Last June I visited Prague, in the new Czech Republic. There, I joined several hundred distinguished civic leaders and educators from Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the United States. Our goal was to find ways to strengthen citizenship and civic education to advance the cause of democracy worldwide.
The Czech Republic, which is about the size of Virginia, was established on January 1, 1993 (the former Czechoslovak state was established in 1918). Millions of U.S. citizens have roots in the Czechoslovakian regions of Bohemia and Moravia, and a large U.S. community has strong cultural and family ties with the Czech Republic. Although the U.S. government was originally opposed to Czechoslovakia's splitting into two separate states, it recognized both the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993.
In the Czech Republic and many other parts of the world, democracy has triumphed, only to reveal how vulnerable it is. In the East, new democracies struggle against great odds to build a culture of citizenship on the rubble of totalitarianism. In the West, democracy strains under ethnic and religious conflict, irresponsibility, crime, and apathy. In worlds so different, the challenges to civic development have much in common.
Although democracy has been embraced in much of the world, it faces new challenges—from complacency and fragmentation in the older, established democracies to a lack of sustained support in the new democracies. For democracies everywhere to flourish, a culture of democracy must be nurtured by citizens and governments alike.
The conference we attended, sponsored by CIVITAS, was an outgrowth of the movement in many democracies to renew public engagement in civic life. Many of the European participants represented non-governmental organizations dedicated to furthering democracy, citizenship education, and civil society.
One strategic purpose of the Prague meeting was to bring together effective civic educators from among practitioners in both "civil society" and school systems. Just as school-to-work education calls for close links between the classroom and the workplace, so citizenship education requires closer links between civics courses and the daily business of public life.
Yet citizenship education cannot be limited to work in the classroom or the efforts of private civic organizations. To permeate whole societies, it must use mass media and other forms of electronic communication. Therefore, participants at the Prague meeting have begun to develop a worldwide research, communications, and distance-learning capability in the civic education field.
Despite the importance of the schools' role in promoting good citizenship, the challenge of civic education is too great for educators alone. They need far greater cooperation than they are now getting from their own peoples, governments, and the international community. In particular, conferees at the Prague meeting urged greater involvement in civic education by international organizations, such as the European Union, the United Nations, UNESCO, and the World Bank. Conferees also called for an active on-line exchange (through CIVNET) of curriculum concepts, teaching methods, study units, and evaluation programs for all elements of continuing education in civics.
Transcending Borders
The cause of civic renewal, although unique in every nation, transcends international borders. The Prague meeting gave those of us involved in civic education from many countries an invaluable opportunity to share information, resources, and techniques. This meeting also spawned new partnerships to strengthen democratic values.
Full civic participation requires the active involvement of private citizens and groups throughout society. We in the United States must work together to reinvigorate the partnership between government and the people it serves, to regain our sense of common purpose, and to take pride in our communities. In this endeavor, education is a powerful force for good, creating order from disorder and fostering civic responsibility. Good civic education helps our children develop into solid parents, neighbors, and contributing members of civic and community groups.
Renewal of our democratic institutions and values is an essential task for us at home, and support for the growth of democracy is one of our key goals abroad. As an international organization, ASCD must join with educators in other democracies, new and old, who share our determination to improve society through civic education.