In Civic Engagement Puzzle, Education is Major Piece

Ryan Blome won’t graduate from this summer grumbling about boring civics lessons.

At an event Friday with an emphasis on re-engaging students in civic education, Blome said it’s not that he and his fellow classmates aren’t interested in the subject—they just don’t have many chances to start up a conversation.

"We’re pretty interested," he said. "[We] don’t really have an opportunity to talk about it."

Blome joined local students and Palos Verdes residents, as well as school and government leaders Friday at Peninsula High to kick off a two-day event aimed at boosting civic engagement in the community.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Council of PTAs put together the "Capitol Comes to Campus" events, part of the Council’s Civic Engagement Campaign, which continued Saturday at .

California State Controller John Chiang, Los Angeles mayoral candidate and former radio talk show host Kevin James, as well as 47th Congressional District candidate Steve Kuykendall participated in the events.

During Friday’s kickoff, Marshall Croddy, vice president of the Constitutional Rights Foundation and education committee member of the California Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, talked about the struggle to get students civically engaged through voting, volunteering in the community or participating in student government.

He called on local schools to incorporate more civic learning in the classroom, among other practices, to curtail what he sees as a drop-off in civic education.

"(We’ve) got to look at how schools at all levels are preparing students. ... It starts with education," he said. "An emphasis in language arts and math isn’t taking us necessarily where we want to go."

He pointed to an increasing number of students nationwide who aren’t eager to get involved in civic activities and who lack civic knowledge.

"If we don’t reverse it, at what point does it become a crisis?" he said.

Bill Bloomfield, , said subjects such as civics and economics might be more overlooked than others in school systems.

"You hear more and more of the three Rs, (you) wonder about things like civics and economics," he said.

One required government class in high school "isn’t enough," Peninsula High Principal Mitzi Cress said. An interdisciplinary approach in Peninsula classrooms makes being a good citizen part of every subject, she said, though students still might not grasp the importance of civic knowledge.

"Young people don’t realize the power they have," she said. "They’re not using it."

There’s a need for more conversation among students, Blome said. More current events discussion in class is one practice touted by the California Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools.

"I feel more confident talking about what I believe in [with] students," he said.

Calling the events in Palos Verdes "a model for the rest of the state," Croddy said what happens next is just as important.

"People have to come together and say 'We are going to get involved,'" he said. "It’s more than the school—the community has to be behind this."