City Club Conversations about Civics

This year's City Club http://www.seattlecityclub.org/  Community Matters Campaign is about what people think should be taught as Civics. Yesterday RantWoman and a number of her uppity, opinionated, income- and otherwise-challenged neighbors got to participate in a round of the discussion. Just imagine!

For background, everyone there had graduated from at least high school but from a variety of cities in WA and other states; at least one person had attended a lot of military schools.

The event opened with an intro quizzing us about a few facts including how many courses specifically in civics are required to graduate from high school in WA. The presenter claims the number is 0; a participant pointed out that there are a number of courses with civics content that are required. So test the premise further.

The exercise requires participants to prioritize a number of components of civic education and civic participation. First people are supposed to score the categories themselves so that the point totals add up to 100. Then people get clumped into slightly larger groups and asked to come to consensus. RantWoman, surprise, wound up in a group of people just as passionate and opinionated as RantWoman though that does not mean we were in agreement.

For instance, RantWoman wanted to burn the box and change the definition of two existing categories as well as exercising our option just to add one. Another person in the group thought the categories should be only about half the exercise and the other half should be some sense of science. In hindsight, RantWoman thinks maybe we should have probed to see whether there would be a way to reflect this person's views within the framework available, but you get the idea, right Dear Readers.

Here is the RantWoman view of our results:
Components / RantWoman round 1 score / Round 2 score and notes.

Knowing how government works /15 / 15

Knowing history* / 15 / 15
*originally "knowing American history," but a number of people in our group besides RantWoman want "world history."

Understanding Media / 0 / 5?
RantWoman thinks this is subsumed in other categories. Others think this merits its own points. No consensus in time allotted.

Listening Skills and Empathy / 0 / 10
RantWoman takes this quality for granted more than she really should. Credit other group members' persuasiveness for the revised score.

Cultural Responsiveness** / 15 / 10
**RantWoman wants to add "knowledge of more than one language." RantWoman's world includes a lot of fog where facial expressions used to be. RantWoman's groupmates did not verbalize any comments about this and RantWoman has no idea what might have registered on faces. RantWoman is passionate about the value of knowing more than one language but RantWoman's groupmates were otherwise obsessed.

Knowing how to express oneself and persuade others / 10 / 5

Collaboration and Negotiation Skills / 10 / 5
RantWoman's reflex when the subject of teamwork comes up is a little "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy First Kill Your Lab Partner." So this is always a growing edge for RantWoman. Teamwork rated the item lower. RantWoman thinks her teammates misunderestimate....

Knowing how to be a Change Agent / 20 / 15???
RantWoman had in mind a whole bunch of things here including knowing how other parts of life besides the government work, knowing how to make efficient use of one's own and others' time, deciding when to act and when to stay back... RantWoman's group mates wanted to assign more points to all the interpersonal categories and not focus on this so much.

Knowing how to lead and Empower others / 0 / 5
This was one of the no consensus items. RantWoman thought this is subsumedin being a change agent, persuasiveness, and collaboration. Others thought differently.

The Add Your Own Category / 15 / ????
One of RantWoman's groupmates is very into the subject of whistleblowers and wanted to add a whole category for that. RantWoman and another groupmate besides the one who wanted more scientific testing throughout all thought there needed to be a category for numerical literacy, including basic arithmetic, ability to evaluate numerical information, knowing the difference between lies, damn lies, and statistics, being able to detect when one is being fed something BOGUS.

Perhaps one indication that numeracy is not to be assumed: more than one person had trouble generating rankings that added up to 100 in the first round. In the second round, the other group just averaged the individual scores for each item so RantWoman did not even pay attention to what they wound up with for a total.

So prioritize that Seattle and check the City Club website for info about further events. http://www.seattlecityclub.org/