Sign in
  • HOME
  • Called Unto Liberty
  • They Were Believers
  • Founders Corner Library
  • The Radical Academy
  • Scriptures
  • Series
Sign in
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Privacy/Disclaimer
Password recovery
Recover your password
Search
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
  • Sign in / Join
  • About
  • Staff
  • Privacy/Disclaimer
  • IPR, ©, Fair Use
    • Heritage Foundation Copyright Notice
  • Write for Us
  • Contact
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Privacy/Disclaimer
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
SELF-EDUCATED AMERICAN STANDING FAST BY THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN HERITAGE, LIMITED GOVERNMENT & THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
  • HOME
  • Called Unto Liberty
  • They Were Believers
  • Founders Corner Library
  • The Radical Academy
  • Scriptures
  • Series
Home The Conversation: Our Contributors & Guests Write Carl L. Bankston III
  • The Conversation: Our Contributors & Guests Write
  • Carl L. Bankston III
  • Radical Academy: Root Principles & Common Sense

The Civic Engagement Doctrine

2012-01-10
Raising up capable citizens or social crusaders?

BY CARL L. BANKSTON III

“Engagement” is one of the popular buzz words in higher education these days. According to an article (1) in Inside Higher Education, the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement has issued a new report, prompted by the Department of Education as a part of “a push to make democratic engagement a national goal.” I had always thought that in a free society people could choose their own goals. Apparently, this is not the view of the task force or the Department of Education.

I believe the report confuses two very different forms of education. One of these we might call civic studies, which would entail learning about competing political philosophies, the history of government in general and of American government in particular, and current political structure and political process. This type of education pushes no position and involves no proselytizing. It simply provides citizens with the information to make up their own minds and decide whether and how they will be involved in public issues. The other form of education we might call civic engagement learning, which involves preaching the socio-political values approved by the institution and recruiting students for social crusades through mandatory “public service.” This second approach is not only inconsistent with the traditional approach to liberal education, it is inconsistent with liberal democracy.


Footnote:

1.  http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/01/10/report-stresses-civic-learning-strengthen-democratic-process


The Moral Liberal Sociology Editor, Carl L. Bankston III is Professor of Sociology at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. He is the author and co-author of a number of books and numerous articles published in academic journals. An incomplete list of his books includes: Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States (with Min Zhou, 1998), Blue Collar Bayou: Louisiana Cajuns in the New Economy of Ethnicity (with Jacques Henry, 2002), and A Troubled Dream: The Promise and Failure of School Desegregation in Louisiana (2002), Forced to Fail: The Paradox of School Desegregation (hardback, 2005; paperback, 2007), and Public Education – America’s Civil Religion: A Social History (2009) (all with Stephen J. Caldas). View Professor Bankston’s full bio, here. He blogs at Can These Bones Live?


Copyright © 2011 Carl L. Bankston III.


Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
SMF

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Mortimer J. Adler Archive

Adler on Good and Evil

Jonathan Dolhenty

Diagram: The Divisions of Philosophy

Featured Essay

Devolution to Revolution: An Already Demoralized U.S. is Now Being Destabilized

Featured Essay

Cultural Rape: Our Forefathers Condemned as Immoral

Featured Essay

The Golden Rule Is as Golden as Ever

Search Self-Educated American

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Subscribe to Self-Educated American

Enter your email address to subscribe to receive notifications of new posts by email.

RSS – Site feed

RSS feed

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Self-Educated American is syndicated by

ACI INFORMATION GROUP 

ACI is the world’s leading aggregator of editorially selected and curated social media publications & winner of the coveted – peer reviewed – SIIA  CODiE Award for Best Scholarly Research Information Solution (2016), the Modern Library Platinum Award (2017), and several other awards.

Via ACI partnerships, Self-Educated American is syndicated & integrated into the following professional & academic database research platforms: LexisNexis, Moody’s NewsEdge, ProQuest, and Thomson Reuters Westlaw, as well as Copyright Clearance Center and its partners.

It may also reflect usage within the content marketplaces of Industry Dive’s Studio ID and SyndiGate Media’s DISCO platforms.


To our regular readers all we can say is, Thank You! And unto all, whether a first time visitor or a regular, we invite you to take a look around, explore our several unique libraries (via our top of the page menu bar), and if you like what you see please come again and again and share us with family and friends!


Self-Educated American – Standing Fast by the Judeo-Christian heritage, limited government, and the U.S. Constitution, since 2008.



Founders Corner Library: Major Works


Work# 1. Democracy In America, by Alexis de Tocqueville: 1831

Work #2. Notes of the Debates in the Continental Congress: 1775-1776, by John Adams 

Work #3. Novanglus Essays by John Adams 

Work #4. Thoughts On Government, by John Adams—January 1776

Work #5. The American Crisis, by Thomas Paine

Work #6. Defense of the Constitutions of the United States, by John Adams, January 1787

Work #7. Madison’s Notes: The Federal Convention of 1787

Work #8. The Debates In The Several State Conventions On The Adoption Of The Federal Constitution, by Jonathan Elliot (In Progress)

Work #9. The Federalist Papers

Work #10. The Anti-Federalist Papers

Work #11. A Plea for the Constitution of the United States, by George Bancroft 

Work #12.  Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States by Joseph Story 

Work #13.  The Works of John Adams (in progress)

Work #14.  The Works of Alexander Hamilton (in progress)

Work #15.   Common  Sense, by Thomas Paine 

Work #16.  The Genuine Principles of the Ancient Saxon, or English Constitution, by Demophilus

Work #17. History of the United States, by George Bancroft (in progress)

Work #18. Life of George Washington, by Washington Irving (in progress)

Work #19. Commentaries on the Laws of England, by William Blackstone (in progress)

Work #20. Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke (in progress)

Work #21. Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania, by John Dickinson (in progress)

Special Collections

Collection 1. They Were Believers: America’s Founding Fathers on Matters of Religion, Faith & Morality

Collection 2. Called Unto Liberty: Religious Sermons, Writings, & Quotes from the Founding Era through the 21st Century.

Collection 3. Historical Documents: Western Civilization & The United States

Collection 4. U.S. Historical Essays by Clarence B. Carson
COPYRIGHT 2022 © SELF-EDUCATED AMERICAN