It’s depressing but not the least surprising to learn that our students are abysmally ignorant of civics, so ignorant that few could pass a basic citizenship test. A political science professor at Suffolk Community College in New York administered one, and this was the result …
We were taught that there were certain overarching principles that were almost sacred and without which that “goodness” would fall away. Freedom of speech was a major one; the rule of law and equality under the law was another. That latter principle was why the civil rights movements was so important and why something like lynching was such a a terrible terrible thing. We were taught that it was not okay to cut a great road though the law to get after the devil, as in “A Man For All Seasons” – although without reference to the play about More.
Very little of that seems to be operating in education today, and hasn’t for a long time.
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