Jacksonville Daily Record
October 2, 2012
by Joe Wilhelm Jr., Staff Writer
A long-time supporter of civics education in schools, former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham encouraged The Jacksonville Bar Association in its development of a program to assist teachers with civics education.
Graham was the keynote speaker at The JBA’s monthly meeting and provided the nearly 300 attendees with statistic from the National Conference on Citizenship.
“What they do each year is take a test, a heartbeat, on the health of civics in America on a state-by-state basis. Where do you think Florida ranked among the 50 states in terms of its level of civic engagement? The answer is we were 46 out of 50. We’ve got a problem nationally, and we’ve got an even bigger problem here in the state of Florida,” said Graham.
The JBA is developing a program to help with teaching civics by making members of the legal community available to assist in the classroom.
Duval County teachers attended the lunch along with Phil Little, Duval County Public Schools coordinator of Social Studies, and attorney W.C. Gentry, a school board member and former teacher.
“This week we are going to have the James Otis Symposium, we have Law Day, we have Law Week, but haven’t yet been able to figure out how to really become a part of our school system in a systematic way to help our teachers teach important values like civics,” said Gentry.
The JBA plans to start a pilot program at five schools in the spring. The tentative list of schools includes Atlantic Beach Elementary, Butler Middle, Dupont Middle, Landon Middle and Twin Lakes Academy.
“We understand that teachers have a tough enough job teaching without having to fit in extra curriculum. What we want to do is ask them how we can help with the lesson plans they already have,” said Ray Driver, president of The JBA.
The "Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Civics Education Act" was passed July 1, 2010. It requires that the reading portion of language arts curriculum includes civics education content for all grade levels and provides requirements for civics education that students must complete for promotion.
State Rep. Charles McBurney (R-Jacksonville) was a co-sponsor of the bill and was recognized by Graham for his work to pass it.
The JBA program is not the only way the local legal community has pursued improved civics programs in area schools. Justice Teaching was created by former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Lewis in 2006. Its ultimate goal is to pair a legal professional with every elementary, middle and high school in the state. Its goals also include promoting an understanding of Florida’s justice system and laws, developing critical thinking abilities and problem solving skills, and demonstrating the interaction of courts within the constitutional structure.
“The problem of civics is not just the fact that the quantity of it has so dramatically shrunk, but also the quality. Most of what passes for civics now is what I call spectator civics,” said Graham.
“We teach people how to observe the game of democracy, but not how to play the game of democracy. It was never intended to be a spectator sport,” he added.