Many institutions help develop citizens' knowledge and skills and shape their civic character and commitments. Family, religious institutions, the media, and community groups exert important influences. Schools, however, bear a special and historic responsibility for the development of civic competency and civic responsibility. Schools fulfill that responsibility through both formal and informal education beginning in the earliest years and continuing through the entire educational process.

Formal Instruction

Formal instruction in civics and government should provide a basic and realistic understanding of civic life, politics, and government. It should familiarize students with the constitutions of the United States and the state in which they live, because these and other core documents are criteria which can be used to judge the means and ends of government.

Formal instruction should enable citizens to understand the workings of their own and other political systems, as well as the relationship of the politics and government of their own country to world affairs. Good civic education promotes an understanding of how and why one's own security, quality of life, and economic position is connected to that of neighboring countries, as well as to major regional, international, and transnational organizations.

Formal instruction should emphasize the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a constitutional democracy. The Declaration of Independence, which many consider to be an extended preamble to the United States Constitution, holds that governments are instituted to secure the rights of citizens. Those rights have been categorized in various ways but a useful and generally accepted categorization divides them in this manner:

• Personal rights such as freedom of thought, conscience, expression, and association and freedom of residence, movement, and travel.

• Political rights such as freedom of speech, press, assembly, and petition, as well as the right to vote and run for public office.

• Economic rights such as the right to acquire, use and transfer property, to choose one's work or change employment, to join a labor union or a professional organization, to establish and operate a business, to obtain a copyright or patent, and to enter lawful contracts.

Formal instruction in civics and government should be no less attentive to the responsibilities of citizens in a constitutional democracy. An understanding of the importance of individual rights must be accompanied by an examination of personal and civic responsibilities. For American democracy to flourish, citizens not only must be aware of their rights, they must also exercise them responsibly and they must fulfill those personal and civic responsibilities necessary to a self-governing, free, and just society. Those responsibilities include:

• Personal responsibilities such as taking care of one's self, supporting one's family, and caring for, nurturing, and educating one's children, accepting responsibility for the consequences of one's actions, adhering to moral principles, considering the rights and interests of others, and behaving in a civil manner.

• Civic responsibilities such as obeying the law, being informed and attentive to public issues, assuming leadership when appropriate, paying taxes, voting, serving as a juror or in the armed forces, monitoring the adherence of political leaders and governmental agencies to constitutional principles and taking appropriate action if that adherence is lacking, and performing public service.

The Informal Curriculum

In addition to the formal curriculum, good civic education is attentive to the informal curriculum. The informal curriculum encompasses the governance of the school community and the relationships among those within it, as well as the "extra" or co-curricular activities that a school provides.

The importance of the governance of the school community and the quality of the relationships among those within it can scarcely be overemphasized. Classroom and schools should be managed by adults who govern in accord with democratic values and principles, and who display traits of character, private and public, that are worthy of emulation. Students also should be held accountable for behaving in accord with fair and reasonable standards and for respecting the rights and dignity of others, including their peers.

Research has consistently demonstrated the positive effects of co-curricular activities. Students who participate in them are more motivated to learn, more self confident, and exhibit greater leadership capabilities. Further, a major new survey, the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (1997), has found that "connectedness with school" is a significant protective factor in the lives of young people. "School engagement is a critical protective factor against a variety of risky behaviors, influenced in good measure by perceived caring from teachers and high expectations for student performance."

Fortunately opportunities for co-curricular activities related to civic education have been expanding in the United States, and they need to be even more encouraged. Some activities have become regional or national events such as mock elections, mock trials, and History Day. Two nation-wide programs developed by the Center for Civic Education have now involved more than 26 million students. We the People... The Citizen and the Constitution engages students in mock legislative hearings on constitutional issues, and Project Citizen teaches middle school students how to identify, research, and devise solutions for local problems, as well as how to make realistic plans for gaining their acceptance as public policies. Both We the People... and Project Citizen not only bring students into direct contact with government at all levels and with organizations in civil society, these programs have had other positive civic consequences as well.

During the Spring of 1993, Professor Richard A. Brody of Stanford University conducted a study of 1,351 high school students from across the United States. The study was designed to determine the degree to which civics curricula in general and the We the People... program in particular affect students' political attitudes. The study focused on the concept of "political tolerance." "Political tolerance" refers to citizens' respect for the political rights and civil liberties of all people in the society, including those whose ideas they may find distasteful or abhorrent. It is a concept which encompasses many of the beliefs, values, and attitudes that are essential in a constitutional democracy.

Among the most important findings of the Brody study were these:

• Overall, students in high school civics, government, and American history classes display more "political tolerance" than the average American.

• Students in classes using all or part of the We the People... curriculum are more tolerant than students following other curricula.

• Tolerance can be learned from experiences that expose one to the norms of American society and from experiences that require the individual to both explain and defend his or her point of view and listen carefully to the viewpoints of others.

• The highest levels of tolerance were demonstrated by students who participated in the simulated congressional hearing competitions which are an optional portion of the We the People... program.

Present day scholars tend to agree with de Toqueville's observations about the importance of voluntarism and of a vibrant civil society. Seymour Martin Lipset contends that

These associations of what has come to be known as civil society create networks of communication among people with common positions and interests helping to sustain the moral order, political parties, and participation. American... are still the most participatory, the most disposed to belong to and be active in voluntary associations of any people in the world. (Lipset, 1996.)

The record of American youth for community service is of particular interest and is, in general, encouraging. In a recent study involving more than 8,000 students in grades six through twelve, about half of those interviewed reported participation in some type of service activity. Among those who participated regularly, 12 percent gave more that 30 hours and 19 percent more than 10 hours. Almost all (91 percent) of the students who participated in the 1995-96 school year indicated that they expected to continue to serve. (U.S. Department of Education, 1997.)

Among the more significant findings of that study of student participation in community service activities are these:

• While many students were involved, not all kinds of students were involved equally. Those who were more likely to participate were students who received high grades, females, students for whom English was the primary language they spoke at home, and 11th and 12th graders. By contrast, students who received lower grades, males, and 6th through 10th graders were less likely to participate.

• The greater the number of types of activities students were involved in (i.e., student government, other school activities, non-school activities, or work for pay), the more likely they were to participate in community service. Students who attended private schools, especially church-related schools, were also more likely to have done community service.

• Students were more likely to participate if an adult in the household participated in community service and if the highest degree held by a parent was a college degree or higher.

• The great majority of students (86 percent) were in schools that in some way encouraged community service, and these policies were related to student participation in community service.

• Many students also reported that their schools incorporated their community service into the curriculum.