Lori Falce: Put students behind the wheel of democracy with civics

There’s a lot of debate about what kids should learn in school.

What needs to be prioritized? Should reading, writing and math still be the tent poles, or is science and technology where the focus should be? Do we need the arts? What about life skills like balancing a checkbook and changing a tire?

I say all of those are important. So is knowing how to do the laundry, how to act in a job interview, the history of the Roman empire and learning another language. Basket weaving is disparaged as useless — until you need a basket.

But if I had to pick just one subject to get more attention, it would be civics.

Do you remember civics at all? Social studies swallowed it up, along with history and geography. But where history had the storytelling of battles and empires, and geography had all those colorful maps, civics was just … there. It was like the prologue you glossed over. It was reading the instructions for a toy you just wanted to get out of the box.

And that lack of attention shows.

Gen Xers may have the best foundation thanks to “Schoolhouse Rock.” We can sing you the Preamble to the Constitution. We remember how a bill becomes a law. We know that the U.S. government is divided in three rings like a circus.

But for those younger than us — and more than a few older — knowledge of how our government works is a patchwork quilt of half-absorbed ideas. They have the first and second amendments down and maybe the fifth but can’t tell you which others protect what freedoms. “Checks and balances” rings a bell, but it’s distant.

Late-night TV hosts and social media videos are filled with examples of man-on-the-street interviews showcasing the lack of knowledge many Americans have about how their world works.

This neglect is unforgivable. Government is not something that happened in 1776 and stopped. It doesn’t occur in Washington without impact. It’s a nonstop presence in our lives, and we should not just identify it but actively engage with it.

Yet few schools make that connection. They will have kids build machines to test physics. They will put students behind the wheel because you can’t learn to drive without getting in a car. But most send newly minted adults into the world without ever asking them to visit city hall or attend a school board meeting.

This is how we get adults who don’t understand what is shared on Facebook or what they see on YouTube. This is why people decry some protesters as criminals while supporting others as heroes.

It’s also why some candidates pursue office with promises they can’t fulfill — and how voters who don’t know better fall for them.

If we want to turn out the best educated students, we can’t stop at Shakespeare and algebra. We need to better prepare them with civics and put them behind the wheel of democracy.

And while we are at it, more than a few alumni could use a refresher course.