Celebrating Veterans Day and Spotlighting Civic Oases in NYS Positive Outlier Schools
By Kristen C. Wilcox & Aaron Leo
This Veterans Day, we take a moment to unpack the concept of “civic engagement”, reflect on the value of community and national service, and connect these topics to ways educators in positive outlier schools promote civic engagement among young people.
CivXNow, a bipartisan think tank, describes education for civic engagement as including three components:
- Civic knowledge and skills: where youth gain an understanding of the processes of government, prevalent political ideologies, civic and constitutional rights, and the history and heritage of the above.
- Civic values and dispositions: where youth gain an appreciation for civil discourse, free speech, and engaging with those whose perspectives differ from their own.
- Civic behaviors: where students develop the civic agency and confidence to vote, volunteer, attend public meetings, and engage with their communities.
Unfortunately, as a recent Brookings report makes clear, the foundation for enhancing civic engagement is arguably weak in the United States. For instance, the limited civic knowledge of the American public is reflected in statistics, such as those reported by Pew Research, that only 1 in 4 Americans can name the three branches of government and public trust in government is now at historic lows.
A weak foundation for civic engagement has had significant effects on youth’s inclination to vote and participate in other governmental and community-based organizations. Less than half of individuals ages 18 to 29 voted in 2016, for example, compared with nearly two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 45-64.
In rural areas, these trends are even more drastic. Of particular concern are what Matthew N. Atwell, John Bridgeland, and Peter Levine call “civic deserts” – places where there are few to no opportunities for people to “meet, discuss issues, or address problems.” While only 30 percent of urban and suburban youth live in such communities, this number is twice as large for youth living in rural locales.
A Civic Oasis at Crown Point Central School
At Crown Point, (one of the schools NYKids identified as a positive outlier because of its unusually and statistically significant better graduation outcomes) our team found that youth were provided numerous opportunities to engage with community members and spearhead activities in service of their communities.
To honor veterans, for example, Crown Point students worked with their teachers and principal to host “Honor Flight” veterans at their school. One student reported that kids were in the driver’s seat for inviting veterans to visit the school and engage in “a question and answer session and some different activities.” Another student, one of whose family members was a veteran, helped lead the effort to bring the event to the school. She explained what this experience meant to her personally and how adults in the school helped make it happen:
My great grandfather was in the Korean War, and sadly he passed away before we could bring him to experience these things. . . . They [veterans] came to our school a while ago when I was in 7th grade. Me and some other people decided we really wanted them to come again, so other kids can hear their story too. We got together with our history teacher. . . . We set up a whole day and they [the veterans] came. It was an all-day assembly. We watched a movie about just what Honor is and we had an interview with other veterans that were not here. And then they did questions and answers with 6th grade through 12th grade. We had that all organized. We had questions that were already printed out for us to ask them.
Students also spoke to the importance of opportunities to connect to other young people outside of their school and experience visiting different communities in their preparation for post- graduation. The Future Community and Career Leaders of America Club (FCCLA) activities, for example, were top on the list of things they pointed to for opening up their views of the world outside of Crown Point and helping them make a contribution.
For more information about NYKids study results on civic engagement see the full case study report on Crown Point and catch up on all of our Research and News, please visit ny-kids.org. We welcome your feedback at nykids@albany.edu.
