Why We Should Study Civics-
The definition of Civics is the study of the rights and duties of citizenship. In a civics class students learn about the Government, how it affects them, and how they affect it. Learning about the Government is important because one day we all hope to become a part of it, and it is said that one of the main reasons for this education is to create educated voters who will one day choose who will control the nation. The people who will control the nation will also need to know something about governing the nation as well.
In the event that there would be no civics education and people had no idea about governments and how they would work, people would be far from a fair and safe life. Naturally many people would want to take charge and gain the most control, but how would this competition be conducted and how would it be regulated. What would be in place to stop people from killing a reigning dictator and taking control for themselves, there would be constant war between small factions of people scrambling for control and resources. How would the poor or weak survive in a world like that.
The purpose of the Government is to maintain control of the people, without control the world would be a difficult place to live in. The purpose of education about the government is to make sure that a Government is maintained by younger generations who will become a part when they are old enough to participate in important rights and duties. Another important part of the Government is the laws that it puts in place. The purpose of these laws are to protect the people, not as much from each other, as from themselves.
A world without laws would be a hostile environment to anyone. Dangerous activities that harm others would go unpunished. There would be many more dangerous people running around and the people who wouldn’t be afraid to do something about it would be in the few. There would be hundreds of people trying to protect billions of people from millions of people. This would be insanity; but instead of that chaos, having laws and a Government to regulate them is much easier.
In our study of the Kennett population (Jaywalking) we had found an alarming amount of ignorance among the population concerning the history and make up of our country. An example being several people that were convinced into believing that one of our former presidents went to the moon. The question that we had asked was a trick question, but these people should know better. If they had further civics, government, and history education they would know better.
Another part of civics education is learning about the history of Government. This is as important as learning about the modern government because knowing the history answers the questions of when, why and how did we get to where we are at now. Learning Civics is important for many reasons. Everyone should be aware of the importance of Government, the importance of laws, and the importance of the history of Government .
-go to the movies