What can educators do to increase civic learning?
Every institution is different, but it is clear that when you offer your students more relevant courses, and when those courses are of high quality, their learning increases. America’s colleges and universities should usher in a new effort in support of scholarship, faculty education and training, and student organizations in the study of history, political science, and economics.
Specifically, educators can:
- Encourage more courses on America’s founding principles.
- Strive to eliminate ideological biases from your teaching.
- Form a new concentration, program, or center for teaching and learning about these topics.
- Reach out to interested students and offer to advise a student group dedicated to these topics.
- Encourage your academic deans, dean of students, university president, etc., to focus efforts toward the teaching of these topics.
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute offers several resources of interest to educators:
ISI’s Membership Program for college faculty and administrators (Free)
John M. Olin Online Lecture Library (Free)
Student’s Guides to the Major Disciplines (CollegeGuide.org)
Recalling Education (ISI Books)
At War with the Word (ISI Books)
John Dewey and the Decline of American Education (ISI Books)
Civic Education and Culture (ISI Books)
Bonfire of the Humanities (ISI Books)
The Life of the Mind (ISI Books)