Placement U.S. History, Economics, and Honors Civics.
He said the school’s administration decided to offer Civics in 2019 after students returned from the annual American Legion Boys and Girls State program. In this program, students run a mock government, writing and passing laws using the process outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
The week-long program is designed to provide in-depth instruction on government for students selected by their local American Legion Posts to attend. Mr. Wyrick said his students, who did not have access to a civics curriculum then, reported feeling out of place.
“Our kids didn’t feel they were prepared,” he said.
The failure to teach civics at that time wasn’t limited to Idabel, said Mr. Wyrick. He pointed out that many factors, from the desire to perform well on standardized tests to competition for federal funding to the desire to prepare students for college, caused some programs to be cut back or eliminated.
“We really got into the ‘every kid goes to college mentality’ at one time, and that was stressed, over and over,” he said.
People Focused on Daily Lives
Nathan’s parents, Kerry and Melinda Lackey, said they often encounter people who don’t understand how government functions in their daily work. They both work with state and local government officials—he is a civil engineer, and she is an attorney.Mr. Lackey believes most people are focused on their daily lives and expect elected officials to fulfill the responsibilities of government.
“We elect these officials to be caretakers of that,” he said.
While that may be understandable, an expert on the U.S. government said the founders didn’t anticipate a hands-off citizenry.
Jonathan Butcher, a senior fellow with the Heritage Foundation, said the drafters of the U.S. Constitution took citizen representation seriously.
“A healthy community depends on Americans being proactive participants. It’s the responsibility of citizens to represent themselves,” Mr. Butcher told The Epoch Times.
It appears, however, that the citizens are not being prepared. Mr. Butcher pointed out that the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), The Nation’s Report Card, has steadily declined across all subjects.
“There’s been a steady decrease in rigor across all subjects. We have no evidence that students are being prepared in the fundamentals. This applies across all subjects,” Mr. Butcher said.
He said that when voters are unaware of their responsibility to be active in public life, they may not realize that discussion and compromise are as much of the process as debate.
He said that under America’s two-party political system, a disengaged electorate makes it easy to inject partisanship and division into the public debate.
“Over the course of U.S. History, the party system has created this stark competitive divide,” Mr. Butcher said.
Marissa Streit, CEO of PragerU, agreed that this has become a serious problem. She said political parties, social ideologues, and others with an agenda have taken advantage of the opportunity to fill the void left by flagging civics curricula.
According to Ms. Streit, many citizens don’t know their history or how America became prominent. She said this leaves them open to ideas that tear down rather than promote American ideals.
“Sadly, our teacher colleges have been teaching educators that our founding documents are outdated, irrelevant, and less important than teaching what they read on social media or in the New York Times,” Ms. Streit wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
She said this has resulted in a demoralized generation unwilling to stand for their country’s highest ideals.
“We are probably the only country in the world that teaches its citizens to hate our own country. This alone has led to tension among citizens, a rise in anxiety with a sense of hopelessness,” She wrote in her email.
Mr. Butcher said it’s essential that all sides of a debate are given equal time and that students understand why their government was designed to promote free speech and expression, even speech they disagree with.
Concise Educational Videos
According to Ms. Streit, PragerU was set up 12 years ago to help fill the informational void. PragerU hosts educational programs on its website, including its “5-Minute Videos.”In these videos, experts address topics or questions from history or current events. The videos are designed to provide in-depth information in an entertaining, easy-to-follow format. It takes months to produce each video, she said.
“One of my favorite elements of the 5-minute videos is that they cater to the short attention span and limited time that most people have,” she wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
According to Ms. Streit, one of the objectives is to get students to question what they are being taught regarding Constitutional issues, such as the First Amendment’s free speech protections.
“Studies show that 80 percent of college graduates believe that hate speech should be illegal. What would prevent the government from labeling any speech they don’t like as hate speech and misinformation?” she wrote.
Renee Earls said that’s why the National Civics Bee prohibits any partisan political participants or sponsors. Ms. Earls is the president and CEO of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored Elijah Munoz.
Respect, Not Agreement, Is Required
Mr. Wyrick said he found that students taking a civics class are more open to others’ ideas when hot-button topics arise. They are more likely to pay attention to what “the other side” has to say.Civics helps students understand that they aren’t giving up their identity or culture by having a conversation, he said, and the students are often willing to compromise once they know the opposing view—even if they disagree.
“I have found it brings kids together. They don’t have to agree. All I ask is that they are respectful of each other,” Mr. Wyrick.
According to Elijah, this is because civics does more than provide a blueprint for government. It outlines the citizens’ responsibilities and rights, such as the responsibility to coexist with people with opposing viewpoints.
“Well, civics goes beyond just knowing how our government functions. People with more knowledge of civics have a higher understanding of one another,” he told The Epoch Times.
Promoters of civics say America was built through the compromise of disparate people in pursuit of a common goal. To implement such principles as the balance of power, the rule of law, the electoral college, and the bicameral legislative process required each side in the political debate to be willing to compromise to some degree.
Mr. Wyrick said he and the students don’t have all the solutions regarding current issues. So, he is focused on preparing his students for future discussions and debates on a wide range of topics.
After all, he pointed out, life is more than politics.
“We as a country are missing something,” Mr. Wyrick said.
“We should be able to sit down and talk about anything. There’s so much more to life than these issues.”
