As the political divide in the U.S. grows, there has been renewed attention toward having a standardized civics education curriculum at Stanford. Since 2021, Stanford has established required courses for first-year undergraduates called Civic, Liberal and Global Education, also known as COLLEGE.
Two of the principal advocates of civics education at Stanford — Debra Satz, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Dan Edelstein, professor of French — have spoken about the topic extensively. Satz and Edelstein co-wrote a New York Times guest essay on the importance of civics on college campuses last year, and Satz also teaches a course on “Democracy and Disagreement” last spring.
Now the faculty director of COLLEGE, Edelstein believes that there is a common public misconception regarding what counts as civics education.
“It’s true that an older meaning of civic education that you still find in some high schools is information about government,” Edelstein said. “What we realized when we were putting together the new curriculum for COLLEGE is that that older conception really misses something essential, which is what I’d call a civic mindset.”
Edelstein said civic education should be less about teaching students how many people are in the House of Representatives, and more about helping them develop the skills and attitudes “essential to being a good citizen and being part of a civic community.”
To Edelstein, a lack of civic mindset in the United States is fostered by a deficiency in political diversity within increasingly geographically isolated communities.
“Our biggest problems are coming from a new kind of political polarization that is not just the polarization of people’s ideas, but really a polarization of people’s lives,” Edelstein said.
This lack of diversity, he said, leads to an inability to empathize or speak with people on other ends of the ideological spectrum and to easily demonize those who think differently.
COLLEGE aims to remedy this problem. Students receive a common, standardized curriculum in the three all-freshman courses. The program follows a small discussion format, allowing groups of up to 16 students to practice civic skills like deliberating on issues rationally and thoughtfully considering opposing sides.
Edelstein said that the impact of COLLEGE goes beyond the classroom, since having common readings enables students to continue conversations they had in class.
“When you go back to the dorm, when you go to the dining hall, you’re talking to your friends, many [students] will have just had a very similar conversation,” Edelstein said. “It has this spillover effect throughout the student culture.”
One of the reasons that civics education has become deemphasized is because of the changing role educational institutions play, Satz said, adding that there is an incorrect perception of the role of education in a democratic society.
“Education has been increasingly viewed in a narrow instrumental way: as a means for getting a good job,” Satz said. “And although that role is important, it is not enough. There are other roles for education, including developing the knowledge and skills to participate in collective self-government as an equal member of society.”
Edelstein said that representative governments often charter colleges because of the role these institutions play in ensuring that their graduates sustain a democratic society. Stanford itself was established by a deed from the State of California that recognized the importance of the University in creating a generation of citizens who can participate effectively in democracy and “promote the general welfare.”
“That’s really the idea of a public good – that when you go to university, it’s a lot about you, but it’s also actually a benefit for society to have more educated people now,” Edelstein said.
Carey Chang ’28 agreed with Satz’s and Edelstein’s assessment of the role that educational institutions play in fostering a civic mindset.
“I think that college isn’t necessarily just about preparing you for whatever career you might have,” Chang said. “It’s more about preparing you to enter society, so it should be more of a well-rounded education.”
Chang said that he has seen students in his high school downplay the importance of a civics class in exchange for classes that would be more instrumental in students’ careers.
“AP Government wasn’t a required course, so there’s a lot of people that didn’t take it,” Chang said. “I really thought that there was the perception that people wanted to take the ‘more important’ classes, the ‘more useful’ classes. But I think that civics is still important to being a well-rounded person even if you are into STEM.”
Incoming freshmen are required to take a COLLEGE course for two quarters. The class “Why College? Your Education and the Good Life” is offered in fall quarter.“ Citizenship in the 21st Century” and “Global Perspectives” will be offered in winter and spring quarters, respectively. Freshmen can also partially fulfill the requirement through the Education as Self-Fashioning (ESF) course or the year-long ITALIC: Immersions in the Arts or Structured Liberal Education (SLE) programs.
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