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For communities to respond to their challenges, they must resolve, for themselves, that their capacity to solve problems requires revitalization. Outside consultants can make recommendations, but without local ownership of a strategy and implementation plan it is not likely that the community will take action. The Civic Index, a twelve point community self-evaluation tool, helps communities develop their problem solving capacity by providing a method and a process for first identifying and recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, and then structuring collaborative approaches to solving shared problems. Today's column discusses the Civic Index component of Civic Education.

Life-Long Learning for Life-Long Civic Participation

Too often, civic education is narrowly defined as a course teaching the mechanisms of representative government offered to secondary school students. Civic education can be, and must be much more than a senior year elective course.

Civic education should have a broader definition than merely knowledge about governmental structures and procedure. It needs to encompass training individuals to participate in the whole of community life; teaching individuals their voting rights is necessary, but so is providing individuals with the wherewithal to form and participate in community organizations, volunteer activities, and non-governmental decision making.

Moreover, in addition to teaching the background information needed to participate in the whole of community life, civic education must also help develop the skills needed and give people practice in exercising those skills.

Finally, civic education isn't only for a community's youth, something to teach the school age population, but should be available to and taken advantage of by, the whole population, from cradle to grave. Individuals should never be denied the opportunity to augment their ability to participate in their community's life.

As such, the job of civic education cannot reside solely within the confines of a community's school system. The private, public, and nonprofit sectors in communities - along with schools and churches - must each take responsibility for contributing to the civic educational culture.

Toledo Ohio's leadership program demonstrates this commitment to, not just teaching the information, but allowing individuals to gain practice and thus skills in participatory behaviors. Forty high school sophomores participate in Youth Leadership Toledo annually though Leadership Toledo. At least one student is selected from each of the 38 area high schools, representing a diversity of backgrounds and leadership experience. Students focus on community concerns, then complete volunteer community improvement projects.

Moreover, Leadership Toledo also provides training and opportunities for adults to further develop skills to effectively function in the community. Participants focus on the needs of the community and the roles they can play in addressing those needs and improving the quality of life. Thus, civic education in Toledo has become a life-long, not just a school-based activity.

The end result of a community's civic education activities should be to engender within the community's residents a commitment to participating in the betterment of that community. Civic life thus becomes not just an activity which one can undertake if he or she so desires, but instead becomes a habit of the heart.

Edward O'Neil, writing in the National Civic Review, explains, "Civic education in its simplest form is the way in which we learn the lessons or modes of behavior that enable us to be a part of the culture we live in. It is, in this regard, education for both the head and the heart… While the study of our public tasks is a necessary part of civic arts, it is not wholly sufficient as civic education. These lessons must also… dwell in our hearts and at times be something we feel strongly about but cannot explain completely. They must include an attachment to justice, a willingness to serve beyond self-interest, an openness to all those who share the rank of citizen, and a perspective that reaches beyond the generation living to those unborn."

Communities have chosen to address civic education in many different ways. Schools have required students to complete community service hours to graduate, so that they have an understanding and appreciation for civic involvement. Newspaper have run series on community topics to educate the population. In Rochester, New York, for example, the local paper ran a series about urban sprawl to make the community members aware of the issues the city was facing.

An individual business can make a positive contribution to civic education ensuring that information about local, state, and national government and politics is accessible to employees - perhaps posted on a bulletin board or available in a lounge area. Businesses can also sponsor public affairs forums for discussion of current events and issues, or permit leaves of absence allowing employees to contribute time to community service. The Hartzell Propeller Company in Piqua Ohio, for instance, offers employees make-up time to tutor in local schools.

Some questions a community can ask of itself, to evaluate the quality of its civic education are:

• Do schools promote or require community involvement?
• Do schools, churches, and youth agencies offer civic education?
• Do civic education efforts involve the entire community?
• Do youth have ample opportunity to engage in community service?
• Are schools teaching citizenship and civic responsibility?

As each sector takes responsibility for the task of civic education and acts on that responsibility, the fabric of the community's civic life will evolve. Comprehensive civic education can promote increased citizen participation and stronger community leadership. Citizens who are educated about their community, their government, and their history will come to believe that their actions matter and that they can make a difference.

For information on how the concepts and techniques presented in this column can be applied in your community or to order a 1999 Revised Civic Index, contact the National Civic League by e-mail at ncl@ncl.org; on the world wide web at www.ncl.org; or by phone at (303) 571-4343.

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