NH Civics in New Hampshire includes this statement on its website: “To develop, nurture, and maintain an informed, engaged, and civil New Hampshire citizenry.” That doesn’t sound too bad.
And since we are desperate, as a nation, to educate children in the subject of Civics, it would make sense that any organization focused on Civics would be a welcome addition in this fight for Civics literacy.
Since Social Studies and Civics has become a political tug of war in the classroom, it would be nice to have a professional organization cut through the politics, and focus on quality academic content. We have an illiteracy problem in this country not a lack of illiterate activists. What we need is schools to ignore the political factions, and focus on good quality academic content so that graduates are literate in the subject of Civics.
One might think that NH Civics would be that kind of organization, but unfortunately when you peruse their website or look at their action items, you can see that they are trying to promote more activism for social justice causes. Social justice is anything but real justice….it’s a recipe for illiteracy.
NH Civics, on their Facebook page, called for action on pending federal legislation (Civics Secures Democracy Act CSDA) that would bribe states to push Critical Race Theory in the classroom.
Here is my comment I added to their post in case they delete or hide it:
Stanley Kurtz has exposed what this kind of federal legislation would do to our local schools, and the Civics Alliance opposed it here. The Civics Alliance said this of the pending legislation pushed by NH Civics:
In practice, the Civics Secures Democracy Act will enable the federal government to impose both Critical Race Theory and “Action Civics”—vocational training for ideologically partisan protest and lobbying—upon America’s schools.
and
…the Civics Secures Democracy Act would supercharge politicized education around the country, at precisely the moment when the public has rejected it.and
Under the pretense of supporting American civic education, this bill would fund education research and teaching initiatives with an unmistakable ideological agenda. The Biden administration made that clear when it issued priorities for American civics and history grants, guidelines which approvingly referenced The 1619 Project and the work of Ibram X. Kendi. The Biden administration history and civics grant guidelines amount to a call for Critical Race Theory in education, and the Civics Secures Democracy Act would fund it.
and
Lobbyists are now actively pushing a revised version of the Civics Secures Democracy Act, with the hope that these revisions will placate critics and garner more bipartisan support. This revised version, however, does nothing to change the ideological partisan nature of the bill.[1] The bill’s end result will be a civics education that divides Americans into mutually hostile factions, forfeiting the common ground that real civics aims to cultivate.
Now that we know NH Civics is actively engaging as a lobbyist for this legislation, they’ve exposed their partisan leftist agenda. This agenda is not to improve quality academic content in the classroom to improve literacy in Civics, it’s a recipe for further dumbing down the subject of Civics in favor of radical political activism.
This organization has tried to present itself as a credible entity in New Hampshire to improve the quality of Civics education in our schools. However, this isn’t the first time they revealed their radical agenda.
Back in 2017, Joel Westheimer was one of the guest speakers for one of their events.
Who is Joel Westheimer? He wrote the book, “What Kind of Citizen…Educating our Children for the Common Good.” You can watch a chat session between Westheimer and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers here:
The common theme is action civics to promote leftist ideology versus quality academic content in Civics.
It was Biden’s Department of Education who released the text of a proposed new rule establishing priorities for grants in American History and Civics Education programs. That rule gives priority to grant “projects that incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives.” The rule goes on to cite and praise the New York Times’ “landmark” 1619 Project, as well as the work of Critical Race Theorist Ibram X. Kendi, as examples of radical political agenda the Biden administration wants to push in our schools.
American History and Civics Education programs can play an important role in this critical effort by supporting teaching and learning that reflects the breadth and depth of our Nation’s diverse history and the vital role of diversity in our Nation’s democracy. For example, there is growing acknowledgement of the importance of including, in the teaching and learning of our country’s history, both the consequences of slavery, and the significant contributions of Black Americans to our society. This acknowledgement is reflected, for example, in the New York Times’ landmark “1619 Project” and in the resources of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History.[2]
Accordingly, schools across the country are working to incorporate anti-racist practices into teaching and learning. As the scholar Ibram X. Kendi has expressed, “[a]n antiracist idea is any idea that suggests the racial groups are equals in all their apparent differences—that there is nothing right or wrong with any racial group. Antiracist ideas argue that racist policies are the cause of racial inequities.” [3] It is critical that the teaching of American history and civics creates learning experiences that validate and reflect the diversity, identities, histories, contributions, and experiences of all students.
Anti-racism IS the racist Critical Race Theory taught in classrooms around the country, and in many forms, violates our civil rights as Americans. So this is what NH Civics stands for?
I suppose it’s good to know who stands for quality public schools in New Hampshire and who stands for dumbed-down activism. If NH Civics is going to play an active role in Civics education in New Hampshire, at least you know what they mean by that.
