MySpace Civics
Jul. 15, 2006 at 12:21 PM
Homeschooling
Sandra Day O'Connor believes we have a civics crisis in America due to a lack of teaching in the public schools,
And according to some the solution is online communities like MySpace and Runescape.
But if this MySpace idea catches on, do you think we can get rid forced education all together? We're always being told compulsory education is necessary to ensure an educated electorate and perpetuate a democracy. Maybe all we really need is a blog at MySpace.
Related Tags: democracy, civics, homeschooling, home education, public school
"Public schools have pretty much stopped teaching government, civics and American history. ... I truly don't know how long we can survive as a strong nation if our younger citizens don't understand the nature of our government. ... That is something you have to learn. It just isn't handed down in the genetic pool."How true that is.
And according to some the solution is online communities like MySpace and Runescape.
God help us if we use the rules of MySpace to determine which behaviors belong in a community!Social-networking sites like MySpace and MMORPGs take the notion of citizenship outside what the state has defined - a common language, region, etc. Instead, in these online groupings, the members find themselves in communities that are multiracial, multinational, and multilingual. And they can break this into smaller subsections of people they like or [those] with similar interests.
"And young people," he continued, "who have very little idea and notion of the concept of citizenship - it's something that happens to other people - are developing an understanding that there are behaviors that they need to belong to a community: the rules of the game."
But if this MySpace idea catches on, do you think we can get rid forced education all together? We're always being told compulsory education is necessary to ensure an educated electorate and perpetuate a democracy. Maybe all we really need is a blog at MySpace.
Related Tags: democracy, civics, homeschooling, home education, public school
1 Comments and Trackbacks
posted by lonestaracademy on Jul. 20, 2006 at 6:16 PM
I can't tahnk you enought for the relief you have just offered me. Now that my older children both have blogs set up AND they both play Runescape, I never have to worry about their civics education again. That is such a load off. RUnescape could probably give us a history credit too since the focus is the medieval time period. Oh, and they buy and sell on Runescape so that takes care of consumer math. SInce they IM on Runescape that will handle their keyboarding requirment.
You mean all this time I have been trying to give my children a well rounded education that includes a course in good citizenship, when all I had to do was allow them to play the very game they BEG me to play anyway???? What in the world will they think of next.