At this week’s Round Table, Inica and Kenisha spoke withJohn McNally, a Graduate Student at Teachers College who is studying the evolution and implementation of the Seal of Civic Readiness initiative in New York State as a lever for fostering high quality civic learning in schools. John is very passionate about civics, having served in the U.S. Army for 8 years before going to West Point, teaching social studies for many years, and raising three kids attending public schools in New York. We talked about how to foster civic identity–an issue we too are passionate about; how innovative districts are trying to reach kids where they are; and how to change the social structures around civic education to put it more at the forefront. John is a proponent of bringing civics to life through action civics, which involves students learning how to engage with issues relevant to us and the things that are affecting us, and our future, everyday. We talked about the importance of getting beyond the perception that politics isn’t meant for young people, especially for low income communities of color who we most need to hear from. We explored how we can change the narrative by broadening the image of what civic engagement looks like and working to empower students to tackle local issues— for ex, things in their schools that aren’t working– and to build up from there. We also talked about what civics in school would look like if WE were designing it. Thank you for listening!
