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1. THE CIVIC SPECTRUM How Students Become Engaged Citizens Bernie Ronan The Democracy Commitment & The American Democracy Project Orlando, Florida June 3, 2011 Center for Civic Participation

2. Citizenship • Set of skills • Intellectual, emotional & political • Developed over time How Students Become Engaged Citizens

3. A citizen is… “…an active, reflective, critical & empathetic member of a community of equals capable of exchanging ideas on the basis of respect and understanding with people from many different backgrounds” -Martha Nussbaum How Students Become Engaged Citizens

4. Students become citizens • P-20 education • Spectrum or continuum • Theory and practice • Using head, heart, and hands… • Dealing with complexity, conflicts, & choices (“politics”) How Students Become Engaged Citizens

5. “Politics” • Civis – city, civilization, citizen • Polis – polity, policy, politics…city, state, community • The world…the space of appearance • “Association” How Students Become Engaged Citizens

6. Civic Spectrum HEAD • “Knowledge of how to combine…the mother of all other forms of knowledge” • -Alexis de Tocqueville • Phronesis – practical wisdom, prudence, judgment, “thoughtfulness” How Students Become Engaged Citizens

7. Civic Spectrum • “Practical wisdom is concerned with action, it issues commands & tells us what to do.” • -Aristotle • Savvy (savoir faire – to know how to do) HEAD How Students Become Engaged Citizens

8. Civic Spectrum HEAD • Public knowledge – “sharing-the-world- with-others” • Socially constructed • “Democratic politics of knowledge requires a deep respect for the talents and intelligence of ordinary people.” • -Harry Boyte How Students Become Engaged Citizens

9. Civic Spectrum • Deliberation builds public knowledge and develops practical wisdom • “It is the mark of one who has practical wisdom that he has deliberated well.” • -Aristotle • Aiming, like an archer, at best thing to do HEAD How Students Become Engaged Citizens

10. Civic Spectrum • “We become good at deliberating by entering the arena, weighing the alternatives, arguing our case…in short, by being citizens.” • -Michael Sandel • Building “cities in speech” • Crucial to employability HEAD How Students Become Engaged Citizens

11. Civic Spectrum HEAD How Students Become Engaged Citizens

12. Civic Spectrum • “Affection” – feeling of belonging to a political community • Friendship holds cities together. • -Aristotle • Forms people into a community of different-but-equal partners, engaged in common work HEART How Students Become Engaged Citizens

13. Civic Spectrum HEART • Every association involves friendship. • -Aristotle • Bond shaped by what they share • Mutual benevolence, mutually recognized • What’s good for the other is also good for me How Students Become Engaged Citizens

14. Civic Spectrum HEART • Self-interest, rightly understood: • “… where private advantage does meet and coincide with the general interest… • …by serving his fellows, one serves himself… • …that doing good is to his private advantage” • -Alexis de Tocqueville How Students Become Engaged Citizens

15. Civic Spectrum HEART How Students Become Engged Citizens

16. Civic Spectrum HANDS Savvy and friendship bear fruit in public action, getting things done in the world. Learning about political action – “making every citizen an acting member of the government in the offices nearest and most interesting to them” T. Jefferson How Students Become Engaged Citizens

17. Civic Spectrum • Freedom characterizes public action • Not free will, but power • Civic education is empowerment • Beginning – “that there could be a beginning, man was created, before whom there was nothing” • -Augustine HANDS How Students Become Engaged Citizens

18. Civic Spectrum HANDS How Students Become Engaged Citizens

19. “…the pursuit of happiness” • Flourishing • The good life – life spent pursuing the good • Virtues (civic skills) are habits, they take time How Students Become Engaged Citizens

20. “…the pursuit of happiness” • Students need experiences of head, heart and hands that are: • consequential • not episodic • intentional

21. Education and politics • “The main job of politics is to educate children (so) they will become capable of leading good lives.” • -Martha Nussbaum How Students Become Engaged Citizens

22. Education and politics • Colleges must be civic agents • engaged in their communities • addressing community problems • Colleges must develop civic agents • all personnel responsible • curricular and extra-curricular How Students Become Engaged Citizens

23. The Civic Spectrum • “New people” • Wherever you go, • you will be… • a city!

24. Polis Text How Students Become Engaged Citizens