KIDS Consortium's Blog

This afternoon in Washington D.C. an event, “For Democracy’s Future: Education Reclaims Our Civic Mission,” kicked-off a national conversation on the importance of informed and engaged citizens.

The event marked the release of the U.S. Department of Education’s own report, “Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy: A Road Map and Call to Action,” and highlights the American Commonwealth Partnership, which brings together schools, colleges and other civic partners to promote civic learning and civic identity throughout American education.

Individuals representing many groups from campuses and communities dedicated to reinvigorating democratic engagement gathered for the afternoon’s kick-off.

The event coincided with the publication of “A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy’s Future,” a report from the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement. A Crucible Moment was prepared at the request of the U.S. Department of Education under the leadership of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the Global Perspective Institute, Inc. (GPI).

Over the next days and weeks I will post video clips from today’s event (I expect that they will be available soon) and excerpts from the reports as well as ideas and thoughts from you and others about what today and the reports suggest moving forward. The reports were released today and to be honest I’ve barely skimmed them. The Crucible Moment report has a “Highlights” PDF that you can review until you get a few more minutes to dig into the rest of the report.

I am looking forward to reading the reports and comparing them to the Guardian of Democracy report released this fall that I mentioned it in a post a few weeks ago. All this attention to civic learning is a positive thing!