Good citizenship starts early


Opinion: May 17, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Good citizenship starts early

Toledo Blade: “Pathetic.” That’s what former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor called the results of the civics part of a test given last year to thousands of fourth, eighth, and 12th-grade students in public and private schools across the country. American Bar Association President Stephen Zack said the results are “a wake-up call we cannot ignore.”

According to the recently released test results, 77 percent of fourth-graders, 62 percent of eighth-graders, and 64 percent of 12th-graders scored at the “basic” level. Only about a quarter of the students in each grade scored at the “proficient” level.

If civics knowledge is valuable, civics education must be valued.