{"id":44080,"date":"2021-06-12T09:41:26","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T16:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=44080"},"modified":"2021-06-12T09:41:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T16:41:26","slug":"everyday-erinyes-270","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2021\/06\/12\/everyday-erinyes-270\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #270"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

This is so counterintuitive I thought it was worth a closer look – a much closer look. More on the other side
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Civics education isn’t boosting youth voting or volunteerism<\/h1>\n
These students at the University of Pittsburgh urged their peers to vote in the 2020 presidential election.
\nAaron Jackendoff\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John A. Tures<\/a>, LaGrange College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

After the insurrection, the impeachment, the trial and ongoing partisanship in 2021, many Americans are looking to civics education as a source of hope, according to George Washington University\u2019s Center on Education Policy, which reports that \u201cNearly all Americans (97%) agree that public schools should be teaching civics<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Center for American Progress<\/a>, civics classes teach students about how the U.S. government works, history about how it was designed and information about how to participate, including voting. After those sorts of courses, it seems reasonable to expect that students should be voting more and engaging in community service.<\/p>\n

But my research shows that states that require civics courses do not necessarily have better test scores, more youth voting or young people volunteering at higher rates than other states. And there may be a connection to QAnon support as well.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a political science professor<\/a> who also teaches government, history, geography and economics classes to college students who major in education. So I strongly believe that civics education is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, though, my research has found that civics education isn\u2019t making the grade. In states that require students to take a civics course, young voters have slightly lower average voting rates \u2013 29.9% \u2013 than states without such a requirement \u2013 31.9%.<\/p>\n

I analyzed data from the latest study by the Center for American Progress<\/a>, which provides information on which states require a civics test, and the voting rates for 18-to-24-year-olds, volunteer rates for 16-to-24-year-olds and average scores on the College Board\u2019s Advanced Placement<\/a> civics and U.S. government test.<\/p>\n