They might feel left out. Only about a third of American adults realized that the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution are the Bill of Rights, according to one survey. And 15 percent of Americans couldn't even locate the United States on a map. Whoever's to blame, the U.S. Department of Education reports that half of high school students surveyed were unaware of the Cold War, and 60 percent don't have a clue how the United States came into existence. So it's time to reinvent citizenship, Lewis says.
Public schools are a starting point.
Civic education died on the vine because it got boring and stagnant. In their classrooms or in the rest of their lives, they're just not getting in the classroom the practical tools they need. What kids are getting in government class is too glib and too removed from everyday life. That's why law-related education is important, she says. A relatively new discipline within social studies, law-related education shifts the emphasis from the study of government to the study of courts.