MoMent

A socially cohesive and
economically vibrant US
democracy and a viable, just
global community require
informed, engaged, open-minded,
and socially responsible people
committed to the common
good and practiced in “doing”
democracy.
democracy. In a divided and unequal world, education—from K–12 through
college and beyond—can open up opportunities to develop each person’s full
talents, equip graduates to contribute to economic recovery and innovation,
and cultivate responsibility to a larger common good. Achieving that goal
will require that civic learning and democratic engagement be not sidelined
but central. Civic learning needs to be an integral component of every level
of education, from grade school through graduate school, across all fields of
study.
We are not suggesting that colleges implement a single required civics
course. That would hardly be suffcient. Rather, we are calling on colleges
and universities to adopt far more ambitious standards that can be measured
over time to indicate whether institutions and their students are becoming
more civic-minded. This report therefore urges every college and university
to foster a civic ethos that governs campus life, make civic literacy a goal for
every graduate, integrate civic inquiry within majors and general education,
and advance civic action as lifelong practice (see fig. 4 for specific indicators
in each of the four areas). In so doing, we seek a more comprehensive vision
to guide the twenty-first-century formulation of education for democratic
citizenship on college and university campuses. As this report suggests,
investing in this broader vision promises to cultivate more informed,
engaged, and responsible citizens while also contributing to economic vitality,
more equitable and flourishing communities, and the overall civic health of
the nation.
The Call to Action outlined in Chapter III is designed to make civic
learning and democratic engagement—US and global—an animating national
priority. It recommends building a foundation for responsible citizenship
by making such learning an expectation for all students, whether in schools,
colleges, community colleges, or universities. Everyone has a role to play in
building the knowledge, skills, values, and civic actions that all students need.
The recommendations in Chapter III, derived from a broad base of civic
educators, identify some of the multiple courses of collective, coordinated
actions that can be undertaken by a broad coalition if we hope to transform
civic learning and democratic engagement from aspiration to everyday
practice.
The National Call to Action seeks to restore education for democratic
engagement to its intended high standing and charts a direction for doing
so—a direction that keeps sharply in view both the reality of global
interdependence and the yearning for greater freedom and self-direction
expressed by peoples around the world. Above all, it argues for ensuring
that all college students devote time and effort to the kinds of “real-world”
challenges that every society confronts, and where civic knowledge and
judgment must shape public choices.
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