What I Learned in High School?

5min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

"i wante my kid in that room," says mother of a 13-year-old student studying civics. Students are learning how bills become laws, looking for a mental health bill they can get excited about. "If you go to school every day and you are in an anti democratic environment where your voice is being lectured at, then how do you expect those young people to grow up?" asks the author.

In most American schools, children *hear about* democracy, but don’t get to *practice* it. What would a more engaged brand of civics education look like?

Story reported by Ben James, with host John Biewen and collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Arielle Jennings, Hilary Moss, and Nikole Hannah-Jones.

The series editor is Loretta Williams. Music by the Summer Street Brass Band, Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

Photo: Stephen Buckley, Jelicity Mercado, Bella Goncalves, and Angelica Pareja, eighth-grade students at Pyne Arts Magnet School in Lowell, Massachusetts, with their award at Civics Day in Boston, December 2019.