Giving Compass' Take:

• Writing for Getting Smart, Kristen Thorson and Erin Gohl emphasize civic education as a means for building a strong foundation of young, informed voters.

• Where can educational funding have the greatest effect? 

• Learn more about where funding for education can have the greatest impact.

With the growth of testing-based accountability systems, focused on reading and math, civics education has not received the time, resources, or outcome reporting to support the declarations of importance.

With the 2020 Presidential election on the horizon, educators have an opportunity to utilize current events as an onramp for discussion and engagement. Students are listening to a myriad of ads, news stories, and interviews dissecting the candidates, policies, and implications of the process and issues in the 2020 presidential race. Schools and families should commit to helping them navigate what they are hearing and provide models for how to be an active, engaged voter and citizen.

Preschoolers are not too young to engage in conversations about elections or the electoral process. The challenge is finding developmentally- and age-appropriate ways to teach the concepts involved.

In elementary school, students are ready to learn more about how our government works generally and the voting process specifically. Most importantly, elementary students can work to build the necessary skills of an informed voter, useful even outside of an election.

In middle and high school, conversations and learning experiences should facilitate students’ ability to assess and understand whether stories and reports they are hearing reflect facts or subjective opinions. We must prepare them to be active and engaged citizens.

Given the contentious nature of our current social political context, exploring political issues and processes with classroom students from a variety of backgrounds can seem daunting. Teaching our students the importance of voting, how to really evaluate the policy implications of a particular stance, and how to work and collaborate with others who might disagree with them to find a common ground is how we ensure the health of our political institutions in the future.

Read the full article about engaging future voters by Kristen Thorson and Eric Gohl at Getting Smart.