Guest column
By Brandon Tubby, Hillsborough High School student
Editor’s note: Hillsborough High School junior Brandon Tubby addressed the Hillsborough Township Board of Education on Feb. 12 and made a plea for civics education as a requirement for high school graduation. His remarks, which were well received, by the school board, are carried here.
A couple of months ago, I was assigned an English project to research a social issue that affects either me or my community. I thought about what could possibly be a big social concern in a township as well off as Hillsborough.
After much thought, I found a severe flaw; my peers did not seem to know much at all about their local government.
To confirm my beliefs, I conducted a survey using Google forms that asked 40 of my peers, scattered across grades 9 through 12, simple questions about Hillsborough such as, “Who is the mayor?” or “Do you feel like Hillsborough has a strong sense of community?”
The results were disappointing and showed a lack of knowledge about our local government; most students did not know who their mayor was, demonstrating that students were clearly not connected with their town. This was extremely discouraging especially since my peers and I are the next generation of voters and leaders to take the reign of our country.
I made it my mission to find a way to educate students like myself about what it means to be a part of the democracy that we live in. I started by beginning to talk to Mr. (Anthony) Ferrera, the township administrator; Ms. Cindy Assini, the social studies supervisor and Mr. (Richard) Fenster, a longtime social studies faculty member who teaches government and history courses at the high school.
From what I learned from speaking with them, they seemed to confirm my beliefs that students did not know how to participate in their democracy and knew next to nothing about how their government works and functions.
I went home one day, and I was stumped about how I was going to solve this serious problem. My mom told me that she had to take a civics class when she was in high school. It educated students about being a citizen in a democracy and the responsibilities that come with the privileges that our predecessors fought and died for.
I looked at her and asked, “What in the world is civics?”
As an Honors/AP social studies student, the fact that I did not know what civics is spoke volumes. I came to learn that civics is the study of citizenship, and its teaching has been on the decline ever since the 1960s.
I began to research civics and it came to my attention very quickly that the lack of civic education in schools is a nationwide problem. Only two states in the entire country, Ohio and Virginia, require their high school students to pass a civics test in order to graduate. (This is similar to state requirements such as the high school biology test).
I shared my early findings with Ms. Assini. She sounded like she was well aware of this large gap in instruction and knowledge. She shared with me an acronym she created for social studies education — “SUPER,” for study the past, understand the present, plan for the future, engage in your community, and read/write/reason.
Currently, the required courses for social studies at HHS are all history classes. The social studies department is clearly not hitting the points in Ms. Assini’s acronym by only requiring history courses for students to take.
History is an important piece of any social studies curriculum but it should not be the only piece. We are taught that we learn about the past to make better decisions in the future, but we are not taught anything that would help us implement what we learn to make changes or a better future.
Early American history, in particular, constantly demonstrates the trials and hardships that our predecessors faced in their effort to establish a successful democracy. Without civics, the extreme struggles that thousands of people fought for are irrelevant to the existence of our youth since a connection between the past and the present is never made.
The reality is, that at Hillsborough High School, the social studies department is illustrating a half-painted picture of what it really means to be a citizen in a democracy.
Without demonstrating to students how to apply the concepts taught in history courses to modern-day situations, the social studies department is providing an incomplete and ineffective selection of studies to students. This needs to change.
John F. Kennedy once said, “Democracy is never a final achievement. It is a call to an untiring effort.” The gift of democracy needs to be maintained; it’s a system that was hard fought for, and not educating our youth on how to lead our democracy into the future is dangerous, destructive and dumb.
I have become so passionate about civic education and the importance of equipping our youth with these critical life skills that I am currently taking an independent study with Mr. Fenster to research civic education and to create a proposal to include a graduation requirement of 2.5 credits of civics.
I understand the difficulties that come with adding a new required course and I have heard many of the challenges it presents from the viewpoints of Ms. (Karen) Bingert, the principal, and Ms. (Hillary) Charley, the director of guidance. All of the flaws that they brought up were only logistical, and they all had practical solutions. My independent study is giving me the opportunity to make sure that the introduction of the requirement, from scheduling to staffing to curriculum, is flawless and provides yet another reason to be proud of our Hillsborough schools.
I understand that creating a district graduation requirement is something that the Board of Education has never undertaken before, as all of the graduation requirements are only from the state. But it does not mean we should shy away from the idea.
I understand that much research has to be done on civic education in New Jersey before the requirement is implemented, and since there is barely any funding for social studies in New Jersey, I have to conduct most of this research on my own. I understand the concerns you may have with this, trust me.
But just take a moment to honestly reflect on what we, as a community, are doing to prepare our students, who are about to become voters, on how to be active and involved citizens in our democracy?
Most students will not come to these findings on their own: it must be taught to them. This is an opportunity to re open the discussion about civics after decades of it being put on the back burner. This is just the beginning for my project, I will look forward to meeting with you all again.