The threat to American democracy that Romney and Obama aren’t talking about

This article was published by Scott Warren, Iris Chen, and Eric Schwarz in The Christian Science Monitor. Here we read about our public education system, and the lack of its contents. Both president Obama and Governor Romney say they are committed to bettering the public education system. Something our authors think they shouldn’t worry much about, because they don’t really understand what they should be educated on, which is “creating engaged and informed citizens.” Obama and Romney both want to expand educational opportunities; they focus more on getting higher standards, better testing, etc. They do agree that schools have gotten better scores in the past years but they believe that it is a “narrow focus on academics and basic skills.” Their opinion is to teach the younger generations as much about civics as they do about math and science. Getting the younger generations engaged in civic learning will only make our democracy better. They feel that the younger kids get educated on civics and get encouraged to be involved citizens will make them be more involved as they grow up. Involving a lot more civics classes in the education would make a great difference in citizens’ knowledge. "Educational failure puts the United States' future economic prosperity, global position,and physical safety at risk." As the authors said, young people need to become informed, engaged and effective citizens. I completely agree with the authors opinions. Our education system focuses so much on high scores for math and science, and it leaves no room to learn about or government. I myself am pretty good in my math courses, but sometimes I am pretty lost in a government course. Things I should have learned maybe a couple of years ago, I am barely learning now. To be an involved young citizen you need to be an educated citizen, not just on academics but also on civics. If our future president wants to better our education system, they need to not just do it by creating more educational opportunities, but by emphasizing civics education.