What Kind of Citizen?
Political Choices and 1
Reader
C A M P U S C O M P A C T
SERVICE-LEARNING AND CIVIC E D U C AT I O N
W H AT KIND OF CITIZEN?
Political Choices and Educational Goals
by Joel Westheimer, University of Ottawa, and Joseph Kahne, Mills College
, , Each of these quotations takes seriously the idea
of Education under Ronald Reagan, wrote the fol-
lowing:
A democracy depends on schools that help
to foster a kind of character which respects
the law and respects the value of the indi-
vidual. (1985)
That same year, in his book Pedagogy of Hope,
Paulo Freire wrote that,
Democracy requires oppressed groups to
develop political determination, that is, to
organize and mobilize in order to achieve
their own objectives. Education can make
possible such a democracy. (Paulo Freire,
1985)
The next year, Albert Shanker had this to say in a
speech called Education and Democratic Citizen-
ship:
How can we fail to build a world in which
WINTER 2003 the rights due to every human being from
birth are respected? In order to build this
worldwe must [have schools] teach
democracy. (1986)
Finally, some of you may know that President
George W. Bush has recently established a National
Veterans Awareness week and launched a new
school program he noted would rekindle our dem-
ocratic spirit. He called the program Lessons of
Liberty in which:
Published by the National
Veterans will visit elementary and high
Campus Compact with school classrooms to teach the ideals of
support from The Pew democracy and freedom that American
C h a r i t a b l e Tr u s t s . servicemen have defended for over two
centuries. (President George W. Bush)
Educational Goals, by Joel Westheimer &
Joseph Kahne
How People Learn to Be Civic, 14
by Michael Schudson
A Message from Michael S. McPherson, 22
President of Macalester College
United We Serve: The Debate Over National Ser- 23
vice, by E.J. Dionne Jr. & Kayla Meltzer Drogosz
The Vanity of Volunteerism, by Sara Mosle 27
The Good Citizen: A History of American 38
Civic Life, a review by David Greenberg
that schools are essential for democracy. Yet Ben-
nett, Freire, Shanker, and Bush each provide their
own sense of what democracy requires and how
schools can help us to strengthen their respec-
tiveand often competingvisions of a demo-
cratic society. When educators, policymakers,
politicians, and community activists pursue
democracy, they do so in many different ways and
toward many different ends.
For many educators, making the case for democ-
racy and the important role for schools in pursu-
ing it is not difficult. Political scientists and civic
educators are both familiar with statistics showing
that voting rates have dropped precipitously and
that the biggest declines are among young people.
Many know that political participation such as
working for a political party is at a 40-year low
(Saguaro Seminar, 2000). And targeting what peo-
ple dont know about civics remains a favorite pas-
time of not only David Letterman but also educa-
tors and politicians: one study, by the National
Constitution Center, found that only 38% of
respondents could name all three branches of gov-
ernment while a separate poll conducted two years
earlier found that 59% of all Americans could
name the three stooges (Dudley & Gitelson, 2002).
Recent debates about domestic security, individual
liberties, and foreign policy have further spurred
educators to reexamine the role of schools in edu-
cating students to be thoughtful and engaged citi-
zens. Everyone now seems to believe that citizen-
ship is important.
continued on page 2
As long as we remain at the level of rhetoric we can get most educators to agree that
teaching how to be a good citizen is important. But when we get specific about what
democracy requires and about what kind of school curricula will best promote it, much
of that consensus falls away.
What Kind of Citizen?
continued from page 1
In fact, as long as we remain at the level of rhetoric
we can get most educators to agree that teaching
how to be a good citizen is important. But when
we get specific about what democracy requires and
about what kind of school curricula will best pro-
mote it, much of that consensus falls away. For
some, a commitment to democracy is a promise to
protect liberal notions of freedom, while for others
democracy is primarily about equality or equality
of opportunity. For some, civil society is the key,
while for others, free markets are the great hope for
a democratic society. For some, good citizens in a
democracy volunteer, while for others they take
active parts in political processes by voting,
protesting, and working on political campaigns.
It is not surprising, then, that the growing number
of educational programs that seek to further
democracy by nurturing good citizens embody a
similarly broad variety of goals and practices. We
titled this talk What Kind of Citizen? to call
attention to the spectrum of ideas about what
good citizenship is and what good citizens do that
are embodied by democratic education programs
nationwide. We added the subtitle The Politics of
Education for Democracy to reflect our belief that
the narrow and often ideologically conservative
conception of citizenship embedded in many cur-
rent efforts at teaching for democracy doesnt
reflect arbitrary choices or pedagogical limitations
but rather political choices with political conse-
quences.
Editorial Correspondence: Address all correspondence to Josh
Stearns, Project Assistant, Integrating Service with Academic Study,
Campus Compact, Box 1975, Providence, RI 02912, email
jstearns@compact.org. Compact Reader is a publication of Campus
Compact, a separately incorporated subsidiary under the umbrella
of Brown University. Compact Reader is distributed three times a
year. Suggestions for articles for future issues and inquiries regard-
ing submissions are welcome.
We spent two years studying ten programs that
shared a basic set of priorities: they all hoped to
teach good citizenship (through the civics curricu-
lum, service learning, and other means) by engag-
ing students in analysis and action on community
issues. But the different curricula we examined
affected students in a variety of ways, not all of
which were shared across programs. Moreover, the
meanings leaders of these programs brought to
notions of citizenship and to the term democratic
values varied significantly.
In what follows, we detail three conceptions of citi-
zenship that emerged from our analysis of both
democratic theory and program goals and prac-
tices. We also use brief examples from two of the
ten programs we studied to illustrate the need for
more discriminating analyses of programs that
seek to nurture good citizens. We make the case
that educators need to take into account the varied
notions of citizenship reflected in programs and
that decisions we make in designing as well as
researching these programs are, in fact, political.
What Kind of Citizen?
Philosophers, historians and political scientists
have long debated which conceptions of citizen-
ship would best advance democracy (see, for exam-
ple, Kaestle, 2000; Smith, 1997; Schudson, 1998).
Indeed, as Connolly (1983) has argued, concep-
tions of democracy and citizenship have been and
will likely always be debatedno single formula-
tion will triumph. Even though the work of John
continued on page 3
Campus Compact has received financial support from: The
Atlantic Philanthropies; The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Carnegie
Corporation of New York; Corporation for National and Commu-
nity Service; Department of Housing and Urban Development;
Eugene Lang; Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; Ford Founda-
tion; General Electric Fund; John Templeton Foundation; KPMG
Foundation; The Pew Charitable Trusts; Sallie Mae Fund; Spencer
Foundation; Surdna Foundation, Inc.; TIAA-CREF; W.K. Kellogg
Foundation, and WorldCom.
What Kind of Citizen?
continued from page 2
Dewey has perhaps done the most to
shape dialogues around education and
democracy, scholars and practitioners
have interpreted his ideas in multiple
ways, so no single conception
emerges. In large part, this diversity of
perspectives occurs because the stakes
are so high. Conceptions of good citi-
zenship imply conceptions of the
good society (Parker, 1996).
The diverse perspectives on citizen-
ship and the significant implications
of these differences are also quite clear
when one examines dialogues that
surround educational efforts to pro-
mote democratic aims. This vital
intellectual discourse does not provide
anything close to consensus. For
example, Walter Parker (1996)
describes three very different concep-
tions of citizen education for a demo-
cratic society: traditional, progres-
sive, and advanced. He explains that these perspectives by grouping three
traditionalists emphasize an under-
standing of how government works
(how a bill becomes a law, for exam-
ple) and traditional subject area con-
tent as well as commitments to core
democratic valuessuch as freedom
of speech or liberty in general (see, for
example, Butts, 1988). Progressives
share a similar commitment to this
knowledge, but they embrace visions
like strong democracy (Barber,
1984) and place a greater emphasis on
civic participation in its numerous
forms (see, for example, Newmann,
1975; Hannah, 1936;). Finally,
advanced citizenship, according to
Parker, builds on the progressive per-
spective but adds careful attention to
inherent tensions between pluralism
and assimilation or to what Charles
Taylor labels the politics of recogni-
tion (1994, cited in Parker).
Others place a greater emphasis on the
need for social critique and structural
change. They argue that educators
should promote what Jesse Goodman Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than
(1992) calls critical democracy, Ira 850 college and university presidents committed to the
civic purposes of higher education. To support this civic
Shor (1992) calls empowering educa-
mission, Campus Compact promotes community
tion, and Paulo Friere (1970) calls a
service that develops students citizenship skills and
Pedagogy of the Oppressed.1 values, encourages collaborative partnerships between
campuses and communities, and assists faculty who
In striking contrast to these perspec- seek to integrate public and community engagement
tives is the relatively conservative into their teaching and research.
vision of citizenship education put
forward by those who emphasize the Board of Directors
connection between citizenship and
character (Bennett, 1995; 1998; Ben- CHAIR
nett, Cribb, & Finn, 1999). Rather J. Bernard Machen University of Utah
than viewing the problems in need of
VICE-CHAIRS
attention as structural, they emphasize
problems in society caused by per- Mark Gearan Hobart and William Smith
Colleges
sonal deficits. This view harkens back
Lucille Jordan New Hampshire Community
to what Shudson (1998) descibes as a Technical College
vision of colonial citizenship built
MEMBERS
on social hierarchy and the traditions
of public service, personal integrity, Anne Cairns Federlein Central Ohio Technical
College/OSU-Newark
[and] charitable giving (294).
Joanne Creighton Mount Holyoke College
Theresa Cusimano Colorado Campus Compact
Three Kinds of Citizens
Deborah DiCroce Tidewater Community College
Our framework aims to order some of
Evan S. Dobelle University of Hawaii
differing kinds of answers to a ques- Jennifer Dorr Washington Campus
Compact
tion that is of central importance for
both practitioners and scholars: What Donald Harward Bates College, Emeritus
kind of citizen do we need to support Martin Jischke Purdue University
an effective democratic society? In map- Marianne Keler Sallie Mae
ping the terrain that surrounds Leo Lambert Elon University
answers to this question, we found
Paul Locatelli, S.J. Santa Clara University
that three visions of citizenship were
Audrey Forbes Spelman College, Emeritus
particularly helpful in making sense of Manley, M.D.
the variation: the personally responsible
Bernard Milano KPMG Foundation
citizen; the participatory citizen; and
Toni Murdock Antioch University Seattle
the justice-oriented citizen.
Diana Natalicio University of Texas at El Paso
These three categories were chosen Frank Newman Brown University
because they satisfied our two main Eduardo Padrn Miami-Dade
criteria: 1) they aligned well with Community College
prominent theoretical perspectives Judith Rodin University of Pennsylvania
described above, and 2) they articulate Michael J. Regis University
ideas and ideals that resonate with Sheeran, S..J.
practitioners (teachers, administra-
tors, and curriculum designers). To
E X E C U T I V E S TA F F
that end, we consulted with both the
ten teams of educators whose work we Elizabeth Hollander Executive Director
studied and with other leaders in the Brooke Beaird Associate Director
field in an effort to create categories
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 What Kind of Citizen?
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and descriptions that aligned well with and
communicated clearly their differing priori-
ties.2
A caveat: although these three categories
were chosen to highlight important differ-
ences in the ways educators conceive of
democratic educational aims, we do not
mean to imply that a given program might
not simultaneously further more than one
of these agendas. These categories were not
designed to be mutually exclusive. At the
same time, we believe that drawing attention
to the distinctions between these visions of
citizenship is important. It highlights the
importance of examining the underlying
goals and assumptions that drive different
educational programs in design and
practice.
The Personally Responsible Citizen
The personally responsible citizen acts respon-
sibly in his or her community by, for exam-
ple, picking up litter, giving blood, recycling,
volunteering, and staying out of debt. The
personally responsible citizen works and
pays taxes, obeys laws, and helps those in
need during crises such as snowstorms or
floods. The personally responsible citizen
contributes to food or clothing drives when
asked and volunteers to help those less for-
tunate, for instance in a soup kitchen or a
senior center. S/he might contribute time,
money, or both to charitable causes.
Both those in the character education move-
ment and many of those who advocate com-
munity service would emphasize this indi-
vidualistic vision of good citizenship.
Programs that seek to develop personally
responsible citizens hope to build character
and personal responsibility by emphasizing
Programs that seek to develop personally responsible
citizens hope to build character and personal
responsibility by emphasizing honesty, integrity,
self-discipline, and hard work.
honesty, integrity, self-discipline, and hard
work (Horace Mann, 1838; and currently
proponents such as Lickona, 1993; Wynne,
1986). The Character Counts! Coalition, for
example, advocates teaching students to
treat others with respectdeal peacefully
with angerbe considerate of the feelings
of othersfollow the Golden Ruleuse
good manners and so on. They want stu-
dents not to threaten, hit, or hurt anyone
[or use] bad language (Character Counts!,
1996). Other programs that seek to develop
personally responsible citizens hope to nur-
ture compassion by engaging students in
volunteer activities. As illustrated in the mis-
sion of the Points of Light Foundation, these
programs hope to help solve serious social
problems by engag[ing] more people more
effectively in volunteer service
(www.pointsoflight.org, April 2000).
The Participatory Citizen
Other educators see good citizens as those
who actively participate in the civic affairs
and the social life of the community at the
local, state, and national level. We call this
kind of citizen the participatory citizen. Pro-
ponents of this vision emphasize preparing
students to engage in collective, commu-
nity-based efforts. Educational programs
designed to support the development of
participatory citizens focus on teaching stu-
dents about how government and other
institutions (e.g., community based organi-
zations, churches) work and about the
importance of planning and participating in
organized efforts to care for those in need or
to guide school policies, for example. Skills
associated with such collective
endeavorssuch as how to run a
meetingare also viewed as important
(Newmann, 1975; also see Verba, at al., 1995
for an empirical analysis of the importance
of such skills and activities). While the per-
sonally responsible citizen would contribute
cans of food for the homeless, the participa-
tory citizen might organize the food drive.
In the tradition of De Tocqueville, propo-
nents of participatory citizenship argue that
civic participation transcends particular
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What Kind of Citizen?
continued from page 4
community problems or opportunities. It also devel-
ops relationships, common understandings, trust, and
collective commitments. This perspective, like Ben-
jamin Barbers notion of strong democracy, adopts a
broad notion of the political sphereone in which cit-
izens with competing but overlapping interests can
contrive to live together communally (1984, 118).
Similar themes have been emphasized throughout this
nations history. Dewey (1916) put forward a vision of
Democracy As a Way of Life and emphasized partici-
pation in collective endeavors. To support the efficacy
of these collective efforts, he also emphasized commit-
ments to communication, experimentation, and scien-
tifically informed dialogues. Such commitments were
also prevalent in the educational writings of the
nations founders. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
Franklin, and others viewed informed participation in
civic life as a fundamental support for a democratic
society and saw education as a chief means for further-
ing this goal (Pangle & Pangle, 1993).
The Justice-Oriented Citizen
Our third image of a good citizen is, perhaps, the per-
spective that is least commonly pursued. We refer to
this view as the justice-oriented citizen because advo-
cates of these priorities use rhetoric and analysis that
calls explicit attention to matters of injustice and to
the importance of pursuing social justice. Although
educators aiming to promote justice-oriented citizens
may well employ a curriculum that makes political
issues more explicit than those who emphasize per-
sonal responsibility or participatory citizenship, the
focus on social change and social justice does not
imply an emphasis on particular political perspectives,
conclusions, or priorities. Rather, justice-oriented citi-
zens critically assess social, political, and economic
structures and consider collective strategies for change
that challenge injustice and, when possible, address
root causes of problems. The vision of the justice-ori-
ented citizen shares with the vision of the participa-
tory citizen an emphasis on collective work related to
the life and issues of the community. Its emphasis on
responding to social problems and on structural cri-
tique makes it somewhat different, however. Building
on perspectives like those of Freire, Shor, and Good-
man noted earlier, educational programs that empha-
size social change seek to prepare students to improve
society by critically analyzing and addressing social
issues and injustices. These programs are less likely to
emphasize the need for charity and volunteerism as
ends in themselves and more likely to teach about
social movements and how to effect systemic change
(See, for example, Issac, 1995; Bigelow and Diamond,
1988). While those who support the development of
participatory citizens might emphasize developing stu-
dents skills and commitments so that they could and
would choose to organize the collection of clothing for
members of the community who cant afford it, those
who seek to support the development of justice-ori-
ented citizens would empha-
size helping students challenge Those who seek to support the
structural causes of poverty
and devise possible responses. development of justice-
In other words, if participa-
oriented citizens would
tory citizens are organizing
the food drive and personally emphasize helping students
responsible citizens are donat-
ing food, justice-oriented citi- challenge structural causes
zens are asking why people are
of poverty and devise
hungry and acting on what
they discover. That todays cit- possible responses.
izens are bowling alone
(Putnam, 2000) would worry
those focused on civic participation. Those who
emphasize social justice, however, would worry more
that when citizens do get together, they often fail to
focus on or to critically analyze the social, economic,
and political structures that generate problems.
The strongest proponents of this perspective were
likely the Social Reconstructionists who gained their
greatest hearing between the two world wars. Educa-
tors like Harold Rugg (1921) argued that the teaching
of history in particular and the school curriculum
more generally should be developed in ways that con-
nect with important and enduring social problems.
George Counts (1932) asked, Dare the School Build a
New Social Order? He wanted educators to critically
assess varied social and economic institutions while
also engag[ing] in the positive task of creating a new
tradition in American life (262). These educators
emphasized that truly effective citizens needed oppor-
tunities to analyze and understand the interplay of
social, economic, and political forces and to take part
in projects through which they might develop skills
and commitments for working collectively to improve
society.
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Conflicting Priorities
Is it possible to pursue all three of
these visions? Perhaps. Might there
be conflicts? Yes. Certainly partici-
patory citizens or those committed
to justice can simultaneously be
dependable or honestat least we
hope sotherefore, some priori-
ties among these groups and those
focusing on personal responsibility
will not conflict. However, some
conflicts may arise, and these con-
flicts are likely to be significant
ones. The emphasis placed on indi-
vidual character and behavior can
obscure the need for collective and
often public-sector initiatives.
A vast majority of school-based
programs embrace a vision of citi-
zenship devoid of politics; they
often promote service but not
democracy. They share an orienta-
tion toward volunteerism and
charity and away from teaching
about social movements, social
transformation, and systemic
change. These programs value
individual acts of compassion and
kindness over social action and the
pursuit of social justice.
We find personal responsibility an
inadequate response to the chal-
lenges of educating a democratic
citizenry.
First, the emphasis placed on indi-
vidual character and behavior
obscures the need for collective
and often public-sector initiatives;
second, this emphasis distracts
Personal responsibility must be
considered in a broader social context
or it risks advancing mere civility or
docility instead of democracy.
attention from analysis of the
causes of social problems; and
third, volunteerism and kindness
are put forward as ways of avoid-
ing politics and policy.
As a way of illustrating what we see
as the limitations of personally
responsible citizenship, recall the
central tenets of the Character
Counts! Coalition. Certainly hon-
esty, integrity, and responsibility
for ones actions are valuable char-
acter traits for good neighbors and
citizens. But on their own, these
traits are not inherently about
democracy. To the extent that these
traits detract from other important
democratic priorities, they hinder
rather than make possible demo-
cratic participation and change.
For example, a focus on loyalty or
obedience (common components
of character education as well)
work against the kind of critical
reflection and action many assume
are essential in a democratic soci-
ety. Personal responsibility must be
considered in a broader social con-
text or it risks advancing mere
civility or docility instead of
democracy. Indeed, government
leaders in a totalitarian regime
would be as delighted as leaders in
a democracy if their young citizens
learned the lessons put forward by
many of the proponents of person-
ally responsible citizenship: dont
do drugs; show up to school; show
up to work; give blood; help others
during a flood; recycle; pick up lit-
ter; clean up a park; treat old peo-
ple with respect. Chinese leader
Jiang Zemin along with George W.
Bush (and Al Gore, for that mat-
ter) would argue that these are
desirable traits for people living in
a community. But they are not
about democratic citizenship.
Reinforcing these criticisms of an
exclusive focus on personally
In a very real sense,
youth seem to be
learning that
citizenship does not
require government,
politics, or even
collective endeavors.
responsible citizenship, a study
commissioned by the National
Association of Secretaries of State
(1999) found that fewer than 32
percent of eligible voters between
the ages of 18 and 24 voted in the
1996 presidential election (in 1972,
the comparable number was 50
percent), but that a whopping 94
percent of those aged 1524
believed that the most important
thing I can do as a citizen is to help
others (also see Sax, et al., 1999).
In a very real sense, youth seem to
be learning that citizenship does
not require government, politics,
or even collective endeavors.
In contrast to advocates of person-
ally responsible citizenship, some
political theorists, sociologists, his-
torians, and educators have cham-
pioned the importance of civic
participation. In Making Democ-
racy Work (1993), for example,
Robert Putnam argues that partici-
pation in civic life and the devel-
opment of social capital are
essential. Harry Boyte and Nan
Kari make similar arguments in
their case for the democratic
promise of public work (1996).
They join a growing number of
educators who want to teach the
knowledge and skills necessary for
civic engagement in community
affairs. Advocates of participatory
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citizenship want students to be schooled in
both the broad and minute challenges specific
to democratic participation.
Placing social justice at the center of their
arguments, other educators and theorists stress
that critical analysis and liberatory pedagogy
are essential for democratic education. Citi-
zens, according to this view, need not only
skills associated with participation but also
those required to critically analyze and act on
root causes of social problems and inequities.
These actions include forms of participation
that challenge existing power structures and
focus on social change (see, for example, Shor,
1992 and Ayers et al., 1998).
Often, democratic theorists blend commit-
ments to participation with commitments to
justice. From the standpoint of supporting the
development of democratic communities,
combining these commitments is rational.
Developing commitments for civic participa-
tion and social justice as well as fostering the
capacities to fulfill these commitments will
support the development of a more democratic
society. We should be wary of assuming that
commitments to participatory citizenship and
to justice necessarily align, however. These two
orientations have potentially differing implica-
tions for educators. While pursuit of both goals
may well support development of a more dem-
ocratic society, it is not clear whether making
advances along one dimension will necessarily
further progress on the other. Do programs
that support civic participation necessarily
promote students capacities for critical analy-
sis and social change? Conversely, does focus-
ing on social justice provide the foundation for
effective and committed civic actors? Or might
such programs support the development of
armchair activists who have articulate conver-
sations over coffee, without ever acting? We
now turn to these questions.
Our empirical investigation of this topic
focuses on the subtle and not so subtle differ-
ences between programs that emphasize par-
ticipation and those that emphasize justice. We
do this for two reasons. First, due to shortcom-
We should be wary of assuming that commitments to
participatory citizenship and to justice necessarily align.
ings of the personally responsible model as a
means of developing citizens, none of the pro-
grams funded by the foundation that sup-
ported our study emphasized this approach.
Moreover, as noted earlier, a significant body of
work already addresses the conflicts and limita-
tions of equating personal responsibility with
democratic citizenship.
Two of the programs we studied illustrated
broad differences in their civic and democratic
priorities and exemplify the tensions these dif-
ferences raise for educators. Both programs
worked with classes of high school students
and both initiatives were designed to support
the development of democratic and civic
understandings and commitments. But their
goals and strategies differed. The first, which
we call Madison County Youth in Public Ser-
vice, aims to develop participatory citizens; the
second, which we call Bayside Students for Jus-
tice, aims to develop justice-oriented citizens.
Developing Participatory Citizens:
Madison County Youth in Public Service
Madison County Youth in Public Service is run
by two social studies teachers in a rural East
Coast community. These teachers taught a
condensed and intensified version of a stan-
dard government course during the first
semester of the academic year to make space
for projects in the community. During the sec-
ond semester, they placed students in small
teams where they worked on public service
projects in their countys administrative offices.
One group of students investigated whether
citizens in their community would prefer curb-
side trash pickup that was organized by the
county; another group explored the develop-
ment of a five year plan for the fire and rescue
department. For each project, students had to
collect and analyze data, interact with govern-
ment agencies, write a report, and present their
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continued from page 7
findings in a formal hearing in front of the countys
Board of Supervisors.
The teachers of Youth in Public Service believed that
placing students in internships where they worked on
meaningful projects under the supervision of commit-
ted role models would:
Teach students how government worked;
Help students recognize the importance of being
actively involved in community issues; and
Provide students with the skills required for effec-
tive and informed civic involvement.
Madison County Youth in Public Service was quite
successful at achieving those goals. We saw evidence
(both quantitative and qualitative)
By engaging students in that, by engaging students in proj-
ects in the community, Madison
projects in the commu-
County Youth in Public Service had
nity, Madison County significant success making learning
relevant to students and conveying
Youth in Public Service practical knowledge about how to
engage in community affairs. It
had significant success developed in students the desire to
making learning relevant participate in civic affairs and a sense
that they can make a difference in
to students and convey- the lives of others.
ing practical knowledge We saw little evidence, however, that
students learned about political
about how to engage in issues related to interest groups and
community affairs. the political process, the causes of
poverty, different groups need for
health care, or the fairness of different forms of taxa-
tion (even though two projects focused on issues
related to health care and taxation). Students focused
on particular programs and policies and aimed for
technocratic/value neutral analysis. Accordingly, our
data show that the curriculum did not appear to
change students interest in politics or their perspec-
tive on issues related to systemic causes of social prob-
lems. More on this later.
Developing Justice-Oriented Citizens:
Bayside Students for Justice
A second program took place in a comprehensive
urban high school on the West Coast. Inspired by the
United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, teach-
ers in this school implemented the Students for Justice
curriculum with students diverse in ethnicity, lan-
guage, and socioeconomic status, 40% of whom were
living in public housing.
Bayside Students for Justice aimed to develop commu-
nity activists. As one of the teachers for this program
put it, My goal is to turn students into activists [who
are] empowered to focus on things that they care
about in their own lives and toshow them avenues
that they can use to achieve real social change, pro-
found social change. The program advanced a justice-
oriented vision of citizenship seeking to teach students
how to address structural issues of inequity and injus-
tice and bring about social change.
The teachers of the Bayside Students for Justice pro-
gram believed that having students seek out and
address areas of injustice in society would:
Sensitize students to recognize injustice;
Teach students to critically assess the root causes
of social problems; and
Provide students with an understanding of how to
change established systems and structures.
Some students, for example, investigated the lack of
access to a local health center for women; others
sought ways of challenging a Senate bill that would
put students and their parents in jail for truancy and
would try juveniles as adults for certain crimes; other
students studied violence in their community. In con-
trast to programs that seek to teach that one person
can make a difference, Bayside Students for Justice
emphasized the need to address social problems col-
lectively. In interviews and written assignments for
class, students demonstrated their understanding of a
collective rather than individual vision for effecting
change.
continued on page 9
Bayside Students for Justice empha-
sized the need to address social
problems collectively. In interviews and
written assignments for class, students
demonstrated their understanding of a
collective rather than individual vision
for effecting change.
What Kind of Citizen?
continued from page 8
Survey results reflected Baysides
emphasis on social change. Surveys
of Bayside students revealed signifi-
cant increases on items measuring
interest in politics and structural
explanations for povertyscales on
which Youth in Public Service stu-
dents showed no change. Bayside
students also indicated an increased
sense of civic agency and an
increased belief that government
had a responsibility to help those in
need.
Unlike the Youth in Public Service
students, however, Bayside students
did not demonstrate much specific
knowledge about particular com-
munity groups or about the techni-
cal challenges and possibilities
associated with specific policies and
initiatives.
The Political Importance of
Recognizing Different
Conceptions of Citizenship
Did Madison County Youth in
Public Service do a better job than
Bayside Students for Justice at edu-
cating citizens, or was Bayside more
effective? Our goal is not to answer
this question, but rather, to make
clear that different democratic val-
ues were embedded in these efforts.
Both programs were effective at
achieving goals consistent with
their respective underlying concep-
tions of citizenship. Yet our qualita-
tive and quantitative data regarding
these programs demonstrate
important differences in impact.
Youth in Public Service appeared to
have a powerful impact on stu-
dents capacities for and commit-
ments to civic participation. Mea-
sures of students sense of personal
responsibility to help others, their
vision of how to help, and their
leadership efficacy show significant
changes. Especially notable in both
the survey and interview data was
the change in students confidence
that they had the knowledge or
social capital to make things hap-
pen in the community. Interviews,
observations, and examples of stu-
dent work all reinforced the survey
finding of a dramatic increase in
students sense that they had
knowledge of what resources were
available to help with community
projects and of how to contact and
work effectively with community
organizations to mobilize those
resources. This confidence grew out
of their involvement in substantive
projects that required frequent
interaction with multiple commu-
nity actors and agencies.
We did not, however, see evidence
that the Youth in Public Service
program sparked interest in or con-
veyed knowledge of broad social
critiques and systemic reform.
Since such issues were not dis-
cussed as part of the curriculum, it
is not surprising that students per-
spectives on the structural and
individual causes of poverty, for
example, did not change as a result
of their participation. Nor did their
interest in talking about or being
involved in politics change.
In comparison, the Bayside Stu-
dents for Justice curriculum
appeared to emphasize social cri-
tique significantly more and tech-
nocratic skills associated with par-
ticipation somewhat less. To the
extent that Bayside students
learned about participatory skills,
they focused on extra-governmen-
tal social activism that challenged
rather than reinforced existing
norms (such as community organ-
izing or protesting). For example,
students were more likely at the
end of the program than at the
beginning to posit structural expla-
nations for social problems (stat-
As one student told us, When the
economys bad and people start
blaming immigrants or whoever else
they can blame, theyve got to realize
that there are big social, economic,
and political issues tied together.
ing, for example, that the problem
of poverty resulted from too few
jobs that pay wages high enough to
support a family rather than being
a result of individuals being lazy
and not wanting to work). They
were more likely than their Madi-
son County peers to be interested
in and want to discuss politics and
political issues, and they were more
likely to seek redress of root causes
of difficult social ills. As one stu-
dent told us after several months in
the Bayside program, when the
economys bad and people start
blaming immigrants or whoever
else they can blame, theyve got to
realize that there are big social, eco-
nomic, and political issues tied
together, that its not the immi-
grants, its bigger than them.
Evidence from observations, inter-
views, student work, and surveys of
Baysides students did not, however,
show an increase in students
knowledge about particular com-
munity resources. Unlike their
Madison County peers, Bayside
students sense that they were effec-
tive community leaders (knowing
how to run meetings, for example)
remained unchanged. Nor was
there any increase in students per-
sonal responsibility to help others
(as opposed to their inclination for
collective action for change, which
was frequently expressed during
interviews).
continued on page 10
 What Kind of Citizen?
continued from page 9
The differing impact of these
programs, of course, is likely
due to factors that extend
beyond the curriculum. As is
generally the case in educa-
tion, the broader social con-
text helps to shape both the
choice of curricular
approaches adopted by the
teachers and the ways these
approaches impact students.
Bayside and Madison County
are very different communi-
ties. It may well be that Bay-
sides urban school environ-
ment exposed students to
more forms of injustice and
rhetoric related to injustice
than Madison County stu-
dents encountered in their
largely homogeneous and
middle-class community. This
exposure, in turn, may have
made it more likely that Bay-
side students would gravitate
towards justice oriented
themes than that students
from Madison County would
do so. Many other contextual
factors may have mattered as
Those committed to well. Since the focus of our
data collection emphasized
educating social
curricular features and ways
activists who practice students experienced those
features rather than on the
justice-oriented broader social context, we
cannot speak directly to these
citizenship would issues. Such issues are clearly
ideally want to worthy of extensive study.
couple critical analysis
The Politics of
of root causes of Pursuing Dual Goals
As noted earlier, those com-
injustice with mitted to educating social
activists who practice justice-
opportunities to oriented citizenship would
develop capacities ideally want to couple critical
analysis of root causes of
for participation. injustice with opportunities
to develop capacities for par- The ability to spot
ticipation. They want students
to be able to both analyze and injustice is not
understand structural causes
of deeply entrenched social
organically linked to
problems and gain the skills the inclination or the
and motivation to act by par-
ticipating in local and ability to take action.
national politics and commu-
nity forums. But a focus on both administrators and com-
justice guarantees neither the munity members are also
motivation nor the capacity to likely to affect the structure of
participate in democratic the curriculum.
change. Manyourselves
Thus, answering the question
includedwould applaud
Which program better devel-
programs that manage to
ops citizens? necessarily
emphasize justice-oriented
engages the politics that sur-
citizenship inextricably linked
round varied conceptions of
to a desire and capacity for
citizenship. The relationship
participation. However, our
between pedagogical choices
findings indicate that the
and political positions is an
commitment to participation
important one. Those who
and the capacities it entails
view civic participation as of
are not necessarily coupled
primary importance would
with those related to the pur-
likely view the Madison
suit of social justice. Indeed,
County Youth in Public Ser-
engaging in critical analysis
vice program as extraordinar-
does not necessarily foster the
ily effective. On the other
ability or the commitment to
hand, those who believe that
participate. The reverse is also
the pursuit of social justice is
true: students can learn to
of paramount importance
participate without engaging
might well be troubled that
in critical analysis that focuses
on macro structural issues,
participants in the Madison
County program did not talk
the role of interest groups,
about the need for structural
power dynamics, and/or
change, about methods used
social justice. The ability to
historically to bring change
spot injustice is not organi-
cally linked to the inclination
about (those employed by
various social movements, for
or the ability to take action.
example), or about social
The relative emphasis placed injustice. Educators who wish
to teach students to support
on these differing goals will
likely depend on numerous social change might therefore
value the explicit attention
factors. These include the
and critiques students partici-
structure of the curriculum,
pating in Bayside Students for
the priorities of those design-
Justice developed. Bayside
ing and implementing the ini-
students learned ways that the
tiative, and the time available
for such instruction. More- interests of powerful groups
are often supported by insti-
over, the political constraints
and value based priorities of
continued on page 11
What Kind of Citizen?
continued from page 10
tutions and social structures. They also expanded their
interest in following broader local and national politi-
cal issues.
Conclusion
So, what does all of this mean for teaching democracy?
As educators interested in schoolings civic purposes,
we maintain that it is not enough to argue that demo-
cratic values are as important as traditional academic
priorities. We must also ask what kind of values. What
political and ideological interests are embedded in var-
ied conceptions of citizenship?
First, an initiative that supports the development of
personally responsible citizens may not be effective at
increasing participation in local and national civic
affairs. Moreover, efforts to pursue some conceptions
of personal responsibility can undermine efforts to
prepare participatory and justice oriented citizens.
Second, our study of Madison County Youth in Public
Service and of Bayside Students for Justice demon-
strates the importance of distinguishing between pro-
grams that emphasize participatory citizenship and
those that emphasize the pursuit of justice. While each
program was effective in achieving its goals, qualitative
and quantitative data regarding these programs
demonstrate important differences in each programs
impact. Programs that champion participation do not
necessarily develop students abilities to analyze and
critique root causes of social problems, and visa versa.
Although those committed to the Democratic pur-
poses of education may extol the value of linking pri-
orities related to participation and justice, our study
indicates that this outcome is not guaranteed. If both
goals are priorities, those designing and implementing
curriculum must give both explicit attention.
Third, from the standpoint of research and evaluation,
the implications for those interested in the develop-
ment of democratic values and capacities are signifi-
cant. Studies that fail to reflect the varied range of edu-
cational priorities in relation to democratic values and
capacities will tell only part of the story.
We can focus on whether a given curriculum changes
students sense of personal responsibility, government
responsibility, or employer responsibility, for example.
If we ask only about personal responsibility, we may
It is not enough to argue that democratic values are
as important as traditional academic priorities.
well be reinforcing a conservative and individualistic
notion of citizenship, that of the personally responsible
citizen. Yet this is the focus of many programs and of
their associated evaluations. If citizenship also requires
collective participation and critical analysis of social
structures, then other lenses are needed as well.
Those designing a curriculum and those studying its
impact must be cognizant of and responsive to these
important distinctions and their political implications.
The choices we make have consequences for the kind
of society we ultimately help to create.
This article was adapted from a talk by the authors
at the conference of the American Political Sci-
ence Association, August 2002, Boston, MA.
Readers interested in the full research article,
data, and tables should contact the authors:
joelw@uottawa.ca, (613) 562-5800, x4161
jkahne@mills.edu, (510) 430-3275
This research was generously supported by two
grants from the Surdna Foundation. We also wish
to thank Harry Boyte, Pamela Burdman,
Bernadette Chi, Larry Cuban, Norm Fruchter, Jeff
Howard, Gordon Lafer, Bethany Rogers, Robert
Sherman, Dorothy Shipps, Amy Stuart Wells, and
Jim Toole. The authors are solely responsible for
any and all conclusions.
Footnotes
1 For a description of a contemporary curriculum that
reflects this emphasis, see Westheimer and Kahne
(2002).
2 Our desire to respond to prominent educational the-
ories related to democratic ideals and to develop a
framework that practitioners would find both
clear and meaningful led us to modify our cate-
continued on page 12
What Kind of Citizen?
continued from page 11
gories in several ways. For example,
we began this study emphasizing a
distinction between charity and
change. We had used this distinc-
tion in earlier writing (Kahne and
Westheimer, 1996). Through the
course of our work, however, it
became clear that this distinction did
not do enough to capture main cur-
rents in dialogues of practitioners
and scholars regarding democratic
educational goals and ways to achieve
them. In addition, once our three cat-
egories were identified, we found that
some of our rhetoric failed to clearly
convey our intent. For example, we
had initially titled our third category
the social reconstructionist. As a
result of dialogues with practitioners,
this was changed to the social
reformer and finally to the justice
oriented citizen.
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 How People Learn To Be Civic
by Michael Schudson, University of California, San Diego

A

next not only in formal education or through intentional
efforts but indirectly or collaterally in the small details of
everyday life. Lecturing in London a few years ago, I illustrated this
point with a homely example. I said: Take, for instance, those moments
in your own family where you assert your parental authority and declare
to your children, Eat Your Vegetables. No. Eat Your Vegetables, Please.
No. Eat Your Vegetables Or There Will Be No Dessert. No. Eat Your
Vegetables Or Else! And one of those little wise guys retorts, You cant
make me. Its a free country.

In the United States, audiences invariably
acknowledge this illustration with knowing
chuckles or smiles. In London, I looked out
at a roomful of blank faces. Not a soul
cracked a smile. They had politely puzzled
expressions. Only then did it dawn on me.
Only then did I realize that no British child
in all of history has ever said, You cant
make me, its a free country. And suddenly I
knew that democracy is not just one thing
you have more or less of, it comes in an
assortment of flavors. Democratic citizenship
is not just something one is more or less
socialized into; there are
There are different citizenships in
different citizenships in dif-
different democracies and each of them ferent democracies and
each of them is renewed in
is renewed in its own subtle fashion. its own subtle fashion.
What I had taken as an invariant expression
of children in any democratic society is, in
fact, peculiarly American. It is America, not
Britain, that conceives of itself self-impor-
tantly and extravagantly and naively and
tragically and wonderfully as a free country.
Americas children pick that up early on.
But how? How is it American kids learn to
say that its a free country and British kids
learn not to? How do people acquire their
sense of civic life and how does that sense
become second nature? How do we learn the
values we are supposed to learn as members
of our national culture? I am not asking how
to make people better citizens. Instead, I am
asking how people who learn to be citizens
learn how to be citizens of the sort they learn
how to be. How do they come to know what
good citizenship is?
I have no confidence that earnest efforts at
teaching U.S. history or turning out the vote
or getting more school children to pick up
trash on the beach make us good citizens,
admirable as these activities may be in their
own right.
I believe in the values of liberal education but
I am not convinced that liberal education
does the trick either. Political theorist
Richard Flathman writes that the greatest
contribution liberal education can make to
continued on page 15

How People Learn
to Be Civic
continued from page 14
our common political life is to
instill a dispositionwary of
politics and government.1
That is not what you normally
hear in circles of educators
devoted to civics education.
But I was reminded of it in the
aftermath of September 11.
One of the most noteworthy
and, to my mind, admirable
features of the American
response in the first weeks was
that many of our leaders, from
the President on down, waved
the flag proudly but at the
same time cautioned citizens
about the dangers of flag-wav-
ing. The only precedent I
know for this kind of chas-
tened patriotism in other
countries is contemporary
Germany where the Nazi past
envelops even the most timid
of patriotic demonstrations
with a flood of second
thoughts.2 In the United
States, I can think of no prior
expression of this kind of
proud but muted patriotism, a
patriotism tempered by its
own self-consciousness.
If citizenship is not learned
primarily in school or in get-
out-the-vote drives and if col-
lege is as likely to induce skep-
ticism about politics as fervent
devotion to it, where do peo-
ple learn their sense of civic
obligation? This is a question
that civic educators themselves
need to think about more
clearly, deeply, and historically.
What I offer here is a briefly
sketched framework for doing
so.
A citizen is a person who has
full membership in a political
community, especially a
nation-state. In its common
legal usage, citizenship means
nationality and its mark would
be a passport, a birth certifi-
cate, or other citizenship
papers. In its political usage,
citizenship refers to rights of
political participation, and its
chief sign is that a person is
eligible to vote. In its sociocul-
tural sense, citizenship refers
to emotional identification
with a nation and its flag, his-
tory, and culture. Finally, citi-
zenship has a broad moral
meaning, as in the phrase
good citizen. It may refer to
a person loyal to the state, and
in this sense it is related to
patriotism. Even more, it sug-
gests a person who is informed
about and takes an active role
in civic affairs. Although all of
these meanings of citizen
have some relevance to my
inquiry here, the broad moral
meaning of civic-ness is my
primary concern.
How do people become
civic? is in part the question:
how do we come to under-
stand or accept or take for
granted what counts as civic?
That is, how do people
develop a particular sense of
the public good, a willingness
to participate in its advance-
ment, and a view of what
repertoire of acts will engen-
der a better public life? How
do we come to understand or
accept or take for granted
what counts as civic in our
own culture? Four different
areas need our attention.
First, we become civic if and
when the civic penetrates into
First, we become civic if and when the
civic penetrates into everyday life.
everyday life. Second, we
become civic by what we are
called to attend to and what
we are called to ignore. Third,
we become civic by joining
with others in common enter-
prise. Fourth, we become civic
when a civic infrastructure
allows, encourages, and sup-
ports individual civic engage-
ment. I will say something
about each of these points.
Everyday Life
First, we become civic when
civic activities become a part
of everyday life. Think of the
recycling bins that, in many
communities today, the city or
municipality provides so that
each household can separate
its own recyclables and get
them recycled by putting them
out at curbside when the city
picks up the weekly trash.
Think of the Pledge of Alle-
giance that children say in
school. More is learned in this
act by ritual repetition than by
the actual words. I would be
skeptical that school children
understand the Pledge of Alle-
giance. Take the word indivis-
ible, for instance. Children
learn to pronounce it years
before they study John C. Cal-
houn and the doctrine of nul-
lification, or the Lincoln-Dou-
glas debates, or the Civil War.
But the presence of the term
indivisible in the Pledge is
incomprehensible without
knowing it to be a reference to
the Civil War. In the end, how-
continued on page 16
How People Learn to
Be Civic
contined from page 15
ever, that is less the point than that
the school day is connected in
some vague but unifying way to
flag and country.
Think about what kind of educa-
tion happens in the widespread
red ribbon week of drug educa-
tion in our public schools. I
remember when my daughter, then
in first-grade, came home from
Drug-Free School Day and told us
happily it was Free Drug Day at
school. In a personal memoir,
essayist Sarah Vowell recalls watch-
ing the Mickey Mouse Club on tel-
evision and singing along with the
theme songbut she never quite
got the words of it. When the
Mouseketeers sang, forever let us
hold our banner high, Sarah
thought they were saying, for
every little polar bear to hide.3
Much more of education is like
that than we would ever want to
admit. Still, the ritual of something
like saying the Pledge, the activity
of it, the collective enterprise of it,
leaves a residue.
The activity that enters into ordi-
nary life need not be every day
activity. We learn a great deal from
ritual moments that come only on
rare occasionlike Christmas once
a year, or voting every year or two.
We do not really know how deeply
these activities teach us until we
imagine how they might be differ-
ent. Think about what lessons eigh-
teenth-century Virginians learned
when they voted or nineteenth-
century Americans, in contrast to
us. An eighteenth-century Virgin-
ian, that is to say a white male who
owned property, went to the
polling place, spoke his vote out
loud in front of the sheriff and in
front of the candidates, and then
went over to the candidate he had
favored with his vote and shook
hands. The whole activity was one
of ritually reaffirming a hierarchi-
cal social order in which each per-
son knew his place. The whole
experience reinforced an under-
standing of citizenship as appropri-
ate deference to community lead-
ers. There was no campaigning,
there were no issues, there were no
bombastic speeches, the whole
point was to invest responsibility
for decision-making in trusted sen-
ior members of the community.4
The nineteenth century experience
of voting taught different civic les-
sons. In the nineteenth century,
political parties controlled the elec-
tions. On election day, the parties
hired tens of thousands of workers
to get out the vote and to stand
near the polling place to hand out
the tickets the parties had began to shift from parades to
printed. The voter approached the
polling place, took a ticket from
one of these ticket peddlers from
his own party and went up to the
voting station to deposit his ticket
in the ballot box. He did not need
to look at it. He did not need to
mark it in any way. Clearly, he did
not have to be literate. He could
cast his ballot free of charge, but it
would not have been surprising if
he received payment for his effort.
In New Jersey, as many as one third
of the electorate in the l880s
expected payment for voting on
election day, usually in an amount
between $l and $3.5
What did a vote express? Not a
strong conviction that the party
offered better public policies; par-
ties tended to be more devoted to
distributing offices than to advo-
cating policies. Party was related
more to comradeship than to pol-
icy, it was more an attachment than
a choice, something like a contem-
porary loyalty to a high school or
college and its teams. Voting was
not a matter of assent to ideas but a
statement of affiliation with peo-
ple, and the connection of voter to
party ticket peddler underscored
that. So did the post-election visit
to the partys favorite local tavern.
Drink, dollars, and drama brought
people to the polls, and, more than
that, social connection, rarely any-
thing more elevated.
Reformers at the end of the l9th
century saw little in the parties to
recommend them. The Mugwumps
sought to make elections educa-
tional and the Progressives tried to
insulate the independent, rational
citizen from the distorting enthusi-
asms of party. It is to them that we
owe the ideal of the informed citi-
zen, not to the founding fathers. In
the l880s, political campaigns
pamphlets, and so put a premium
on literacy. In the l890s, the Aus-
tralian ballot swept the nation and
so for the first time in American
history literacy was required to cast
a ballot. The novelty of the Aus-
tralian ballot was that the state
took responsibility for printing bal-
lots that listed the candidates from
all parties qualifying for the elec-
tion. This meant that voters
received their ballots from state
election officials at the polling
place, not from party workers en
route to the polling place; it meant
that the voter had to make a choice
of candidates by marking the bal-
lot; and it normally meant that
provision was made for the voter to
mark the ballot in secret. With this
innovation, voting changed from a
social and public duty to a private
right, from a social obligation to
party enforceable by social pressure
continued on page 17
How People Learn to Be Civic
contined from page 16
to a civic obligation or abstract loyalty, enforce-
able only by private conscience. In the early
l900s, non-partisan municipal elections, presi-
dential primaries, and the initiative and refer-
endum imposed more challenging cognitive
tasks on prospective voters than ever before.
These changes enshrined the informed citi-
zenry, incidentally provided a new mechanism
and a new rationale for disenfranchising
African-Americans and immigrants, and inau-
gurated an enduring tradition of hand-wring-
ing over popular political ignorance.
Between 1880 and 1910, the most basic under-
standings of American politics were challenged.
Reformers attacked the emotional enthusiasm
of political participation, the corruption in
campaign financing and campaign practices,
and the role of the parties in usurping the
direct connection between citizens and their
government. They succeeded in inventing the
language by which we still judge our politics. It
stresses being informed while it dismisses or
demeans parties and partisanship. To put this
more pointedly, the political party, the single
most important agency ever invented for mass
political participation, is the institution that
current civics talk and current civics education
regularly abhor and that is rendered almost
invisible in the way we conduct the actual act of
voting. Insofar as the way we do vote is a set of
enduring instructions to us about the way we
should vote and the way we should think about
voting, the civic lesson of election day as we
have organized it for the past century recom-
mends contempt for parties and partisanship.
We learn a standard of civic practice by practic-
ing civics. We may not live up to it, but we
know, at least implicitly and roughly speaking,
what it is, what we are supposed to be held
accountable for. We learn it in large part by
experienceas political theorist Stephen Elkin
writes, Experiencemust be the teacher of
democratic citizens, and this leads him to an
interest in the design of local governments, not
the design of school curricula.6 What we do not
know or reflect on is that our present standard
is only one of a number of possible standards.
We learn it so well we do not even recognize
what alternatives it excludes.
Structures of Attention
Second, we become civic by what the public
will be called to attend to and what it is called
to ignore. The media but, even more strenu-
ously, political leaders make the decisions
about what will be on the publics agenda. In
the weeks after September 11, there were many
stories in the media about the stifling of dissent
as the country unified behind the Presidents
war on terrorism. Why were we called to attend
to this? How did we know, as we read these sto-
ries, that stifling dissent is a bad thing? We
assuredly were expected to get that point.
Consider an important recent example of citi-
zenship talk: What you do is as important as
anything government does. I ask you to seek a
common good beyond your comfort, to defend
needed reforms against easy attacks, to serve
your nation, beginning with your neighbor. I
ask you to be citizens. Citizens, not spectators.
Citizens, not subjects. Responsible citizens,
building communities of service and a nation
of character.
At first blush, it is hard to object to the concept
of citizenship George W. Bush expressed in
these words in his inaugural address. Citizen-
ship, he said, is public-spirited rather than self-
centered, neighborly rather than self-seeking,
active and participatory rather than passive and
spectator-like. And yet, President Bush
advanced a subtext heredo not expect too
much from your government. Americans are
generous and strong and decent, not because
we believe in ourselves but because we hold
beliefs beyond ourselves. When this spirit of
citizenship is missing, no government program
can replace it. When this spirit is present, no
wrong can stand against it. Government
should not over-reach, government should not
over-legislate, government should not over-
react. The President favors people who take
care of themselves and their neighbors, not
those who depend on government for aid and
comfort.
continued on page 18
 How People Learn to
Be Civic
contined from page 17
Note a second subtext: people are
citizens insofar as they do not seek
their own comfort, insofar as they
serve the nation, and insofar as
they hold beliefs beyond them-
selves. True citizens do not ask, to
paraphrase a President from a dif-
ferent party, what the country can
do for them but what they can do
for the country. There is no place in
this vision of citizenship for indi-
viduals to sue for their rights or to
invoke the law on behalf of their
liberties or to initiate actions for
damages against tobacco compa-
nies or tire manufacturers. There is
no acknowledgment that democ-
racy has been enlarged in our life-
times when individuals have been
driven not by a desire to serve but
by an effort to overcome indignities
they themselves have suffered. This
is important. The most important
extension of citizenship in this cen-
tury was produced by the civil
rights movement. Not Thomas Jef-
ferson so much as people like
Thurgood Marshall and Martin
Luther King, Jr. made rights a
household term and a household
experience; the civil rights move-
ment brought on the extraordinary
wave of social movements and
rights-centered litigation that has
opened doors and windows for
African-Americans, women, gays
and lesbians, people with disabili-
ties, and many others. Why, then,
do we cling rhetorically to a vision
Democracy has been enlarged in our lifetimes when individuals
have been driven not by a desire to serve but by an effort to over-
come indignities they themselves have suffered.we become civic
by joining with others in common enterprise, common work, com-
mon prayer, or common struggle.
of civic education and citizenship
that excludes the raw power of self-
interested action? Why is citizen-
ship reduced to service rather than
linked to justice?
There is also an entirely missing
text in President Bushs inaugural:
in the idealized world he beckoned
his fellow citizens to join, there are
citizens, there are neighbors, there
are also communities of faith, but
there are no parties, and in the
good citizen no partisanship; there
are no interest groups, and in the
good citizen no joining with others
in organized self-interest; there are
no experts, and in the good citizen
no considered judgment about
when and how judgment should be
delegated. Why are the organiza-
tions and individual actors that in
fact are the most involved on a day-
to-day basis with the operation of
government omitted from his
account of citizenship?
In times of national crisis, the citi-
zen President Bush envisions is the
soldier, who serves country, ignores
personal discomfort, and believes
in a patriotic ideal. In ordinary
times, Bushs ideal is the Rotarian,
moved by a sense of neighborliness,
Christian charity, and social
responsibility, but untouched by
any sense of having a personal stake
in public justice.
Is this the kind of civic-ness we
should be instilling in our children?
I dont think so, but that is not my
topic here. I am addressing only the
question of how people learn to be
civic. My point about the Presi-
dents speech is that it offers one
model of civic-ness, not the only
model. It is a powerful model,
nonetheless, because the President
is the countrys best placed civic
pedagogue. As Justice Felix Frank-
furter said, The Presidency is the
most important educational system
in the country.7 The President calls
us to attention, and in a particular
way, not in the only way.
Shared Enterprise
Third, we become civic by joining
with others in common enterprise,
common work, common prayer, or
common struggle. I will speak
about this only briefly because, in
this instance, the same President
George W. Bush, whom I have just
criticized, has offered a very shrewd
analysis. In his press conference a
month after September 11, he
observed that his administration
before September 11 was planning
an initiative to be called Commu-
nities of Character. It was, he said,
designed to help parents develop
good character in our children and
to strengthen the spirit of citizen-
ship and service in our communi-
ties. But, he remarked, the acts of
Sept. 11 have prompted that initia-
tive to occur on its own, in ways far
greater than I could have ever
imagined. He was right. He cited
the cases of Christian and Jewish
women who went shopping with
Muslim neighbors when the Mus-
lim women were afraid to leave
their homes alone. There was,
indeed, a rekindling of communal
feelings, a reaching out to friends,
neighbors, and strangers, and a
joining in common enterprises of
blood drives, fund raising, prayer
services, and community memori-
als all across the country.
continued on page 19
How People Learn to Be Civic
contined from page 18
People can feel connections with one another
and a sense of public purpose at one remove,
through the Internet, or through a novel, a film,
or a news story. I do not know anyone who died
at the World Trade Centers but, like almost all
Americans, I felt intimately linked to what hap-
pened there. That lasted, beyond the moment,
not because citizens feel an intimate acquain-
tance with Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and
Dan Rather (although they may) but because
the information and images the media con-
veyed in this case touched everyone who has
ever visited New York or knows someone there,
everyone who has ever traveled by air or who
has loved ones who travel by air, everyone who
has ever been in a high-rise office building, and
the horror and anxiety the news evoked in
those millions of people was reaffirmed and
reinforced in almost every conversation and in
almost every glance from person to person,
family member to family member, and co-
worker to co-worker in subsequent weeks and
months. The experience of September 11 was a
national Durkheimian moment, that is, a col-
lective experience where a sense of both power
and meaning beyond the personal emerged
from face-to-face contact and collective work,
collective action embodied, not at a distance.
There is a great deal of attention to that genera-
tion, now rapidly aging and dying, that fought
World War 2, and it has been lionized in the
title of Tom Brokaws book, as the greatest
generation. Brokaw is not modest about his
claims for his parents generation: I think this
is the greatest generation any society has ever
produced.8 I am not going to quibble over
rankings here; surely this generation accom-
plished a great deal. And, as Robert Putnam has
assiduously documented, this same generation
continued doggedly civic in voting in large
numbers, attending community meetings, get-
ting to know neighbors, maintaining church
membership and attendance, exceeding the
marks of the generation before them and the
generations that followed them.9 All of this I
acknowledge. What I do not accept is the impli-
cation that this generation was unusually
endowed with moral virtue or community fer-
vor. What it was endowed with was the Great
Depression and World War 2, great collective
experiences that forged a generational spirit.
This is not to suggest that the experience of
World War 2 was a spontaneous emotional
upheaval undirected by government leadership
and institutional transformation. On the con-
trary, the Roosevelt administration mobilized
the power of the state in the national defense
toliterallyenlist the nation in the war
effort. If September 11 seems to be a fading
memory already for many Americans, it may be
because the federal government chose in the
end not to take advantage of the emotional
effervescence of the moment to call on Ameri-
cans for sacrifice or service. An opportunity was
lost to enlarge national service programs like
Americorpsor even to call attention to them.
Civic life requires
Civic Infrastructure maintenance.
Fourth, we cannot become civic if there is not
an infrastructure of civic-ness for people to
enroll in. Civic life requires maintenance. It
requires staff. It requires investment. It requires
access. Democracy does not come cheap. Elec-
tions cost money. Effective service programs
cost money. Courts cost money. Justice requires
dollars.10 This is not very dramatic stuff. In fact,
it is invisible to most of us most of the time. I
saw some of it, however, in the 2000 election, as
I watched the mounting of the electoral
machinery in my home of San Diego, Califor-
nia. Let me just give you a little sense of it.
On November 7, in one sixteen hour period, l00
million people broke from their daily routine
and voted. It is a mammoth exercise. In Califor-
nia, there were about l00,000 volunteers spend-
ing l5 hour days manning the polling places. In
San Diego County, running the election cost
$3.5 million in taxpayer dollars to produce 552
separate ballots and 552 separate voter infor-
mation guides mailed out to registered voters to
prepare them to act as informed citizens. There
were l00 training sessions for 6000 poll workers
at l500 polling places, 300 of which had special
provision for Spanish-speaking voters and all of
which were designed to be accessible for the
disabled. This is a massive activity, and a great
continued on page 20
How People Learn to Be Civic
contined from page 19
deal of meaning is still to be found in it,
what Walt Whitman called this ballot-
shower from East to West, Americas
choosing day.
There are 552 different ballots because
there are l20 political jurisdictions in San
Diego Countyhospital districts, water
districts, community college districts,
school districts, Congressional districts,
assembly and state senate districts, etc.
There were some 800 candidates on the
ballot in November. Mikel Haas, then the
Registrar of Voters, told me: Its like a
watch, there are a whole lot of moving
parts. Any one of them can trip you up.
The Registrars core staff of 48 employees
was supplemented in the election season
by about 300 temporary workers, not to
mention the 6,000 poll workers on elec-
tion day.
Several weeks before the election, I
attended what the Registrars office has
entitled Midnight Madness. On the last
day to register to vote in San Diego
County, the Registrars office staus open
till midnight for drive-through registra-
tion. I came by around 8 p.m. to take a
look. Cars were lined up for most of a
long block and then in a single-file line
through half the length of the county
building in the dark and the drizzle. The
whole area, though, was flood-lit by a set
of four flood lights illuminating not only
the building and the proceedings outside
it but a newly anchored Uncle Sam
roughly 40 feet high, a vast, cheery, red-
white-and-blue inflated Uncle Sam. Reg-
istrar of Voters Haas had seen it displayed
at a Chevrolet dealer. He had driven by
and thought, I have to have that, and he
worked out a rental deal to use the inflat-
able for Midnight madness.
There must have been between l5 and 20
Registrar personnel in yellow slickers at
Midnight Madness. A number of them
were directing traffic. In 3 lines, 3 people
handed registration affidavits on clip-
boards to the driver-voters in their cars,
S.U.V.s, and pick-ups. The drivers were
then directed to park while they filled out
the form. When completed, they started
up their cars again and another yellow-
slickered official would come over to the
car, take the affidavit, check it to see that it
was filled out properly, and then send the
new registrant on his or her way.
One senior civil servant I spoke to began
her career with court reporting school,
then worked in the DAs office, then took
the test for the position of Registrar of
Voters senior clerk and took the job in
l977 at age 26. In l980 she left and went to
work with one of the vendors who mail
the sample ballots. But I missed itI
missed the excitement. Not many people
leave here. No one will quit. Its not just
this officefrom email with her counter-
parts in other counties, it sounds the
same way. Theres a lot of stress in the job
but people love it. She is married to a
political consultant as interested in poli-
tics as she is. When our child was born,
she told me, our birth announcement
said height and weight and eligible to
vote in 2007.
Despite the high morale of workers at the
registrars office, not everyone loves every
part of it. One of the least popular sec-
tions is candidate services, dealing with
candidates and would-be candidates as
they learn how to file their papers, as they
write up their statements for the voter
information guides that in California are
sent out to all registered voters, as they
submit required campaign finance disclo-
sure forms. The candidates my
informant began, and then rolled her
eyes. She talked about the people who
walk in and say, Heres where I live. What
can I run for? Who are these people?
she asked. When someone wants to file
who has no chance at all, who has never
even turned up at a meeting of the body
theyre running for, the personnel in can-
didate services try to act on behalf of
democracy without entering improperly
into the process: We try to politely
well, not talk them out of it, but explain
whats involved.
I attended some training sessions for the
poll workers, as well as the training ses-
sion for the trainers. This session was run
by Registrar staff plus a motivational
speaker. There was a strong emphasis on
getting people to participate and to have a
good time in the training. As one of the
trainers said, adult learning really can be
fun, it doesnt have to be toothpicks-in-
the-eyelid time.
The training sessions for the poll workers
were centered on a railroad theme and
the trainers were equipped with train
engineers hats, red bandannas, a loud
train whistle, and a small flashing light
that mimicked the lights at a railroad
crossing. The trainers I observed, two vig-
orous women in their sixties, blew their
train whistles together to start the session,
and then they sang a song they themselves
had written: Weve been working on the
election all the live long day,/Weve been
working on the election, so the voters
have their say. Trained to get people talk-
ing and involved from the beginning, they
asked people to talk among themselves
about why they were volunteering their
time. After a few minutes they blew the
train whistles again and asked people to
tell the whole group what they had found
out. Some people talked about the free
tacos poll workers would get from a local
fast food chain, many others spoke of
wanting to do their civic duty. Many vol-
unteered election after election and spoke
of it as a kind of addictionOnce you
do it, youre hooked.
Multiply these stories of one registrars
office in one county of one state. Multiply
it by the seventy California counties, mul-
tiply it again by the fifty states, multiply it
by the journalists who write about poli-
tics, the teachers who teach history and
civics, the pre-school teachers and kinder-
garten teachers who instruct children
about sharing, the counselors, clergy,
continued on page 21
How People Learn to Be Civic
contined from page 20
clerks of court and others who are all civics teachers on a full-
time basis, and you can see that the possibility of civic-ness for
individuals may have less to do with individual virtue than with
social investment and collective maintenance.
Civic-ness requires both volunteers and professionals, both ordi-
nary citizens and experts. The kind of populism one finds in
universities that is distrustful of expertise, to the point of self-
hatred; that prefers participatory democracy over representation
or delegation, to the point of having nothing at all to say about
the latter; and that prefers John Dewey to Walter Lippmann or,
more generally, romantics to realists, to a degree that refuses
engagement with the actual messiness of democratic politics, lies
somewhere between dreaminess and irresponsibility.
In thinking through the matter of civic education, I look more
to structures, contexts, and institutions within which and
through which education happens than to specific psychological
processes that succeed or fail to attach individuals to the mes-
sages about civic engagement they hear. There are multiple
meanings of citizenship afloat in the land and practices of civic
life have changed more rapidly and more radically than our pub-
lic rhetoric has yet figured out. Many people still learn to partici-
pate in politics through community-based, faith-based experi-
ence, as was so often the case with the civil rights movement, but
many others today come to politics (as is often the case in the
environmentalist movement) through what sociologist Paul
Lichterman calls personalist motivation.11 Some opportunities
for civic engagement fadelike political party rallies but oth-
ers arise without social analysts even noticingif there is a study
of the proliferation of charity runs and charity walks, I have not
yet seen it. Or consider the enormous changes in womens lives
and the movement toward gender equality in the past fifty years
and how the feminization of political and civic life, if you will,
has altered civic practicesand should have altered what counts
as citizenship and civic engagement. Along with the civil rights
movement and the many other rights-oriented struggles that
borrowed from it, feminism has extended norms of equality and
indignation over injustice into the home, the club, the workplace
and other domains once far removed from political conscious-
ness.
Citizens learn citizenship (a) in everyday life and especially in
participating in common civic exercises (b) in structures of
attention shaped by political leaders, the media, the schools, and
other voices of authority (c) in experiences of community soli-
darity that forge attachments to people beyond us (it is a famil-
iar observation that soldiers fight not so much for their flag as
for their comrades); and (d) in structures and institutions that
are cultivated and cared for by full-time staff whose work is
required to make citizenship possible. Meanwhile, the realm of
the civic shifts and expands as the legitimate demands of once-
excluded groups enter into play and re-shape basic understand-
ings of civic life.
Footnotes
1
Flathman, Liberal Versus Civic, Republican, Democratic, and
Other Vocational Educations Political Theory 24 (February
l996) 432 at 26.
2
See, for instance, Frederick Kempe, Father/Land: A Personal
Search for the New Germany (New York: G. P. Putnams,
1999) p. 148.
3
Sarah Vowell, Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).
4
On this point and the subsequent paragraphs on American polit-
ical history, I draw directly on my book, The Good Citizen: A
History of American Civic Life (New York: Free Press, l998).
5
John F. Reynolds, Testing Democracy: Electoral Behavior and
Progressive Reform in New Jersey, l880 l910 (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, l988) p. 54. See also
Schudson, pp. l44l87.
6
Stephen Elkin, Citizen Competence and the Design of Demo-
cratic Institutions in Stephen L. Elkin and Karol Edward
Soltan, eds., Citizen Competence and Democratic Institutions
(University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press,
l999 ) p. 394.
7
Cited in Douglas Cater, The Fourth Branch of Government
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, l959) p. l69.
8
Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation (New York: Random
House, l998).
9
Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (New York: Simon & Schus-
ter, 2000).
10
See Stephen Holmes and Cass Sunstein, The Cost of Rights: Why
Liberty Depends on Taxes (New York: W. W. Norton, l999).
11
Paul Lichterman, The Search for Political Community (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
This article is reprinted from the collection United We Serve:
National Service and the Future of Citizenship, edited by E.J.
Dionne Jr., Kayla Meltzer Drogosz, and Robert Litan, and
published by The Brookings Institution Press, 2003. An ear-
lier version was delivered at the University of Utah as the
2001 B. Aubrey Fisher Memorial Lecture.

A Message from Michael S. McPherson,
President of Macalester College
he recent round of corporate scandals
T reminds us, if we needed reminding, that
some prominent business leaders have
failed to understand that business success is not
just a matter of private gain, but has important
elements of civic and social responsibility as well.
We must ask whether we educators share in this
failure.
Have we failed to impart an adequate understanding of the
social and civic responsibilities that must accompany leadership
in business and in other aspects of life? I fear that the answer is
yes, and, further, that this failure is part of a larger failure in
American higher education to build education for civic and
social responsibility into the basic college curriculum.
Adam Smith, that great proponent of markets and self-interest,
never forgot that the invisible hand works only when people
operate within the rules; no invisible hand directs the jewel thief
or the crooked accountant to socially desirable ends. Nor can the
police or the SEC enforcement division, necessary as they are, do
the whole job of making people obey the rules. A society in
which no one felt an internal compunction against breaking the
rules, one in which people lacked what Smith called the still
small spark of conscience, would need an impossibly large
police force.
Smith, a moral philosopher as well as an architect of the study
we now know as economics, gave great attention to understand-
ing how the social environment shaped this indispensable moral
sense. The case he made for government provision of basic edu-
cation for all rested largely on its role in promoting moral and
civic development.
Basic education may have done the trick in Smiths day, and it
remains essential. Certainly nobody would expect a college to
instill basic moral values in young adults who arrive bereft of
them. But in a complex postindustrial society, the responsibili-
ties of citizenship and of professional lifeincluding business
lifedemand more sophisticated understandings than was true
Reprinted with
permission from a full
page ad placed by
Macalester College in
the New York Times
in Smiths day. The more technical aspects of business or legal or
medical ethics need to be addressed in professional schools. But
just as undergraduate education provides the grounding for
advanced studies in these areas, so should it equip students to
grasp and to act on the civic and social responsibilities that will
accompany their professional and their personal lives.
The issue here is not to indoctrinate students in particular moral
or political beliefs. Rather, we want to increase students aware-
ness of the moral values at stake in their personal and profes-
sional choices, equip them with the skills they need to reason
well and to weigh evidence in executing their civic and social
responsibilities, and help them to learn to act effectively in ful-
filling their responsibilities.
Every part of a modern college curriculum can be designed to
contribute to education for active and responsible citizenship.
Whether through learning how to weigh quantitative or scien-
tific evidence about public policy, or through cultivating
empathic understanding through the study of art and literature,
or through learning the arts of civil discourse, students class-
room work can strengthen their moral and civic capacities. With
careful planning and community participation, colleges can also
offer opportunities for great civic learning experiences outside
the classroom, through internships, research on community
problems and service learning courses.
This kind of education can help all of our students learn to live
more valuable and fulfilling lives. For those who pursue corpo-
rate careers, it will help them put the quest for personal gain in
the context of the larger social and civic aims of corporate lead-
ership, recognizing their responsibilities not only to stockholders
but to society at large. And those who become corporate direc-
tors will know how to ask the right questions and press for clear
answers about corporate practicesas the directors involved in
the current scandals have so conspicuously failed to do.
It would of course be absurd to claim that any college education
can provide a guarantee against fraud or malfeasance. Nonethe-
less, a determined effort by colleges and universities to promote
civic and social responsibility among their students could do
much to improve the quality of civic life in America, and to
make demoralizing scandals like those we are living through less
likely.
UNITED WE SERVE

The Debate Over National Service

by E.J. Dionne Jr. and Kayla Meltzer Drogosz

THE BROOKINGS REVIEW
Fall 2002 Vol.20 No.4
pp. 25
Copyright 2002
The Brookings Institution
Reprinted by permission.
Americans differ widely over which kinds of national
service are genuinely valuable. Many who honor
military service are skeptical of voluntarism that
A
except when were
not. Our public rhetoric has always laid heavy stress on the obli-
gations of citizenship. With rights come responsibilities The
statement rolls off the tongues of politicians without their giving it a
moments thought. Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what
you can do for your country. John F. Kennedys words are so embedded in
our civic catechism that the mere mention of the word service automati-
cally calls them forth. On Veterans Day and Memorial Day, we rightly extol
the valor of those without whose sacrifices we would not enjoy our free-
dom. Bill Clinton praised the idea of service. George W. Bush now does
the same. It is one of the few issues on which our last two presidents agree.
Yet how firm is our belief in service? There is Texas Republican, described it as a welfare
no prospect anytime soon that we will return to program for aspiring yuppies that would dis-
a military draftand our own military is skep- place private charity with government-man-
tical that a draft would work. The number of aged, well-paid social activism, based on the
politicians who support compulsory national elitist assumption that community service is
servicethe case for it is made powerfully in not now taking place.
this issue by Robert Litanis small. President
Clinton succeeded in pushing his AmeriCorps And in truth, many Americans doubt that they
program through Congress, building on the or their fellow citizens actually owe anything
ideas of Will Marshall and others at the Demo- to a country whose main business they see as
cratic Leadership Council who sought to preserving individual liberty, personal as well as
reward young people with stipends and schol- economic. In a free society, liberty is a right
arships for giving time to their country. But owed to all, worthy and unworthy alike.
many Republicans denounced the idea as paid
Finally, Americans differ widely over which
volunteerism. Representative Dick Armey, the
kinds of national service are genuinely valuable.
Many who honor military service are skeptical
of voluntarism that might look like, in Armeys
terms, social activism. Supporters of work
among the poor are often dubious of military
service. Most Americans honor both forms of

might look like, in Armeys terms, social activism. continued on page 24

 United We Serve
contined from page 23
devotion to country, and we have
included here powerful testimoni-
als to the varieties of civic dedica-
tion. But in our public arguments,
the skeptical voices are often the
loudest.
Our divisions about the meaning
of service are rooted deeply in his-
tory. At the founding of our nation,
liberal and civic republican ideas
jostled for dominance. The liberals
viewed personal freedom as the
heart of the American experiment.
The civic republicans valued free-
dom, too, but stressed that self-rule
demanded a great deal from citi-
zens. The liberals stressed rights.
The civic republicans stressed obli-
gations to a common good and, as
the philosopher Michael Sandel has
put it, a concern for the whole, a
moral bond with the community
whose fate is at stake. In our time,
the clash between these older tradi-
tions lives on in the intellectual
wars between libertarians and
communitarians. When it comes to
national service, the libertarians
lean toward skepticism, the com-
munitarians toward a warm
embrace.
Yes, we have changed since Septem-
ber 11, 2001. Respect for service
soared as the nation forged a new
and stronger sense of solidarity in
the face of deadly enemies. What
has been said so often in the past
year still bears repeating: our view
of heroes underwent a remarkable,
and sudden, change. The new
heroes are public servantspolice,
firefighters, rescue workers, postal
There is a new acknowledgment across the political divides that
government support for volunteers can provide essential help for
valuable institutions that we too often take for granted.
workers whose lives were threat-
ened, our men and women in uni-
formnot CEOs, high-tech wiz-
ards, rock stars, or sports figures. At
a time when citizens focus on
urgent national needs, those who
serve their country naturally rise in
public esteem. In the face of an
attack that imperiled rich and poor,
powerful and powerless alike, it was
natural that, in Sandels words, a
concern for the whole and a
moral bond with the community
whose fate is at stake became more
than abstract concepts.
Accordingly, the politics of national
service also has been transformed.
Even before the attacks of Septem-
ber 11, President Bush had signaled
a warmer view of service than most
in his party. In choosing two
Republican supporters of the
ideaformer Mayor Steve Gold-
smith of Indianapolis and Leslie
Lenkowskyto head his adminis-
trations service effort, Bush made
clear he intended to take it seri-
ously. But after September 11, he
made service a central theme of his
administration. In his State of the
Union message, he called on Amer-
icans to give two years of service to
the nation over their lifetimes and
announced the creation of the USA
Freedom Corps. It was a patriotic,
post-September 11 gloss on the old
Clinton ideasand the ideas of
John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson,
and his father, the first President
Bush, who offered the nation a
thousand points of light.
There is a new acknowledgment
across the political divides that
government support for volunteers
can provide essential help for valu-
able institutions that we too often
take for granted. It is easy for
politicians to talk about the
urgency of strengthening civil
society. But through AmeriCorps
and other programs, the govern-
ment has found a practical (and
not particularly costly) way to
make good on the rhetoric. Para-
doxically, as Steven Waldman
points out here, AmeriCorps, a
Democratic initiative, fitted in
neatly with the Republicans
emphasis on faith-based programs.
Democrats were acknowledging the
need to strengthen programs out-
side of government; Republicans,
that voluntary programs could use
governments help.
That national service has become a
bipartisan goal is an important
achievement. It is reflected in the
White Houses Citizen Service Act
and in bills cosponsored by, among
others, Senators John McCain and
Evan Bayh. In this case, the world
of legislation mirrors the spirit of
the moment. As Marc Magee and
Steven Nider of the Progressive
Policy Institute reported this sum-
mer, applications for AmeriCorps
have jumped 50 percent since Sep-
tember 11, those for the Peace
Corps have doubled, and those for
Teach for America have tripled. Yes,
a difficult economy may have
pushed more young Americans
toward such endeavors. Nonethe-
less, their choices point to the
power of the service idea.
But what is the connection between
the ideas of service and citizenship?
Citizenship and Service
Citizenship cannot be reduced to
service. And service-good works
whether of faith communities, the
continued on page 25
United We Serve
contined from page 24
private sector, or communities of character
cannot replace the responsibilities of govern-
ment. Service can become a form of cheap
grace, a generalized call on citizens to do kind
things as an alternative to a genuine summons
for national sacrifice or a fair apportionment of
burdens among the more and less powerful, the
more and less wealthy. But when service is seen
as a bridge to genuine political and civic
responsibility, it can strengthen democratic
government and foster the republican virtues.
Lenkowsky made this connection when he
urged attendees at a Corporation for National
and Community Service conference to turn
civic outrage into civic engagement by
increasing the reach and effectiveness of volun-
teer programs. No one can dispute visionaries
like Harris Wofford and Alan Khazei, who have
shown how AmeriCorps, VISTA, the Senior
Corps, and the Peace Corps have transformed
communities. But Paul Light questions whether
this transformation is sustainable. Can episodic
volunteerism build the capacity and effective-
ness of public and nonprofit organizations?
And to what extent can we separate respect for
service through volunteerism from a genuine
respect for those who make public service a
way of lifein the military, the local uni-
formed services, the schools and the hospitals,
and (dare one even use the word) the bureau-
cracies? As Alice Rivlin notes, recreational gov-
ernment bashing saves us from facing up to
how hard it is to make public policy in a free
market economy. Will the new respect for
service make government bashing less satisfy-
ing as a hobby? Its possible, but we are not
holding our breath.
Underlying the debate over national service is
an argument over whether service is necessary
or merely nice. If service is just a nice thing to
do, its easy to understand why critics, well rep-
resented in these pages by Bruce Chapman and
Tod Lindberg, express such strong reservations
about government-led service programs. But is
it possible that service is something more than
nice? What if it isas Bob Litan, Harris Wof-
ford, Carmen Sirianni, and Charlie Cobb sug-
gest in different waysa means to strengthen
the ties that bind us as a nation? What if it cre- Citizenship cannot
ates bridges across groups in our society that
have little to do with each other on any given be reduced to serv-
day? What if service, as the New Lefts Port
Huron Statement put it 40 years ago, can mean
ice. And service
bringing people out of isolation and into good works whether
community? What if it fosters civic and politi-
cal participation in a society that seems not to of faith communities,
hold the arts of public life in the highest
esteem? In sum, what if service is not simply a
the private sector,
good in itself, but a means to many ends? or communities
Service and a New Generation of character
Surely one of these ends is the engagement of
young Americans in public life. As Peter Hart
cannot replace the
and Mario Brossard argue here, the evidence of responsibilities of
many surveys suggests that young Americans
government.
are deeply engaged in civic activity. In his 2000
campaign, Senator John McCaininitially a
skeptic of national service, now a strong sup-
porterwon a wide following among the
young by urging them to aspire to things
beyond your own self-interest. Service learn-
ing, increasingly popular in our public schools,
has been linked with a heightened sense of civic
responsibility and personal effectiveness. If the
new generation connected its impulses to serv-
ice with a workable politics, it could become
one of the great reforming generations in our
nations history.
And service could become a pathway to a
stronger sense of citizenship. As Jane Eisner
argues, service must produce more than indi-
vidual fulfillment for those involved and tem-
porary assistance for those in need. It should,
she says, lead to an appetite for substantive
change, a commitment to address the social
problems that have created the need for service
in the first place. Eisner suggests that as a
nation, we should celebrate the First Vote cast
by young people with the same fanfare that
greets other moments of passage to adult
responsibility. The goal would be to encourage
a new generation that is gravitating toward
national service to make the connection
between service to the community and the
very process that governs community life.
A focus on service and the links it forges
between rights and responsibilities of citizen-
continued on page 26
At little cost to themselves, advocates of both conservative and
liberal individualism can use service to shroud their real intentions
in the decent drapery of community feeling.
United We Serve
continued from page 25
ship could also offer new ways out
of old political impasses. For exam-
ple, Andrew Stern, the president of
the Service Employees Interna-
tional Union, suggests that a two-
year commitment to national serv-
ice could become a pathway for
undocumented workers to legalize
their status and for legal immi-
grants to speed their passage to cit-
izenship. And former felons now
denied voting rights might earn
credits toward restoration of full
citizenship through service.
Jeff Swartz, the CEO of Timber-
land, offers practical proposals for
business at a moment when the
public demand for responsible cor-
porate behavior is rising. He sug-
gests that obligations to sharehold-
ers, to employees, and to the
community are linked. One reason
his company is on Fortune maga-
zines list of the 100 Best Compa-
nies to Work For is its program of
service sabbaticals through which
employees can spend up to six
months working at existing or
start-up nonprofits. Their purpose
is not simply to do good works,
but also to build the capacity of the
organizations that promote social
change.
At its best, service is not make-
work but what Harry Boyte and
Nancy Kari, in Building America,
have called public work. It is
work that is visible, open to
inspection, whose significance is
zenship in our lifetime was
brought about by citizens driven
not by a desire to serve but by an
effort to overcome indignities they
themselves have suffered.
widely recognized and can be car-
Its an important point. But its also
ried out by a mix of people whose
true that Rotarians are good citi-
interests, backgrounds, and
zens. Neighborliness, charity, and
resources may be quite different.
social responsibility are genuine
Service as public work is the
virtues. It is both good and useful
essence of the democratic project.
to assert, as Rabbi Chaim of
It solves common problems and
Volozhin did, that my neighbors
creates common things. Public
material needs are my spiritual
work entails not altruism, or not
needs. Its just possible that a
only altruism, but enlightened self-
nation responding to the call to
interesta desire to build a society
service would, over time, become a
in which the serving citizen wants
nation deeply engaged in questions
to live.
of public justice.
It is possible to be cynical about
The debate over national service is
the new call to service. It can be a
a debate over how we Americans
terribly convenient way for politi-
think of ourselves. Its a debate over
cians to seem to be calling for sac-
how we will solve public problems
rifice without demanding much of
and what we owe our country and
citizens. At little cost to themselves,
each other. If our nation is to con-
advocates of both conservative and
tinue to prosper, its a debate we
liberal individualism can use serv-
will have in every generation. For if
ice to shroud their real intentions
we decide there are no public
in the decent drapery of commu-
things to which we are willing to
nity feeling. Service, badly con-
pledge some of our time and some
ceived, can distance citizens from
of our effortnot to mention our
public problems. Those who serve
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
can help people out there, as if
honorthen we will have quietly
the problems they have are dis-
abandoned our nations experi-
connected from the society in
ment in liberty rooted in mutual
which the server lives. The sociolo-
assistance and democratic aspira-
gist Michael Schudson has argued
tion.
that President Bushs ideal citizen is
a Rotarian, moved by a sense of
E.J. Dionne, Jr. is a senior fellow
neighborliness, Christian charity,
and social responsibility, but in the Brookings Governance
untouched by having a personal Studies program and a columnist
stake in public justice. His point is for the Washington Post.
not to knock Rotarians. Its to
argue that self-interest in pursuit of Kayla Meltzer Drogosz is a
justice is a virtue. As Schudson research analyst for the project
notes in describing the civil rights on Religion and Civil Society in
movement, the most dramatic
the Governance Studies
expansion of democracy and citi-
Program.
 The Vanity of Volunteerism
By Sara Mosle
I
. . .
James is calling collect.
Copyright 2002 Im at 125th Street and need a
Sara Mosle. token, he says.
From the New York I strain my neck to see my bedside
Times Magazine, clock and flop back on my pillow,
July 2, 2000. groaning.
Reprinted by
James, its after midnight.
permission.
It is June 1999 and James is 13 years
old. For the last six years, I have
been a mentor to him and his older
brother, Adam, and to several other
kids who at one time all lived on or
around a single block on West
164th Street in upper Manhattan.
(To protect their privacy, I have
used their middle names, except
when they dont have a middle
name, in which case I have used a
nickname.) Although James and I
go weeks at a time without talk-
inghis family cant afford a
phonehe sometimes calls me col-
lect three times a day. We are in the
middle of one of his calling jags.
When the phone rings, I am a
sleepy, grumpy and inadequate vol-
unteer, partly because what James
really needs isnt a token.
You shouldnt be out this late, I
say wearily. James is often out when
I think a 13-year-old should be in
bed. Despite the boom, his family
When the phone rings, I am a sleepy, grumpy and inadequate
volunteer, partly because what James really needs isnt a token.
has been in free fall for a year
ever since his father lost his long-
time job as a butcher when the
store closed after its owner died
unexpectedly. Soon, the family was
evicted from its apartment, and the
parents, who had been together all
the time I had known them, split
upalthough the break doesnt
appear to be permanent. As a
result, James and Adam have lived
in two different shelters with their
mother. Their father is working
again, and their mother is newly
employed, part time, as a conse-
quence of welfare reform. The boys,
who used to be on a tight leash,
now frequently go unsupervised.
Or at least, I think this is all correct.
To be honest, I dont really know.
Ive cobbled a lot of it together
from things James and Adam have
said in passing and from conversa-
tions with one of Adams teachers.
(Partly because of the phone situa-
tion, I havent spoken to the boys
parents in months.)
James is now saying something
about how he was supposed to
spend the night at his dads apart-
ment, on West 120th Street, but his
father isnt in, and he thinks he
misunderstood and that his father
is at his mothers place in the proj-
ects south of Houston Street, and
he doesnt have any money to get
home, and its dark and there are all
these crazy drunk people wander-
ing around.
My eyes are closed.
Why dont you explain to the
token clerk and see if hell let you
in, I suggest groggily. It would be
hard to overestimate how much I
dont want to go up there.
I already tried that, he says miser-
ably.
I am no longer even holding the
phoneits lying next to me on my
pillow. You could try another
entrance, I say softly. A sweet
nothing.
O.K. His voice is far away. I hear a
click and a distant dial tone. I am
drifting, I am dreaming. I am
dreaming of a little boy named
James who is lost in the dark. . . .
I sit bolt upright in bed, electrified
by the knowledge that I am an evil
person. I have to go get him. But
where? On 125th Street? Or did he
say 120th? I have no idea. Twenty
terrible minutes later, the phone
rings again. He is still on 125th
Street. Start walking down Broad-
continued on page 28
 The Vanity of Volunteerism
continued from page 27
way, I say. Ill meet you at 110th. Soon, I am gentler America by pushing charitable
in a cab headed uptown. Of course, in the
broader context of Jamess life, this kind of res-
Of course, in the cue mission is vain, as one writer has put it,
broader context of in both senses of the word. But its a balmy
night, and suddenly there is no place Id rather
Jamess life, this kind bewhich is to say, Im getting something out
of it, even if he isnt.
of rescue mission is
I am a volunteer. For three years, I taught pub-
vain, as one writer lic school in New York City, and since 1994, the
has put it, in both summer after my last third-grade class, I have
served as an unofficial mentor to the families of
senses of the word. four of my former studentsAdam and James,
Jaber (and his younger brother, Lloyd), Keemy
But its a balmy night, (and his older siblings, Clara, Elizabeth and
Angelo) and Burger, plus a few of their friends.
and suddenly there
At any given time, the group, as we have all
is no place Id rather come to call it, has numbered from 6 to 12 kids,
a few of them Dominican, the rest of them
bewhich is to say, black. I am 36 and white.
Im getting something
Over the years, we have gone ice skating, bowl-
ing, to movies, to museums and on the occa-
out of it, even if he
sional overnight trip (to Washington, the east
isnt. end of Long Island) and have generally hung
out. I have been on hand for happy moments
(the 100th birthday of Jabers great-great-
grandmother) and sad ones (his grandfathers
funeral). When I met my kids, they were 7
and 8 years old, smaller than I am, and liked to
hold my hand when we crossed the street. Now
they are 15 and 16, nearly all are in high school
and they hulk over me in puffy parkas or with
long legs and gangly arms protruding out of
shorts and tank tops. Not one of them would be
caught dead holding my hand.
For more than a decade, politicians and civic
leaders have been looking to volunteers like me
to take over the governments role in providing Compassionate conservatives
vital services to the poor. Although the move-
ment arguably began in 1988 with the candi-
date George Bushs invocation of a thousand
points of light as a response to Reagan-era cut-
backs in social spending, it has been embraced can transform the lives of disad-
by the current Democratic administration,
which has continued those cutbacks, and cul-
minated in the 1997 Presidents Summit for
Americas Future in Philadelphia, where Presi-
dent Clinton and Gen. Colin Powell touted the
power of volunteerism. Now George W. Bush
has picked up his fathers theme of a kinder,
choicethe provision in the 1996 welfare
reform bill that allows faith-based organiza-
tions to contract with government to provide
social services to the poor. (Al Gore supports it,
too, though less vigorously.)
Compassionate conservatives would probably
claim that I am the kind of caring adult who
can transform the lives of disadvantaged kids
more effectively than any government program.
Im all for volunteering, but I would disagree.
While I dont doubt that I have had some posi-
tive effects on my kids livesstudies show that
mentoring can reduce dropout rates and drug
use among teenagersthey have mostly been of
the boosting self-esteem variety that conser-
vatives, in other contexts, usually disdain.
Besides, Im not a very good volunteer. To work,
mentoring has to be performed consistently,
over a sustained period of time and preferably
one on one. For the first couple of years, I saw
my kids as often as twice a week. But now Im
lucky if I see them once a month, and I almost
never see them individually. In their lives, Im
less a caring adult than a random one. And my
failure is representative.
Although 55 percent of Americans reported
that they volunteered at some point in 1998a
7 percent rise over 1995this jump does little
more than recover ground that was lost in the
early 1990s and represents just a 1 percent
increase over 1989. Moreover, the total number
of hours that people are giving has actually
declined. Its a new trend, says Sara Melendez,
continued on page 29
would probably claim that I am
the kind of caring adult who
vantaged kids more effectively
than any government program.
The Vanity of
Volunteerism
continued from page 28
the president of Independent
Sector, which compiled this
data. People are volunteering,
but when they do, its more of
a one-shot dealhalf a day
one Saturday, instead of once
a week for x number of
weeks. Overall, Americans
donated 400 million fewer
hours in 1998 than they did in
1995.
Consequently, while Powell
has made recruiting 100,000
new mentors a top priority of
Americas Promise, his volun-
teer outfit, there is little evi-
dence that people are suffi-
ciently answering his call. In
New York, for instance, Big
Brothers/Big Sisters receives
just 4,000 inquiries each year
from potential mentors. Of
these, two-thirds never follow
up once they learn they have
to commit to seeing their kids
at least twice a month.
Another 700 lose interest after
the initial training session or
are eliminated through the
programs rigorous screening
process. Only 600 people ever
become mentorsthis in a
city with more than one mil-
lion schoolchildrenand
nationally, the program has a
waiting list of some 50,000
kids.
To help nonprofits cope with
this new unreliable work
force, groups like Impact
Online and New York Cares
have sprung up that act like
temp agencies, matching the
interests (and busy schedules)
of what might be called the
impulse volunteer someone
with an urge to give but only a
few hours to killwith open-
ings, arranged by time slot and
geographical location. But this
Filofax approach to giving
often robs volunteerism of the
very thing that was supposed
to recommend it over govern-
ment in the first place
namely, the personal connec-
tion that develops when you
regularly visit, say, the same
homebound AIDS patient.
And in a volunteers market,
not every need has a buyer.
People will come in and do a
projecta school painting, a
school wiringand think
theyve done a good service
and go away, says Paul Clol-
ery, editor of The NonProfit
Times. But its not the type of
traditional, week-in and week-
out volunteering that a lot of
organizations really need. No
case perhaps better illustrates
how idealism has run amok
than that of Bank of America,
which under the rubric of
volunteerism encouraged its
employees in San Francisco to
adopt an A.T.M.mentor-
ing it, so to speak, by visiting it
regularly, sprucing up its sur-
roundings, wiping away the
little smudges from its face
until the California labor
commissioner ruled that the
company had violated labor
laws by trying to get its
employees to work without
pay.
The experience of Meals on
Wheels in Dallas is typical. It
cant find enough volunteers
to commit to even a few hours
a month to help deliver meals
to the citys elderly shut-ins.
People cant get away during
the middle of the day, says
Helen Bruant, the programs
director. So, they ask, Why
dont you deliver in the
evenings? Well, we looked at
that. But for a lot of our
clients, this is their only meal.
They eat half at lunch and save
the other half for dinner. Plus,
its not good for the elderly to
eat a big meal at the end of the
day. Therefore, the program
must hire 30 percent of its
drivers. Even paying people,
Bruant cannot find enough
help. We cant compete with
McDonalds, she says. It can
be draining working with the
elderly. A lot of people would
prefer to flip burgers. Yet, if
anything, the need is increas-
ing. The aged population has
grown by leaps and bounds in
the last decade, Bruant says,
but giving and government
financing havent increased.
Indeed, according to a study
by the U.S. Conference of
Mayors released in December,
requests for emergency food
and housing have climbed at
their steepest rate since the
early 1990s. As a result, the
heads of some of the most
reputable nonprofitsthe
United Way, the Salvation
Army, Catholic Charities
have reported that they cant
keep up with rising demand
While charitable
for their services. Were hav- giving is up sharply,
ing to turn people away, or
ration portions, to stretch the growth has
supplies, says Deborah Leff,
the president of Americas Sec- not kept pace with
ond Harvest, the nations
reductions in
largest network of soup
kitchens. And while charitable government aid
giving is up sharply, the
growth has not kept pace with to the poor.
reductions in government aid
continued on page 30
As a teacher, I had a legitimate role in my kids lives. much fun. I was trying to be reasonable. Or, I said
I always tried to give my students an oryou could
As a volunteer, however, my involvement has been not hit me, and we could get together at lunch and
maybe there would be some other way of working this
far more artificial and superficial. Im a day-tripper. out. He considered his options. He lowered his fist.
This was his secret strength. Even when enraged, Jaber
was willing to talk through anything.
The Vanity of Volunteerism
continued from page 29 My school was under registration review, meaning
that its reading scores were so low that it was in danger
to the poor. People have replaced some of it with vol-
of being taken over by the state. The school grouped
unteering, some of it with cash, but not all of it, says
students by ability, and that year, I had Room 306, indi-
Richard Steinberg, a professor of economics at the
cating that I was teaching the third grade and had the
joint campus of Indiana and Purdue Universities in
sixth, or bottom, monolingual class. There was noth-
Indianapolis. He estimates that for every dollar of
ing subtleno apple or banana groupsabout the
assistance thats cut, charitable organizations can
distinction; everyone knew what the number meant. I
recoup at most a third.
had twice as many boys as girlsnot because boys are
As someone who once worked in the New York public less intelligent than girls at that age, but because theyre
school system, I am not inured to the problems of gov- rowdier. They get labeled behavior problems and are
ernment bureaucracy. I have not forgotten the asbestos often put in the worst classes. This is one reason I
crisis (which sealed my own classroom), the idiocy of ended up mentoring boys instead of girls.
the custodians contract, the mind-numbing hours I
And in truth, the class was challenging. Although
spent at the Board of Education trying to get someone,
Adam and Keemy were sociable and outgoing, they had
anyone, to answer a straightforward question about
severe learning disabilities and entered third grade still
licensing. But whats so odd about the current volun-
reading in primers. They were best friends and lived in
teer movement is how the broad claims often made on
two-parent households. Burger and Jaber were stronger
its behalf run counter to the on-the-ground testimony
academically but remained far below grade level. Jaber,
of those, like Bruant, who actually do the hard work of
a gifted athlete, lived with his mother and his younger
ministering to the poor. Compared with someone like
brother, Lloyd. Both of Burgers parents had died. He
her, of course, I am pathetic. Still, in the words of a
was being reared by a disabled grandmother who
protesters placard at the volunteer summit, Ive vol-
struggled to care for him. While other kids labored to
unteered enough to know volunteering isnt enough.
trace action heroes, Burger was a wonderful artist and
As a substitute for the social safety net, I am as ineffi-
could draw almost anything freehand. He was also a
cient, indifferent and arbitrary as any government pro-
better reader than his scores indicated; he just got
gram. The problem isnt with volunteering, but with
bored easily and couldnt sit through the exams.
what were asking it to do.
Had I not first seen my kids for five hours a day, 180
Im going to punch you, said Jaber (the name rhymes
days a year, I doubt that I would have ever learned that
with Babar). His arm was cocked, his fist like a hard
vision problems accounted for a lot of Adams reading
plum. It was the fall of 1993, and we were standing
difficulties or that Jabers older brother was beating up
near the front of my third-grade classroom. His eyes
on him (which accounted for some of his anger then)
were dark, like windows with the shades suddenly
or that James loved to watch cooking shows on televi-
pulled down. I knew he wasnt going to hit me, but he
sion (an odd fact that emerged on one of the many
didnt know it. Jaber was often angry and sullen. (He is
afternoons that he and Adam visited my classroom
nothing like this now.) He would crawl under his desk
after school). As a teacher, I had a legitimate role in my
or into the coat closet, and no amount of pleading
kids lives. As a volunteer, however, my involvement has
could coax him out. You would peer in and see his
been far more artificial and superficial. Im a day-
tight little face, the size of a saucer, staring back from
tripper.
beneath a pile of parkas.

You can hit me if you want, I said, but then well continued on page 31
have to call your mom, and that probably wont be

The Vanity of Volunteerism
continued from page 30
Volunteering has always been inef-
ficient. Most volunteers are concen-
trated in affluent suburbs far from
blighted urban neighborhoods,
where their assistance is needed
most. There is an extraordinary
mismatch, says Lester Salamon,
the director of the Johns Hopkins
Center for Civil Society Studies,
between the geographical locus of
the need and the geographical
locus of the giving. It would often
take me 45 minutes each way by
subway just to pick up my kids. If
we then headed back downtown,
thats another round trip. I would
often travel three hours just to take
my group on a two-hour excursion.
Partly because of this mismatch,
volunteering is also regressive. Far
from alleviating the gap between
rich and poor, it tends to aggravate
it. Thats because people are most
likely to give if they are asked to by
someone who knows them or if
they already have strong ties to an
organization. This is why universi-
ties do such a good job of fund-
raising: they get your old college
classmate Biff to call you up and
ask you to contribute to an institu-
tion to which you already have a
connection. Its a double whammy.
Consequently, time and money
tend to stay in a donors immediate
socialand economicworld.
When people talk about giving,
they are often talking about con-
tributing to institutions, like the
Metropolitan Museum of Art or
the New York City Opera, that con-
fer prestige on the donor and
improve the quality of life prima-
rily for the middle class. Despite
the roaring economy, organizations
that work with the poor have actu-
ally seen their proportion of the
charitable pie narrow in recent
years. Poverty relief, disaster
reliefits a very thin slice, says
Ann Kaplan, the editor of the
annual report Giving U.S.A.
In fact, a lot of what passes for vol-
unteering used to be called simply
parenting: people helping out in
their own childrens schools or
coaching their own childrens soc-
cer teams. Kids with parents who
already have resources end up ben-
efiting the most. (One reason I
even have time to volunteer is that
Im single and dont have children
of my own.) And while the rich
give to the rich, the poor, it is worth
pointing out, give to the poor.
Keemys older brother, Angelo, won
a national award for volunteering
some 30 hours a week handing out
used clothes to people in his neigh-
borhood who are even needier than
he is.
While it might seem, at first glance,
as if I am an exception to some of
these rulesafter all, I am crossing
race and class lines to see my
kidsI am not. I didnt decide,
after some careful needs-benefit
analysis, to become a volunteer. I
would have never called Big Broth-
ers/Big Sisters on my own, for the
same reason that most Americans
dont: reluctance to commit to a
regular schedule. (As a journalist,
Im often on the road.) I also have a
proper respect for the flake factor
in my personality. Rather, I fell into
volunteeringthe way a socialite
suddenly finds herself in charge of
the charity ball. I was asked to give
by someone I knew well (Adam) to
an institution (in my case, a neigh-
borhood, Washington Heights) to
which I already had strong ties
(because of teaching). He didnt ask
me to mentor him in so many
words. He just walked 100 blocks to
my apartment one day after school
to see me. It was the hard sell.
Around this time, I wrote an Op-
Ed article for The Times about how
my students didnt have enough
opportunities to play. In response, I
got a letter from a group in Wash-
ington called the American Com-
mittee to Invigorate the King Holi-
day, which seemed to be some
quasi-civil-rights organization with
an executive committee in perpet-
ual formation. The group offered
me a few thousand dollars to start a
program for my former students.
The money was funneled through
my old school, as it had to go to a
nonprofit organization, and I
invited Adam, Jaber, Burger and
Keemy, some of their siblings and
three girls from my old class to par-
ticipate.
Some might argue that this is how
the system should work: plucky
Op-Ed writer gets nongovernment
money to run efficient after-school
program, entrepreneur-style, for
former students. But I wasnt effi-
cient. I enjoyed no economies of
scale. My little program served just
12 kids. And to the extent that I
succeeded, my success cant be
replicated on a large scale. There
were 1,500 other children at my old
school who could have greatly ben-
efited from an after-school pro-
gram. Where were these kids men-
tors? And even if the volunteers
were suddenly to materialize en
masse, who would finance their
programs? There arent enough
American Committees to Invigo-
rate the King Holiday out there to
support them.
Although I was never a better vol-
unteer than I was that first year, my
success owed far more to the finan-
cial and institutional support I was
receiving than to my idealism. My
apartment in New York was too
small for me to have all my kids
continued on page 32
The Vanity of
Volunteerism
continued from page 31
over at once. Because the school
was the ostensible sponsor of my
program, it let me borrow a class-
room after hours for my group.
This meant desks! And access to
scissors, crayons and glue. There
was a chalkboard for writing out
assignments, a tape player for play-
ing music, an easel for displaying
charts, a class library and so on.
Because we were officially associ-
ated with a school, we could also
ride the subway free whenever we
took field trips on weekday after-
noons. Together, these itemsthe
room, the basic supplies, the free
transportationconstituted a
considerable capital investment in
my program, all of it provided at
taxpayer expense. This in turn
helped me make the most of my
grant money. Government spend-
ing causes volunteering, the econ-
omist Richard Steinberg explains.
You cant have a volunteer in a
school without a schoolhouse.
Government institution-building
increases volunteering.
It certainly made my own efforts
more effective. My kids and I were
able to do all sorts of projects. We
learned about art theory, which
colors made which, how to draw a
portrait (how the eyes, surpris-
ingly, are in the center of your
face), went to museums, made
panel narratives like Jacob
Lawrence and cut-out composi-
tions like Matisse. We studied
jazzI played them My Favorite
Things from The Sound of down in a rented van. Most of the
Music and then the Coltrane ver-
sionand we talked about the
importance of imitation, or prac-
tice, and improvisation. We saw
documentaries, traveled to Queens
to see an exhibit on Louis Arm-
strong, attended the Young Peo-
ples Concerts at Lincoln Center,
where Wynton Marsalis had the
kids riffing on plastic kazoos. I was
demanding and strict. We saw only
movies that I deemed appropriate,
even when the kids moaned, as in
the case of Babe, that they didnt
want to see no pig movie and
that thats wack. I often felt like a
slightly fraudulent magician,
pulling back the curtain on each
new delight of the city. It was a
season of firsts: the first time ice
skating, the first time bowling, the
first trip on the Circle Line cruise
around Manhattan, the first trip to
the zoo. Some of it was almost
obscenely easy: What do you mean
youve never been on a swing?
Thats not to say everything always
went smoothly. There was the time
Lloyd had a meltdown on 161st
Street and St. Nicholas Avenue
hysterically screaming, kicking, my
physically having to restrain him
so he wouldnt bolt into traffic, as
people stared, shaking their heads
at my poor parenting skillsall
because I wouldnt let him go to
McDonalds. And there was the
time I started yelling at the grand-
mother of Tyree, a boy who was
briefly in our group, on the steps
of the National Air and Space
Museum in Washington. The occa-
sion was the 1996 Childrens
March. I was working as a writer
and had persuaded a magazine to
send meand my kidsto cover
the event. (The grant money had
long since run out.) I drove 12
kids, and Tyrees grandmother,
who was acting as a chaperon,
kids had never been out of New
York. The creative financing
required that we actually attend
the march, squandering a precious
afternoon. But the kids had fun,
creating water-bottle worlds for
the slugs and tadpoles from the
reflecting pooluntil Tyrees
grandmother reduced several to
tears by dumping out their aquari-
ums.
She and I finally came to verbal
blows next to the Apollo space-
craft. We were waiting to see an
IMAX movie on the space pro-
gram, and the grandmother, who
had filled in for another parent at
the last minute and had been
insisting that we return to New
York since before we had arrived,
was again demanding that we leave
immediately. I had just bought the
tickets and had no intention of
wasting them. Lets take it out-
side, I said, preposterously, as the
kids looked on, goggle-eyed, barely
able to contain their snickers. To
this day, Keemy likes to refer to
the time Ms. Mosle and Tyrees
grandmother got in a fight. But by
and large, the trip was a success.
We visited the White House and
the Lincoln Memorial, among
other landmarksalthough for
the kids, the highlight was spend-
ing the night at the Holiday Inn.
Still, after two years, my mentoring
was beginning to seem awfully
vague and open-ended. I was earn-
ing about $40,000 a year freelance,
and several of my kids had begun
to age out of the child category.
They could no longer ride the sub-
way free and were beginning to
require adult admissions, effec-
tively tripling the cost of many
outings. A bowling trip, including
meals and transportation, often
cost me more than $200. Plus, the
kids were tired of bowling.
Although the three girls had
dropped out, the group was
becoming unwieldy. Whenever I
went up to the block, a crowd of
continued on page 33
The Vanity of Volunteerism
continued from page 32
kids would form, begging me to take them with
me, as the drug dealers on the corner looked
on, smirking. I wasnt very good at saying no
it all seemed so arbitrary, who could come and
who couldntand I began to understand why
the age-grouping of kids by grade had ever
arisen as a custom: it provided a way for adults
to care about children, and then to stop caring
about them, without the kids ever feeling
abandoned.
My apartment was littered with to do lists
get all the kids tutors, get them into summer
campthat I never quite made good on
because of the logistical or financial hurdles
involved. Even the Washington trip had been
little more than a grand gesture on my part to
make up for the fact that I was no longer seeing
as much of the kids. And when I did see them, I
found I was becoming less and less ambitious:
instead of a unit on jazz, we had seen an
awful lot of movies lately. Their titles testified
to the growing poverty of my imagination: had
I really taken them to see Spawn and Home
Alone 3?
In the tipping point, Malcolm Gladwells
book about social epidemics, he cites an experi-
ment devised by two Princeton psychologists to
test why people give. The experimenters met
individually with a group of seminarians and
asked them to prepare a short talk. Some were
asked to discuss the parable of the Good
Samaritan. Others were given a more neutral
topic. Then, just as they were about to leave for
their presentations, they were told either that
they were running late or had a few minutes to
spare. On the way, the seminarians would
encounter a man slumped in an alleyway,
coughing and groaning in obvious distress. The
idea was to see who would stop and help.
Invariably, people assume that those who were
asked to talk about the Good Samaritan were
the most likely to assist the man. In fact, the
only factor that influenced the outcome was
time. Among those who thought they were in a
hurry, only 10 percent stopped to help. Among
those with extra time, 63 percent stopped. As
Gladwell concludes, context, far more than
conviction, influences behavior.
One obvious reason for the decline in volun- My idea was not to
teering is that Americans are working harder.
With the rise of the two-income family, Paul improve the citys
Clolery says, the traditional volunteer who
stayed at home with the kids no longer exists.
schools systemati-
According to one study, middle-class parents callymy children
now punch the clock 335 hours more each
yearthats eight solid workweeksthan they would almost
did in 1979. I dont know how you ask people
who are working 50-, 60-hour weeks, who certainly take the
already have children and elderly parents to
places of other poor,
care for, to volunteer on a more regular basis,
Sara Melendez says. The rhetoric about volun- equally deserving
teering hasnt caught up with the reality of peo-
ples lives. studentsbut to
Between 1995 and 1997, for example, I cut back pass the kids off,
the amount of time I saw my kids by three-
into new caring
fourths, to about once a month. The reason
wasnt that in 1995 I was a good person and in hands, like batons.
1997 I was a bad one. Rather, in 1995 I had a
flexible job with a lot of downtime, and in 1997
I took a full-time job as an editor and often
worked into the evening or on weekends.
Before I made the shift, I began to look for an
exit out of my kids lives. At one point, I was
approached about a job in Washington and fig-
ured that was how my mentoring would end: I
would leave the city. But the opportunity fell
through. I eventually decided I would get my
four original students into a good, small junior
high. (I also helped Angelo get into a good high
school.) The younger siblings, I figured, could
then follow suit. My idea was not to improve
the citys schools systematicallymy children
would almost certainly take the places of other
poor, equally deserving studentsbut to pass
the kids off, into new caring hands, like batons.
Look at this pizza! Jaber exclaimed in mock
horror as we sat in a booth at Johns Pizzeria on
the Upper West Side. The pie had arrived
slightly burned around the edges, and Jaber was
feigning outrage. Why do they give us the
black pizza? He intoned, as the other kids dis-
solved into helpless giggles. Do they give the
black pizza to the white man? Nooooooo! he
said. They give the black pizza to the black
man! I had never heard Jaber talk this way.
Should the black man accept the black pizza.
continued on page 34
The Vanity of Volunteerism
continued from page 33
No! The black man should demand
the white pizza! I was laughing,
too.
I took the performance to be an
impression of Al Sharpton, who
had been preaching outside Jabers
window during the previous
month to protest the death of
Kevin Cedeno, a 16-year-old boy
who was shot in the back by police
on the corner of 164th Street and
Amsterdam Avenue in the wee
hours of April 6, 1997. I had inno-
cently picked up my paper the next
morning, and there on the front
page were pictures of the block
my block, our blockcordoned off
with yellow police tape, the famil-
iar hubcap store and bodega where
the kids and I often bought sodas
in the background. I thought, He
could have been my kid.
At the time of the shooting, I had
not seen the group in months. In
some ways my strategy had
worked. At their new school, Jaber
and Adam had come under the
wing of a wonderful teacher
named Natalie Novod, whom I had
known my first year teaching and
who worked with them individu-
ally as a resource room instruc-
tor. (Burger and Keemy didnt have
her, which they frequently
lamented.) Novod later told me
that the kids had been completely
unstrung by the shooting, and I
took Jabers routine to be just
another way of coming to grips
with Cedenos death. But the kids
continued to call. Before long, we
started seeing each other again,
though less frequently, and I real-
ized that I wouldnt be breaking my
bond with them. I resisted this
knowledge for a while. Then I
didnt.
Crack dealers be wandering all
over the ocean, James said. We
were walking on a path toward the
sand dunes near Amagansett, on
the eastern end of Long Island, on
a summer night in 1998. Seven
city-bred kids, scared of the coun-
try dark, were simultaneously
hanging off my arms. I had driven
them early that morning to a cot-
tage I had rented. Several had
claimed to have never seen the
Atlanticeven at Coney Island.
How could you live on an island
off the coast of America and have
never gone to the ocean? All after-
noon we had played in the waves.
The kids learned about tides (why
was the water receding?) and the
principles of sand-castle construc-
tion (namely, dont build too close
to the water). James, marveling
that nature would leave free
shells on the beach, hauled 100 or
so back to the cottage. We barbe-
cued in the backyard. Burger
revealed heretofore undiscovered
skills of food presentation as Jaber
dragged a boogie board around the
yard, the wrist leash attached to his
neck like a giant ornament worn by
Flava Flav. It was a cloudless night,
and I pointed out the Big Dipper
and the Milky Way. (More firsts.)
Down the beach, there was a bon-
fire, and a party, and for a while we
lingered at its edges.
The cottage had only two rooms,
so we separated the mattress and
box springs to create four double
beds. I slept on the sofa in the liv-
ing room. I felt like a single mom
at her sons first slumber party. The
kids talked among themselves.
There were thumps and giggles and
some mooning. There was discus-
sion of a girl who appeared to be
the object of much sexual fantasy.
When things threatened to get out
of hand, I mouthed the cliches of
parenthood: Dont make me come
in there! This elicited only tanta-
lized squeals. The kids appealed to
me with loud wails, Ms. Mooozz-
zlleeee, nigger put toothpaste in my
hair! or alternately tried to get
away with things. Shhhh! Ms.
Mosle will hear you, in a loud
stage whisper. Id say, I can hear
you. More peals of laughter.
Finally, at about 3 in the morning,
the house was quiet. Sometime
later, a car alarm went off. I heard a
tiny voice in the dark. It was James:
I told you crack dealers be wan-
dering all over the ocean.
My renewed commitment, how-
ever, didnt mean I was any more
effective as a volunteer. Nineteen
ninety-eight was not a good year
for most of my kids or their fami-
lies, but I did little more than stand
on the sidelines and watch help-
lessly as events unfolded in some-
times tragic ways. After Adam and
Jabers family was evicted, the boys
began to unravel. Adam, who had
always had good attendance,
stopped going to school and was
apparently hanging out on the
streets in the South Bronx. He was
avoiding our outings. James also
seemed at loose ends. One after-
noon at work, I got a call from the
Toys R Us near the shelter where
his family was living in Brooklyn. It
seemed that James had damaged
some producthe often spent
long hours in toy stores yearningly
looking at video games he couldnt
affordand was being held by
security. The store couldnt reach
his mother (since there was no
phone). Could I pick him up? Oth-
erwise, he would be turned over to
the police. I did the quick calcula-
tions in my mind: at least 40 min-
utes by subway just to get there. It
was 4:30, and I was editing an arti-
cle that had to go to press that
continued on page 35
The Vanity of
Volunteerism
continued from page 34
afternoon. It was out of the ques-
tion. (The security guard took pity
and let him go.)
Burger, meanwhile, was having
trouble in school, and the school
recommended that he be placed in
foster care because his grand-
mother was having a hard time
caring for him. For a while, he
lived with an uncle, in a kind of
compromise, but was eventually
placed in a group house in Brook-
lyn during the week and returned
home on weekends.
Keemys father, although a present
and caring parent, has struggled
with drugs. In 1998 his addiction
worsened. He started stealing from
the family, and Keemys mother
threw him out. He broke back into
the apartment, shattering a win-
dow, which cut up Keemys sister
Clara. For the first and only time,
one of my kids called me to ask
directly for assistance. Keemy left a
heartbreaking message on my
machine, asking, all in a rush, if I
could lend the family some money.
(I did.) His mother was now scared
his father would return again and
wanted to move. After months of
wrangling, they finally got a new
place, but it turned out to be in a
terrible neighborhood, and every-
one came to regret the move, par-
ticularly after the father and the
family were reconciled.
Sometimes my kids would just
drop these devastating bombs. One
day as we were riding the subway
downtown, another kid, William, a
late arrival to the group, was sitting
off to one side. He looked differ-
ent. I realized that his clothes were
too big. I asked him what was up.
He quietly explained that his father
had recently been released from
jail. William had begged his
mother and sister to let him live
with them. I didnt know my
father and wanted to have a rela-
tionship with him, he explained.
His mother and sister were reluc-
tant but relented. Shortly there-
after, everyone but the father went
on a family outing in Queens. In
their absence, the father stole every
item in the apartmentclothes,
CDs, even the food in the refriger-
ator. William now felt horribly
guilty. A few months later, in a sep-
arate incident, his apartment
building burned. For the next sev-
eral months, the family lived, with
no heat, in the charred shell as they
waited for new housing. Only
Jabers life remained relatively sta-
ble during this time.
But this recitation of sorrow cre-
ates a hopeless picture. None of
these kids are in any serious kind
of trouble. They are all good,
sweet, decent kids. After six
months or so, Adam stopped hang-
ing out in the Bronx, not because
of any intervention on my part,
but because he broke his leg and
was homebound in a cast for sev-
eral weeks. This broke the spell of
the streets. Angelo, Keemys older
brother, has continued to excel and
is headed to college in the fall on a
partial scholarship. (I am also
helping, by paying his room and
board.) Burger seems happy in his
group home, and this may in fact
be a good solution for him
although it is worth noting that as
a volunteer, I had nothing to do
with it. Jaber and Keemy are both
doing well. And Williamwell,
William is the Rock of Gibraltar:
bright, self-possessed. He will
almost certainly go to college. I say
that. He should and wants to. But
unless he wins a full scholarship,
he will have a hard time affording
it. His family is destitute.
For all the talk about children in
this country, we do very little for
themor their families. What my
kids really need, I cant give them:
better housing, less crowded
schools, access to affordable health
care, a less punitive juvenile justice
system, and for their parents, bet-
ter child care (so they can work
without leaving their kids unat-
tended) and a living wage. Even the
churches, in whose name the
claims of volunteering are often
made, have begun to protest. In
February, a surprisingly large and
diverse coalition of religious lead-
ersfrom the conservative
National Association of Evangeli-
cals to the liberal United States
Catholic Conferencecame
together in Washington to inaugu-
rate a new group, Call to Renewal,
to insist that government do more
to fight poverty. Since welfare
reform passed, all these problems
have been dumped at churches
feet, says the Rev. Jim Wallis, one
of the organizations founders.
But we cant do it all.
As it stands, the government isnt
even doing what it said it would.
One reason that hunger and home-
lessness are on the rise is that many
states, including New York, have
prevented even the deserving
working poor from receiving basic
benefits, like health care and food
stamps, to which they are legally
entitled. Nationwide, a million
people have lost Medicaid benefits
and are now uninsured. As a result,
many working families are worse
off financially than they were
under the old system. Minnesota,
by contrast, has offered ample
continued on page 36
 The Vanity of Volunteerism
continued from page 35
assistancecash allowances to supplement
income, job training, more opportunities for
The best way to health and child carein addition to requiring
that welfare recipients work. The approach
help kids, in short, hasnt been cheap, but the results, according to
a widely praised study released in June, have
is not to recruit been remarkable: not only have poverty and
homelessness declined but the marriage rate
strangers to take
has also risen, domestic abuse is down, truancy
the place of parents, rates have fallen and children are doing better
in school. The best way to help kids, in short, is
but to help those not to recruit strangers to take the place of par-
ents, but to help thosetheir families and
their families and teacherswho are already in the best position
teacherswho are to help them.
already in the best Thats not to say that volunteering has no
value. But it doesnt offer a systematic solution
position to help to entrenched problems like hunger, poverty or
homelessness. If I had to say what Ive done for
them. Thats not to my kids, Id point to the Six Flags effect,
say that volunteering named after our first trip to the amusement
park two years ago. Its going to be a
has no value. But it scorcher103 degrees, my clock radio
announced on the morning of our departure.
doesnt offer a An hour or so later, I and six teenage boys
systematic solution crammed into a Ford Escorttwo in front,
four in backthat I had rented from Rent-a-
to entrenched Wreck. It didnt have air-conditioning. Jam-
ming to Hot 97, their favorite station, we drove
problems like along the sweltering highway as they tried to
top one another with brave boasts about which
hunger, poverty
rides they would soon conquer. None of them
or homelessness. had ever been to Six Flags. By the time we got
to the park, even I couldnt wait, despite the
heat, to witness their first roller-coaster ride.
But once inside, the mood suddenly darkened.
I led them to a set of airborne swings that on
the scare-o-meter ranked just above a merry-
go-round. Suddenly, my tough inner-city kids
were balking. Im not going on no swing ride,
Jaber announced first. Keemy chimed in,
Thats wack! Its just a giant swing, I
implored. Remember swings? Wed been on
swings. It was this way ride after ride. Adam
and Burger were slightly more adventurous.
Through sheer force of will, I managed to get
them and James onto the Runaway Mine Train;
their shocked, amazed expressions afterward at
their own bravery were worth the price of
admission. But I couldnt even lure the others
onto the Ferris wheel. I kept trying to explain
that the scariest ride we had been on all day
was the New Jersey Turnpike. But they were
unmoved. I was dumbfounded. When I was
their age, I had already graduated to the full-
throated screamers. What was going on here?
Then I realized: when I was their age, I had
been going to Six Flags since the time I was 2. I
had watched an older brother try every ride
before I did, giving me confidence that I
wouldnt die on, say, the parachute plunge.
Over the years, I was slowly introduced to each
new level of fright. To my kids, however, Six
Flags was a foreign world to which they had
been introduced all at once, relatively late in
life. They were 13 and 14, already at that tender
age of adolescence when they werent inclined
to set themselves up for embarrassment or
ridicule by trying a ride they couldnt fully pre-
dict their reaction to. But if Six Flags scared
them, how frightening must a real roller
coasterlike collegeseem? How do you
imagine a world that youve never been to or
seen? If Ive done anything for my kids, its to
introduce them to new worlds: chopsticks,
Avery Fisher Hall, the Staten Island Ferry, Mex-
ican food, Duke Ellington, even the Hamptons.
They have done the same for me. A year later,
we returned to Six Flags, and sure enough, the
kids were now nonchalant, pronouncing rides
boring that they found terrifying just a year
before. Some of this was clearly bravado. But
its as if their entire youth had been condensed
into a few months. They had gone from being
babies, as they would put it, to adults, with-
out ever getting to enjoy the time in between. I
sometimes felt this about their entire lives.
When I first started seeing my kids, people
would smile at us on the subway, as in, Look
at the nice white lady with the cute little black
children. Now I found, when I was standing at
the center of a group of teenage boys, people
sometimes shot me expressions of alarm, as in,
Are you O.K.?
In the publics eyes, my kids had morphed, in
the matter of one or two years, from being
continued on page 37
The Vanity of Volunteerism
continued from page 36
cute to being potential superpredators.
I often noticed as we walked around the
Upper West Side how people gave us a
wide berth, how store managers stiffened
when we walked in, how people moved
when we sat down in a theater, how, if I
hailed a cab and my kids stepped off the
curb, it would screech away or how,
incredibly, the ticket agents at the
Museum of Modern Art once refused us
admission, insisting that a group of six
with one chaperon was too largewould
six Chapin girls have received the same
treatment?until I threatened unspeci-
fied legal action. I wanted to hit people
when these things happened. My kids just
shrugged. It wasnt news to them, and it
shouldnt have been to me. But all I can
say is that its not the same until it hap-
pens to you.
I finally did leave New York, as I hoped I
would. (I now live in Texas.) But I am not
happy to have abandoned my kids. While
I would be lying if I said I didnt some-
times still wish that my kids lives had
never become linked to mine, in truth,
when I try to imagine my life without
them in it, I cant: it would all seem so
pointless and empty, I thinkmy 30s
with nothing to speak of but career.
When did I first meet you? James asked
in February, a few weeks before I left. I
was paying him to help me pack up. As he
worked, I was trying to reassure him that
I would be coming back, that we would
stay in touch, that I would even have a
toll-free number, so he could continue to
call me collect. For his part, he was try-
ing to earn enough money to buy one of
his beloved video games.
You remember, I said. He claimed not
to. You were 7, I said. You used to come
with Adam to my classroom after school.
Oh, yeah, he replied.
I suddenly realized I had known him half
his life.
If were going to insist on smaller gov-
ernment and lower taxes, says Sara
Melendez at Independent Sector, then
were going to have to give more individ-
ually. But if what were really saying is
that were giving as much as we can, that
were volunteering as much as we can,
then we have a choice. We can either say,
I dont care what happens to people in
need, or we can make sure that we have
the government policies in place to pick
up the slack.
One night, as I stood on the block of
West 164th Street, the usual crowd having
formed, a kid who hoped to join our
group cried out, Ms. Mosle, you need to
start a center! I laughed. I knew what he
meant. What these kids needwhat all
these kids needisnt me, but a real
after-school program.
The Good Citizen: A History of American Life
reviewed by David Greenberg
The Good Citizen:
A History of American
Civic Life
by Michael Schudson
Free Press,
390 pp.; $27.50
This review appeared in
[civreviews]
NovemberDecember A professor of communication at the Univer-
1998, Vol 2. No. 6, and is
reprinted with permission.
C
. Atomized Americans, its said,
selfishly guard our rights and entitlements, shirking civic
obligations and shunning the public sphere. We telecommute
from gated communities, indifferent to our neighbors.
Government, captive to special interests,
ignores our voices; and so we abandon the
political parties, mock our leaders, and rarely
bother to vote. Journalism has degenerated
into tabloid sensationalism, manipulative
sound bites, and horse-race-style political cov-
erage, leading us to distrust reporters and stop
reading the papers. In this disunited America
this culture of narcissismmeanness has tri-
umphed, the habits of the heart have atro-
phied, and everyone is bowling alone.
Such a portrait of an impoverished society,
Michael Schudson notes in The Good Citizen
has scarcely to be argued; the only question is
what to do about it. Yet in this erudite, clever,
and original book, Schudson does indeed argue
the pointand persuasively. Employing not so
much polemic as instruction, Schudson leads a
tour of American history to point up the
changing ways citizenship has been construed.
In the process, he shows that many of the com-
monplaces about our supposedly tattered civic
condition stem not from the objective state of
our national health but from the unreasonable
standards we use to judge it.
sity of California at San Diego and a
MacArthur Grant recipient, Schudson blends
history, sociology, and media studies in his
work; in his first two books, Discovering the
News and Watergate in American Memory, he
turned this hybrid into a trademark genre. Lib-
eral, skeptical, and optimistic, he takes the long
view to put in perspective whatever cultural
threat has lately panicked the cognoscenti. He
remains unfazed by such alleged threats to the
republic as the dominance of TV or our forget-
fulness about Watergate. No matter what the
topic, he calmly breaks down the conventional
wisdom into its premises and proceeds to
explain why those premises are faulty.
The Good Citizen showcases Schudsons gift for
upending received wisdom. Repeatedly, he
explodes myths of a great bygone age of flour-
ishing civic virtue. Why cant we recreate the
town meetings of colonial America, where citi-
zens assembled as equals to resolve their prob-
lems? First, Schudson suggests, we might recall
that the New England town meetings allowed
only property-owning men (and sometimes
only churchgoing property-owning men) to
participate. Even among these few, public
mindedness flagged, as voter turnout for elec-
tions hovered near 10 to 25 percent.
Likewise, we should be wary of romanticizing
the 1858 debates between Abraham Lincoln
and Stephen Douglas. The Senate candidates,
after all, threw ad hominem attacks and unsub-
stantiated slurs at each other, pandered to
entertainment-seeking crowds (who werent
allowed to vote for their own senators), and
continued on page 39
Schudson leads a tour of
American history to point up the
changing ways citizenship has
been construed.
The Good Citizen
continued from page 38
droned on interminably. There is
much to learn from the Lincoln-
Douglas debates about the politics
of the 1850s, Schudson notes, but
there are no lessons to apply to
our own time, certainly not in the
form of a rebuke to a purportedly
diminished political culture.
But The Good Citizen is more than
a series of debunkings. Although
Schudson bases his research mostly
on the work of other historians, his
synthesis is a creative one. He
braids together the histories of sev-
eral interrelated democratic institu-
tionsthe presidency, the fran-
chise, political parties, voluntary
private associations, the news
media, and otherseach of which
helps define what it means to be a
citizen. With so many variables at
play, its natural that our notions of
citizenship should metamorphose
over time; and Schudson appreci-
ates the fluid nature of his subject.
Still, he identifies three main peri-
ods of American history, each gov-
erned by a different conception of
citizenship. Explaining the evolu-
tion of these conceptions forms the
core of his book.
First was the early republic, when
ideals of social hierarchy still held
sway. Although the American Revo-
lution had shattered the rigid
monarchical order of English soci-
ety, certain habits, such as deference
to ones social betters, persisted in
the new political culture. Politics
remained an avocational activity
for gentlemen, most people could-
nt vote at all, and those who could
chose among upper-class candi-
dates. Grassroots organizations
political parties, workingmens
clubs, philanthropic societies, and
other popular associationsdrew
the suspicion of the genteel leader-
ship. George Washington, for one,
wrote derisively of self created
bodies, forming themselves into
permanent censorsunder the
shade of night.
Soon, however, the democratic
tides released by the Revolution
further eroded the class-stratified
social order. By 1824, every state
had granted all free white men the
franchise. Martin Van Buren, leader
of New Yorks Democratic Party,
helped turn political parties into
vehicles for organizing the newly
mobilized masses. Parties swelled in
power and respectability through-
out this second period of citizen-
ship, culminating in the Gilded Age
and its love of election-season bal-
lyhoo: banners and bands, torchlit
processions and carnivalesque fes-
tivity. Local clubs thrived with
active members; newspapers took
openly partisan stands, and even
many among the colorful array of
ethnic immigrants were able to find
a voice in politics.
This era, in turn, passed when the
rage for rationalization, reform,
and expertisethe hallmarks of
the Progressive Eraushered in a
third concept of citizenship. Civil
service reform stamped out the
rampant patronage that had made
for widespread corruption. Innova-
tions such as referenda, secret bal-
lots, and popular election of sena-
tors weakened the parties.
Journalism became a profession,
replete with press clubs, salaried
writers, and professional schools;
like all professions, it placed new
faith in objectivity and disinterest-
edness. As Schudson puts it, Pro-
gressive Era politics instructed peo-
ple in a citizenship of intelligence
rather than passionate intensity.
Citizens were now supposed to stay
Voter turnout has fallen, and we
romanticize the past. But Schudson
doesnt say things are worse any more
than he says theyre better.
knowledgeable about the issues
(hence, literacy tests), to value their
informed opinions over party loy-
alty (ticket-splitting grew com-
mon), and to vaunt the public
good. The League of Women Voters
and similar institutions sprang up.
Did they create a better system?
Schudson asks of these reformers.
He doesnt answer directly. They at
least created a different one. The
esteem for the independent,
informed citizen, after all, has had
its downsidesin particular, an
excessive pressure on citizens to
make onerous and unnatural sacri-
fices. Voter turnout has fallen, and
we romanticize the past. But
Schudson doesnt say things are
worse any more than he says theyre
better. And his refusal to pass judg-
ment signals not only his open-
mindedness but his appreciation
that giving the thumbs up or
thumbs down to history is a fools
game.
Thus, when it comes to the present,
he is disinclined to join the chorus
of doomsayers. I do not join the
common practice of beating up on
our own era because it fails to live
up to the standards of another day,
he writes. We can gain inspiration
from the past, but we cannot
import it. None of the older models
of authority and citizenship will
suffice. We require a citizenship fit
for our own day. Society has
changed radically since the Progres-
sive Era: Television now shapes the
news; a civil rights revolution has
continued on page 40
The Good Citizen
continued from page 39
shifted power among the electorate; inter-
est groups have proliferated. Yet, we stick
to the same basic notions from that dis-
tant period. And so in his concluding sec-
tion, Schudson puts forward a provocative
suggestion for thinking about a citizen-
ship fit for our own day.
Can a rights-conscious citizenship build
institutions that allow people to be citi-
zens without forcing them to be saints?
Schudson asks. Can it demand of citizens
ordinary but not heroic efforts at infor-
mation-gathering and civic participa-
tion? He believes the answer is yes, or at
least probably.
The name he gives to his proposed way of
construing citizenship is monitorial obli-
gation. Instead of omnicompetence and
omniscience, Americans can rest easy
with a modicum of competence and
knowledge about current affairs. They
should read the papers, or maybe even
just scan the headlines, to keep generally
aware of events. But they should also trust
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in delegated experts to handle their jobs,
checking in when theres reason to worry.
We rely on the farms, milk processors,
and government inspectors to see that
milk is pasteurized, we do not do it our-
selves, Schudson notes; and so we should
regard political issues. Like parents watch-
ing children at a swimming pool, monito-
rial citizens look inactive, but they are
poised for action if action is required.
They are still protective of their rights,
still concerned for their communities, and
yet relieved of the moralizing demands for
unreasonable sacrifice that may drive
them away from the public sphere alto-
gether.
Monitorial obligation strikes me as an
astute and highly promising way of recon-
ceiving our rights and responsibilities as
citizens. Duty should fit not like a strait-
jacket but like a freshly starched shirt,
clean and comfortable with its slight stiff-
ness. Its unfortunate, then, that Schudson
devotes only five pages to elaborating this
idea. Its the thrilling climax of his book,
but he treats it more like an afterthought.
Schudson doesnt draw out, for example,
how this concept would work in practice,
how it might reorient politics. Nor, does
he imagine and respond to objections
others might have to it.
Then again, Schudsons book isnt meant
to be a manifesto so much as a prole-
gomenon. The bulk of his opushis
review of the historyshould clear the
decks of the tiresome laments about how
our civic life pales next to that of our
golden past. His notion of monitorial
obligation, while still sketchy, should
inspire a range of our best social thinkers
to begin discussing citizenship in terms
that are hopeful rather than despairing,
constructive rather than instructive,
encouraging rather than admonishing.
And, if were lucky, Schudsons will be
among the voices that continue to weigh
in.
David Greenberg, a Richard Hofstadter
Fellow in American history at Colum-
bia University, is a columnist for Slate
magazine.
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