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Evening, Pub'! I think it's an educational issue, mainly. It's been a very long time since last the educational system contained Civics classes, and it seems to me that the transition to what in my day was termed "Social Studies" was a major watershed in the willingness of those with their hands on the curricula to advance the mechanics of American government and the ideas behind them. The loss is the students'.

I'll bounce this to the readers of the thread. How quickly do you think we could come up with a Civics curriculum, and what do you think ought to be in it?

I'll bounce this to the readers of the thread. How quickly do you think we could come up with a Civics curriculum, and what do you think ought to be in it?

Go to a good used-books Web site and look for items from the 1960s, that'll get you an idea of where to start.

Here's something from 1912:

CIVICS FOR AMERICANS IN THE MAKING BT ANNA A. PLASS TEACHER OF ENGLISH TO FOREIGNERS IN DAY AND EVENING SCHOOLS, ROCHESTER, N.Y.

I'm a few years older than you, and I went through Social Studies in grade school and Civics in high school.

Social Studies was a waste of time. Who cares about lindsey-woolsey dresses when the Monroe Doctrine was far more important? Civics as presented was a waste of time, but it led me to read the Federalist Papers on my own.

It also gave me the chance to make some money. One of our assignments was to cut out political cartoons from the newspapers and write an interpretation. Most of my classmates were lost and didn't know their political Left from their political Right. On the other hand, I had just finished a leafletting effort for the Goldwater campaign. I was approached by classmates to write interpretations of the cartoons and hand them over to them so they could pass the homework off as their own. I charged a pretty penny and made a handsome profit on the deal. The teacher never got wise to the high quality of his students' prose.

It was my first dollar earned. A lot of them.

I'll bounce this to the readers of the thread. How quickly do you think we could come up with a Civics curriculum, and what do you think ought to be in it?

I suspect that I could do that fairly easily but only because of my high school history teacher (Mr. Terry Nowlin). He was a Korean War vet (Marine Corp) who, even then, could see where things were headed in our country and chose to make life miserable - or so we thought at the time - for his students. He took us FAR beyond the curriculum requirements of the day and I professed profound hatred for him at the time because of it but by the time I had finished my military service, which included a tour in Vietnam, and went back to school I had realized what a debt I owed that man and those who stood behind him back then.

Years later, to my great surprise and joy, the old man showed up at one of our high school class reunions and I had the opportunity to tell him in person of the regard that I now had for him. We both had a good laugh at the transformation! As that evening was ending we shook hands and spoke again for a moment. With tears in his eyes he said that he hoped what I had told him earlier was true and that I would do everything I could, for as long as I could, to preserve and restore this great republic. With tears now in MY eyes I assured him that I had meant every word and would do EXACTLY that.

Mr. Nowlin is no longer with us but I have never forgotten my promise and have endeavored, to the best of my ability, to fulfill it. I will never stop doing so for as long as I'm breathing.