In this episode, Dr. Timothy Messer-Kruse, Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at BGSU, and a Spring 2024 Faculty Fellow with ICS, discusses his latest research on the history of civics education in the United States. He argues that the goal behind civics is to teach certain behaviors (i.e. how to be a good citizen) instead of teaching knowledge and facts. Listen to him as he delves into the history of the very idea that we need to teach people how to be (good) citizens, its ties to racist prejudices against different populations and their ideas of citizenship, and the emergence of a "civics industrial complex."
Transcript for this episode available here:
https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/bbikrcMtdha90LbSHK3pNsKWOaRXCa7atdn0n5TgwOeEQjIEP09S_bRst1DrSIJaKijbX-CYgQsyciOvBHHv_VOkQC0?loadFrom=SharedLink
