Sharon McMahon Joins us to Discuss How We Are Under-Educating Our Students About Our Government

When we discuss topics related to our government, we often ask ourselves, what would Sharon say? We decided to ask Sharon McMahon,, America's favorite government teacher, to help us understand why teaching students about how the US Government works has been defunded and de-prioritized.

Sharon shares her insights on the reality that many students graduate without a proper understanding of how their government operates, often having only a single semester of civics education. We discuss the dangerous consequences of this knowledge gap, not just for individual citizens, but also as a national security threat and a threat to our democracy.

How can we make America great again when we don't know how it works? How can we expect to see change when our students don’t understand how our government functions or the importance of local elections, and what it actually takes to make meaningful and lasting change.

If we don't educate our citizens we shouldn't be surprised by a divided and cynical populace that opts out and screams why bother when it’s all rigged.

We explore the benefits of a stronger civics curriculum that is consistent across states and the challenges in getting there due to our decentralized education system. Did you know that education requirements are left to each to decide or that we have 50 separate state school boards including 14,000 local boards?

Please listen to and share with your community.

Quotes:

"We have under-educated our citizens for existence in a very complex democracy."

"We need to understand the problem before we can make meaningful change."

"The civil rights movement didn’t just happen because a bunch of members of Congress were like, what the right thing to do?" 

-Sharon McMahon

"How are we supposed to make America great again if we don’t understand how it works?" ----Polina Rubin

Zoom In:

• 06:49 Why aren't people saying in government that maybe we should prioritize civics education

• 08:10 The United States has an incredibly decentralized education system compared to other democracies

• 13:27 Whether the federal government should be involved in curriculum decisions is hotly debated

• 20:37 Elimination of Department of Justice or Department of Education could negatively impact students

• 23:23 Thoughts on the costs of education in the US compared to other countries

• 29:31 Every other developed nation takes far more steps to abate childhood poverty than we do

• 31:51 If you have two parents, you're more likely to not be in poverty

 

PLEASE HELP US OUT BY SHARING THIS EPISODE WITH A FRIEND!

Follow us on Instagram at @meantforit

https://www.inst