Outside the school, a light rain fell, dripping down the old red bricks. Inside the 9th grade civics classroom, shiny-clean students with new fall clothes barely noticed the weather as the opening bell rang, and latecomers fumbled with text books and spiral pads.
A short stocky, red-haired teacher appeared in the front of the room and began. “Good morning, young people. Today, we start learning how to be citizens. When I’m through with you, you will know important stuff about the government of the United States of America and the state of Ohio. Any questions?”
A thin, daring, dark-haired lad in the second row cautiously raised a hand. “Ask away, Gary.”
“Mr. Hopkins, when we are done, will we be able to actually improve anything?”
Hopkins raised a hand to his chin, scratched, and shrugged. “That, young fellow, is difficult to say. I would answer this way. When we are done, if you have paid attention, you will better understand what is going on, what has gone on, what today’s context is, and what improvements, if any, might be helpful. If I do my job, you will have learned that changing things is complex and chancy. You will have learned that every change tends to bring some surprising effects. Whether you can actually make anything change will depend on a lot of factors, most outside your control. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“Actually”, Hopkins went on, “when you begin to understand all the things that have gone on in the USA and in other places, at other times, you may feel better about where we stand here and now.”
“Any other questions? Mary Lynne?”
“Mr. Hopkins. How many tests, and how much does the final exam count toward the grade?”
Worrying about college already, are we? Let not worry about that until later. Here’s how things will work. Each day, I will come in and talk for 20 minutes, followed by a class discussion, then an assignment for next class. Every Friday, we will have a short quiz, and we will discuss the quiz until you understand what your answers should have been. We’ll have a weekly quiz instead of tests. You will each write three 500-word papers or themes about something you care about that is related to the material we are studying. Maybe the final will be a theme, as well. I don’t know, yet.”
“OK. Here we go. So, how does our government actually work, anyway?”
“In case you didn’t know, the USA has legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Legislators (senators and representatives) are elected by the people. The President is elected by the Electoral College. Governors, and mayors are elected by the people, but, a zillion un-elected people are appointed to fill the Executive Branches at national, state, and local levels. Most Judges are appointed by the Executive Branch, while certain judges in some states are elected.”
“All this is not pure democracy. A town meeting is pure democracy. The United States is a Constitutional Republic, a structure invented by a cadre of brilliant people in a bygone age. Their goal was to fashion a machine that would function for a long time, with minimal tinkering, and continue to provide and protect their notion of a “good government”.
“In our time, it’s important to understand that intellectuals during what some of us call ‘The Enlightenment’ were thinking more deeply than people are today about how to design government. If you want an analogy, a government is like a bridge. It might last a long while and continue functioning … or it might sag, list, or fall under its own weight. Democracy cannot design a bridge, and it cannot design a government. Democracy is one of the things that happen inside a government that has been designed to be “by the people, of the people, and for the people.”
“Finally, it is important to understand that none of the Founding Fathers was running for election (though some did later)”.
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