Chapter 11: Conditions Needed For An Issues-Centered Decision Making Curriculum

The purpose of this chapter is to explore three conditions that would provide wider ranging support for the implementation of this curriculum in a particular school environment. Readers should continually ask the following question as they read this chapter: Can school boards, administrators, colleges, faculty at both the school district and college levels, all of whom are necessary players in designing and implementing this curriculum, actually make the changes needed to implement a curriculum that would enhance the quality of citizenship? Briefly, the question is whether the public schools and universities in this nation are able to create and sustain citizenship education programs that are democratic in nature. Can these key actors energetically apply their verbal commitments to initiate and support a more democratic curriculum? Of course, they can—but they must begin (and begin soon!) to alter a curriculum that does not deliver, in terms of creating stronger and more effective citizens. Unless democratic changes are implemented, our democratic system is at risk. Too many of our citizens will become less and less able to preserve it. If we want to maintain and strengthen it, changes in the curriculum are imperative.