Crittenden, Jack. “Civic Education (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016
Edition).” Stanford Education, 30 May 2013, plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/civic-
education.
Civic Education by definition is the study of theoretical, political and practical aspects of
citizenship, including rights and duties. The word civic comes from the Latin word civicus,
which translates to “relating to a citizen.” It is known that in Ancient Rome, when a Roman
citizen saved the life of another Roman from death while in war, they would wear a garland
made of oak leaves on their head, like a crown. This would give their youth something to aspire
to. Be good, be kind, and be honorable.
Jack Crittenden describes Civic Education as “all the processes that affect people’s
beliefs, commitments, capabilities and actions as members or prospective members of
community”. He mentions that some of the institutions that influence civic education are family,
government, religion and media. He also mentions that being a “Good Citizen” is known to have
been on a steady decline over the past generations. I think the one thing that Crittenden tries to
make prevalent in his book is the impact of being a good citizen and how the loss of being a
good citizen over time has been affected and is reflected in the education system.
He says “It [being a good citizen] must be taught and learned. Most if not all societies
recognize a need to educate youth to be ‘civic minded’; that is, to think and care about the
welfare of the community and not simply about their own individual well-being.” In ancient
Greece, they used to teach education over a life-time that was “deeply formative and life-long
process whose goal was for each person to be an asset to his friends, to his family, and, most
important, to the polis.” This meant that “becoming such an asset necessitated internalizing and
living up to the highest ethical ideals of the community.” They included education in all subjects:
art, sports, history, science, etc. In addition to education, they conceptualized the idea of
excellence in all aspects of one’s life. By combining the two, education and excellence, one
could develop a great deal of knowledge in politics. In other words, every person, no matter their
occupation, would contribute some part of education or excellence when teaching the youth, in
order to develop the “perfect citizen” that knows how to obey laws and “be controlled.”
In my experience working in public health, I’ve witnessed a lot of things. Including work
with criminals, whose problems all stem from (in one way or another) not having a decent
education. Many of our clients have dropped out of school, and fell into a life of trouble because
without education, they cannot find a decent paying job. They end up resorting to stealing,
becoming violent and fighting others, prostituting, among other things, which all eventually
leads to criminal charges. It’s a cycle, and it is a vicious one. In America, we are fortunate
enough to have freedoms that many people around the world do not. With that, we also have
more a government that is designed to play the smallest part in the lives of its citizens. It is
designed to rely on trust. That leaves the citizens responsible for their own actions. It is our duty
to uphold the laws that are provided, but with less and less of our citizens getting equal
education, it’s becoming more and more of a problem. As a society, we lead by example. If those
that are teaching our youth are uneducated, career criminals, then the youth they are teaching are
going to continue those behaviors. If you steal from a store, because you believe nobody is
watching, you’ve broken the law and now you’ve broken that trust. As time goes on, you teach
these behaviors to your children, who pass it down to their children. I believe this is what
