Civic Education in Critical Times

Abstract

Civic education, as a practical (and empirical) matter, usually involves efforts to socialize especially the young into a commitment to the existing political regimes within which they live. Even if the relevant teaching materials include reference to past injustices, the lesson is usually that the society, even perhaps through revolutionary upheaval, confronted them and is now one in which the participants can take pride. So the challenge is imagining a genuinely critical approach to civic education that might present a less gratifying lesson and perhaps suggest that significant, even radical, measures are necessary in order to accord with presumptive notions of justice (or even the challenges presented by, say, climate change). This article addresses such questions both from a somewhat abstract perspective and also from the very personal perspective of someone who believes that the current United States, as well (no doubt) as countries elsewhere, is faced with truly critical challenges to maintaining the semblance of a liberal constitutionalist political order and that reliance, particularly within the United States, on a sclerotic and outdated Constitution is likely to be unable to meet those challenges. This reality (if one agrees that it is a reality) presents particular challenges to legal academics teaching within institutions whose purpose is to prepare students to respect the legal system within which they will be expected to practice.