Civic Intelligence Empowering America’s Youth

By John Minkler Ph.D.

American democracy is at risk unless we change the way we teach civic education in K-12 schools. This book will inspire educators and communities to transform schools by teaching democratic principles, systems thinking, and civic values, with opportunities for community problem-solvng. It describes 53 years of experience with many examples of youth civic engagement. We lack shared values and the political will to cooperate on implementing changes. We lack “civic intelligence,” which will guide us to transform schools and create a new path for America and humanity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798369415566

John Minkler Ph.D.

Dr. John Minkler began teaching in alternative schools in 1971, followed by teaching history and government in high schools and special education classes. He wrote a civic education curriculum in 1996 that won the Award of Excellence from the California Council of the Social Studies and the Golden Bell Award from the California School Boards Association. He was Director of the Bonner Center for Character and Civic Education at Fresno State University, then a Program Coordinator at the Fresno County Office of Education and Director of the Center for Multicultural Cooperation. John is co-founder of the Civic Education Center (www.civicedcenter.org)

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Civic

Intelligence

Empowering America’s Youth

John Minkler, Ph.D.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Foreword

Chapter 1 Civic Intelligence

Chapter 2 Unity from Diversity

Chapter 3 The Allegory of the Cave

Chapter 4 Secrets of the Great Seal

Chapter 5 Democracy in Action

Chapter 6 Honor Our Ancestors

Chapter 7 Systems and Synergy

Chapter 8 Rites of Passage

Chapter 9 Othering and Belonging

Chapter 10 American Civic Values

Chapter 11 Apology to Youth

Chapter 12 Creating our Future

Afterword

Notes

Appendices

Copyright © 2024 by John Minkler, Ph.D. 858221

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024903175

Rev. date:  02/15/2024

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Editors

D.A. Bekerian, Ph.D.

Bruce Greene, retired educator

I’m grateful for:

my family, especially Mary Lou,

my parents, Don and Betsy Minkler,

my friend and partner, Dr. Stephen Morris,

the mentors and educators who support this work,

the staff, partners, and funders of the Civic Education Center,

the American Founders and generations who improved our nation,

the students who inspired me to work on civic education over 50 years.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the native people of this land and to the next seven generations who will live in the world that we create together in the next few decades.

FOREWORD

By Dr. Stephen Morris, CEO of the Civic Education Center

Helicopters were swirling overhead, police cars frantically driving up and down the street with red lights and sirens blazing. My assignment was to blow up a gas station at a four-lane road that narrowed to a two-lane bridge. The National Guard and the police were on the other side, demanding we disband and stop the protest immediately. As a 4th-grade student and a member of the Black Panthers, I was not sure how that dark summer night would end, but it would be forever etched in my mind. Over the years, my failed attempt to ignite a strike anywhere match has taught me the complexities of civic change.

Civil disobedience has always been a part of American history; it led to the Revolutionary War and countless acts of civil disobedience, ultimately leading to the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Those past incidents of civil disobedience seemed so different than what we have experienced in our nation in the last four years. The autonomous zones and riots produced overwhelming amounts of destruction designed to intimidate rather than create constructive change.

Acts of civil disobedience during the Civil Rights Movement came at the end of several weeks or months of failed negotiations to get store owners and other white businesses in black communities to change their practices toward African Americans. In this book, John Minkler asks two relevant questions: Do we understand and appreciate what our ancestors gave us? What are we willing to do to sustain our American republic?

Acts of civil disobedience have occurred when the founding values of the American Republic were set aside for personal or corporate gain. The meaning of democracy, people rule, lays the burden for failures of government on us, we the people, and our inability to live according to our values. This failure is at the heart of social discord and destroys our ability to create a community of belonging. Dr. Minkler challenges us to move from a me community to a structured community of we. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr described this as the beloved community where we all sit at the dinner table to participate in a communal meal with a sense of being welcomed.

This book is a clarion call to use our civic intelligence to pursue the common good and develop the beloved community. It tells the story of Dr. Mnkler’s continued growth to see the beloved community despite personal experiences with race and his privilege as a consequence of America’s failure to recognize and call out its original sin. As a mixture of African American and Cherokee, I know John as one of a handful of white men whom I can trust to live by his values amid conflict. From his life as a peace activist to a special education teacher to obtaining his doctorate, John Minkler has sought to live out the values in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Living according to these founding values requires civic intelligence.

I met John in 1996 at an economically challenged African American school district. I learned that the district had been awarded a service-learning grant. John met with our students and helped them develop an idea for a service-learning project to work with senior citizens. As part of their research, the students learned that many seniors in their community were concerned with fire and smoke inhalation. Many seniors needed working smoke detectors and lacked the resources to purchase and install them. After talking with the senior citizens, the students worked with the fire department to bring free smoke detectors and a fire prevention education program to the senior citizens in their community. This project was recognized by the California Department of Education as one of the finest examples of service-learning projects in the state.

This was the beginning of my relationship with a man who would later become a mentor, a friend, and a business partner. John and I would later start a charter school and form a nonprofit organization called the Civic Education Center. We focus on restoring democratic skills and values to guide youth to express knowledgeable opinions on issues and create projects that impact their communities, in other words, to help youth connect with a sense of civic intelligence.

The former Chief Justice of the California State Supreme Court, Tani Cantil-Sakauye challenged the California Department of Education to respond to the lack of civic knowledge among youth and adults. Our government can work only when citizens know their rights and especially their responsibilities. The resulting Report by the California Task Force on K-12 Civic Learning, published in 2014, called for a renewal of civic education for students in our schools. The Civic Education Center was born as John Minkler and Judge Donald Franson were asked to lead this enterprise in Fresno County. He realized that civic intelligence must be forged with knowledge and skill to create effective change in our democratic society.

The Civic Education Center has worked with hundreds of students across five school districts and three counties in the Central Valley of California. These young people learned to collaborate with diverse individuals who often think differently. They work together in consensus to research and develop projects they will perform while working with government agencies, non-profits, communities, and their schools. Students have served over 3000 hours in these service learning projects throughout the Central Valley, making positive changes without resorting to civil disobedience. These students have addressed issues of human trafficking, immigration, women’s rights, fair employment, fair housing, environmental issues, mental health issues, suicide, drug addiction, police violence, racial issues, and gun violence. By understanding American values and ideals, these students have dared to believe they can produce change.

This book gives you a sense of hope as young Americans undertake civic projects based on our founding values while discovering the joy of serving their community. You will discover students who have learned the art of democratic dialogue to produce change in their communities. There is more than one way to ignite a match for justice and civic change.

Chapter 1

CIVIC INTELLIGENCE

America got a wake-up call on 9/11, 2001, with the Muslim extremist terror attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Three weeks later, I was facilitating a Youth Service Council event at Wonder Valley Ranch, with 40 high school leaders from across Fresno County. The nation was in shock and students were confused about what happened and how it would affect them. My work partner, Jim Coiner, got a call from the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, Peter Mehas, asking us to guide the Council to plan a conference of Fresno County students to process the crisis and to identify service projects, in just 3 weeks!

The Council members were ready as we facilitated leadership activities for 750 students from 19 high schools at the Fresno Convention Center. Through guided discussion and sharing ideas, the students developed a plan. The nation was under attack, so they wanted to affirm the civic values of freedom, unity, and safety in their schools. There were hate crimes against people of Arab appearance, even in schools. The students agreed to organize campaigns at high schools to emphasize American civic values and to protect every student from racist discrimination and false accusations. (article- Appendix A)

At the end of that school year, Superintendent Mehas reported that there were no reports of hate crimes in regional high schools. While many people were afraid and confused, students found a way to preserve those values and serve their nation in this campaign against hate crimes. (editorial- Appendix B)

That was over 20 years ago and now the challenges facing our nation, especially our youth, are more complex and overwhelming. Half of our high school students are depressed, many distrust government and authority, and few feel empowered to address the challenges that face them. This book is a response to that crisis.

Humanity has been dominated by tyrants and kings for over 3 thousand years. However, in 1776, the American Founders brought forth a new form of government. They not only declared separation from England, but they shared a powerful vision, a republic with "inalienable rights and the consent of the governed." In their Declaration of Independence, they concluded, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor (1). Such was its novelty, the idea of government by and for the people has been regarded as the great experiment in democracy. Do we understand and appreciate what our ancestors have given to us? What are we willing to do to sustain our American republic?

America is at a critical point in this experiment. We face overwhelming dangers, including war, poverty, racism, pandemics, suicide, terrorism, and the climate crisis. Citizens have lost trust in the institutions that manage our government, economy, resources, media, and environment. Only 19% of citizens trust the U.S. government (2); and 19% of Americans think that violent protests against the government are sometimes justified (3).

President Ronald Reagan said, Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. (4) If "We the People are the source of authority in our republic, as the Constitution states, then We" need to accept responsibility to solve community, national, and world problems, and to implement policies to reach the goals stated in the Preamble of the Constitution.

It is essential to understand how we got to this point and what we can do to change direction. If the government is the problem, it’s because We the People have neglected to uphold civic values, to participate in democratic governance and to serve the common good. We can do the following to address more intense polarization and chaos:

1.Affirm American civic values and ideals (our purpose and principles)

2.Teach civic intelligence, systems thinking, and civic values