TEDxSanDiego 2011 - Richard Dreyfuss - Bring Back Civics to the Classroom
oh Jan hi um I am here today as an advocate for a critical piece of Education that has been purposely removed from our schools today this Missing Link is the reason for the uneasy feeling we all share now about what's happening in America we call the subject Civics which is fundamentally important because it's governance with the slightest shift of perception Civics can go a long way to repairing all of our current insolvable problems which are not insolv able and wake people up to their solution and prepare them to achieve the mobility of mind that is the goal of Education why Civics why do we call our war of independence a revolutionary war why it wasn't Independence because there are more struggles for Independence than you can count it was because we the people of the nation were asked to run the nation it is the only class Civics in which that is taught that the ruler and the ruled could be one thing it teaches our children how to run the country before it's their turn to run the country it teaches the citizens of the country that they are the final Authority that they are the ones to be answered to and Civics should teach realistic practical political power not empty words but with the full powers of the Constitution and the legal Authority that stems from it America is revolutionary because education was never ever ever done for the common man ever offered even to read or write because it created frustration and a desire to change one station the higher classes never deny education to their young but never allow it to 95% of the people who have lived on the planet Earth educating all to all was truly revolutionary and it would have gotten us hanged if we'd been a European country the Constitution and its Preamble make no mention of political parties but political parties have become the center of our political process and even the simplest study of Civ teaches that the constitution is the center and some things cannot be solved through a partisan filter you can't have a Republican party highway system you can't have a Democratic party education system some things are shared by all and must be solved by all As Americans Constitution however has become a supporting player and that is counterrevolutionary the Bill of Rights is revolutionary because it's more than a series of laws and responsibilities it is a picture of our future moral character we had the courage to say this is who we choose to be by signing it and making it public the whole world knows every time we fail it and every time we succeed it that is the ultimate American gesture because it was naive and it was profound and it described not what the people were restrained from doing but what the Govern government was restrained from doing to its own people and that is revolutionary to the core it is unique dangerous and beautiful and it has no precedent whatsoever in all of human history and it's become the goal of the entire world if we don't teach our children the people rights and authorities there is no check on the Predators that life supplies if we don't educate our children to Excellence they will lose the industries that took their fam's generations to build here they will be eaten by by competition foreign or domestic and smarter it will create a military that we can't count on to to be smart enough to win and it will turn our political opponents into our enemies as it has already done the tools that are required to run this representative democracy civility descent debate opposing views these tools control the worst of man's nature and we are choosing to trash our Birthright if if excellence in intelligence which is available to all is turned away from untaught it can wreak Indescribable damage our Republican democracy depends on this principle that the people are mature enough emotionally to share space with those with whom they dis agree and that's a high expectation that we have of our citizens so high in fact that it was the very first time in history it was ever asked we say if you can get here you can Rise by Merit in your lifetime no guarantee but we give you the opportunity to rise and lift your station in life to start something fail and start something else say what you want do what you want so long as your fist is not in my face to do it we give you Mobility Freedom and opportunity and we were the very first body of people to offer that in 13,000 years of human history we were and still are a political miracle and our kids don't know what the hell I'm talking about because we don't teach it to them anymore because the norm of human existence is so dark and so bloody and so unfair compared to the twinkle of light of intelligence that we are we offer fairness we offer a legal system that said no one regardless of station or office is above the law the last phrase of the preamble to the Constitution is a promise to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves in our posterity what is posterity it's you it's you and your kids and that promise is deliberately unfulfilled right now that's the reason for America's decay in every sector of society Civics untaught is values untaught and that means when we wake up in the morning we don't know who we are we don't know why we are who we are and we don't know the difference between right and wrong if we don't teach our how our government works in a realistic fashion who runs this country in 30 years because nature uphor is a vacuum it'll be run by someone who will run it for their own interests and who will be assured that we don't know enough to stop them our kids must learn to have have mobility of mind to have an agile mind how to clearly communicate how to explore the substance of an issue how to run a corporation or a military with excellence and with the confidence of their own authority and if we don't our children will turn to us and say how could you have abandoned us like this we don't need everyone in Civics classes to get a 4.0 we don't need everyone in math classes to get at 4.0 we do need enough people to get the best possible education so that the country can be handled in governance and Industry and Science and the Arts by the best and the brightest and the rest are are educated engaged Ed and of value that is the true revolutionary Brilliance of our education system you teach everything to everyone and the cream will rise to the top and the thing that remains is the cream also no reasons that have been put forth to cut these fundamentally critical classes have any common sense they are only excuses there aren't enough hours in the day or our kids can't handle the complexities of the issue or we can't afford it those excuses are an insult to us and to those people who died for those values wrote them out and signed them we are the rich richest country that has ever been and we can afford to do anything we wish if we wish it it's just it's just a matter of setting priorities and if we can't get the leaders of the two parties in the United States Senate to agree that their parties will endorse the Constitution of the United states which they just refus to do pack it up now I founded the drus initiative to create a solution for this problem we have been endorsed by the American Bar Association Common Core common common cause rotary Studies Weekly the National Association of Secondary School principles and super attendance and the Girl Scouts because the Girl Scouts are a perfect metaphor for America we're doing this for a very simple reason to make our kids smarter so I'm going to ask you to do a couple of things right now for the kids who are watching go to school and ask demand that you be taught with Excellence how to run the country before it's your turn to run the country and tap your parents on the shoulders and tell them that you did that and for parents you ask your kids teacher is civics being taught our debate and opposing views and Civility and descent being used as tools is the contrast between America and the rest of the world being clearly taught and most of all parents tap the school's superintendence on the shoulder so they will know that they have your support which gives them political muscle and if you don't have kids volunteer your life experience is of enormous value and you can teach the values of common sense in any subject now no matter what party you vote or even if you don't think of yourself as political at all this must matter to you if you care at all about the quality of life that you will be giving to your grandchildren America takes work America does not happen by itself so go out and make this happen the world needs us thank you [Applause]