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What is a study of good citizenship?

The Tarrant County judge who ruled in the Leeper v. Arlington ISD case that home schools were indeed legal in Texas also required that students who were taught at home use a curriculum from any source that covers the “basic educational goals of reading, spelling, grammar, math and a study of good citizenship.” He used the language of good citizenship because it was in the compulsory attendance statute that exempted students from public school if they were going to a private school. The judge determined that such a course was a civics course or a study of government. Why did Texas legislators in the early 1900s demand that private schools teach students about their government and how it works when they did not address any other academic issue? Perhaps it was because the Texas Constitution adopted in 1876 was still relatively new and many still remembered the difficulties suffered by many Texas citizens during the years of reconstruction after the Civil War. Those who have been denied the right to take part in the governing of their state or country tend to have a greater degree of appreciation of the precious right of self-government. It is not uncommon to hear someone who has escaped the tyranny of a communist country extol the virtues of taking part in their governmental process. There can be no doubt that in this country citizens have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. However, such a government is effective only when an informed electorate participates in it to the fullest degree.

While many states have a more centralized government in which the governor appoints most of the governing officials, Texans continue to choose many of these offices by direct election of the people. Centralized government might be more efficient in terms of changing policy and procedure, but decentralized government is better able to protect the people and their freedom from over-zealous bureaucrats. As an example, in the early 1970s under the guise of an education reform measure by the Texas legislature, the Texas State Board of Education was reduced in size and changed to an appointed board. A decade later this appointed board sought to regulate home school families, and many experienced firsthand the need to have an elected board that would be more responsive to the people of Texas than to the bureaucracy of the Texas Education Agency or the governor of Texas who then appointed them.

The election of judges in the state also continues to be the object of reform measures supported by many legislators. They would like to see Texas’ judges appointed by the governor and approved by the Texas senate rather than elected by the people. However, most Texans continue to oppose changing their constitution in this way.

Home school families that lived through the legal battle over home education in the 1980s also have a great appreciation for the necessity of the study of good citizenship. These families learned the same lessons Texans learned as colonists of Mexico and during the years after the Civil War. If the people cannot - or do not - take part in the selection of representatives and operation of their local, state and federal governments, they risk seeing freedoms that they hold dear restricted or lost outright to bureaucrats who do not respect the opinion of the people whom they serve.

Some time ago a home school mom was troubled by the fact that the city council in her city had adopted a daytime curfew that had the possibility of affecting on her children as they pursued their educational activities. She was not aware of the issue and its importance until it was too late and the ordinance had gone into effect. This is a good example of how freedom can be lost and why it is important to be good citizens by being informed and taking part in government at every level.

Perhaps one reason that many do not better understand how their government works, or they are not concerned, may be related to how they were taught civics or government. When many were in public schools in Texas, civics was a one semester course that was taught the senior year of high school. For most that course was a dry recitation of numbers and structure of how government was organized and how it operated. The course was something to be endured with a passing grade on the way to graduation.

The advantage that Texas home school families have today in teaching good citizenship is the same advantage that they have in many other academic areas. They can teach in the real world. Rather than simply citing dry statistics and flow charts, parents can help their children learn through a hands-on method by taking part in actual governmental processes.

Voter Registration
The first major issue of being a good citizen is being registered to vote. Some miss an opportunity to take part in historic elections that are vital to their freedoms simply because they are not registered to vote. Every election is vital in making sure freedoms are protected. Texas law requires that people register to vote no later than thirty (30) days before an election. One may register to vote by simply filling out the voter registration card that is available in all U.S. post offices and dropping it in the mail. One may also go to the voter registrar of the county in which he lives and register to vote in person or register when he renews his driver’s license. Finally, he may to go the website of the Texas Secretary of State and print a registration form, complete it, and mail it to his county voter registrar. (A list of voter registrars is available for every county in Texas on this website.) Almost anyone of voting age may become a deputy voter registrar and may then collect completed voter registration cards and deliver them to the voter registrar of his county.

Political Party Participation
One area in which many Texas home school families have taken part in their governmental process is the political party process. Political parties developed early in the history of the country around differing philosophies related to issues of governance. In the early days of the United States, one of the first major issues was the adoption of the United States Constitution. The Federalists became known for their belief that it was vital to have a strong central government, and thus they were supportive of the adoption of the Constitution. The Anti-Federalists, however, were much more concerned about the tyranny that a strong central government could exercise over the people, and they opposed the adoption of the U.S. Constitution until the addition of the Bill of Rights that outlined the limitations of the federal government.

Political parties thus outline their general philosophy and support candidates who will attempt to implement that philosophy through the adoption or opposition of laws and statutes. Every two years political parties in Texas hold primaries in March in which voters of each party choose nominees to represent the party on the ballot during the general election in November.

Primary Process
Texas has open primaries, which means that any registered voter in Texas may vote in any political party’s primary. However, he may only vote in one political party’s primary that election year, and he may not vote in a run-off election of another political party. Registered voters who did not vote in any primary at all may vote in a run-off election of any party they choose.

In a primary, very few people vote compared with those who vote in a general election. People sometimes complain that they have no good choices in the general election. Those who vote in the primary are choosing the nominee of their political party and therefore, with fewer voters involved, have a greater influence on the final outcome of the general election. Those who wish to be good citizens and enhance their impact on the government vote in the primary.

Convention Process
Political parties outline their governing philosophy through a convention process that begins in Texas at the precinct or neighborhood level. On the night of the primary, each precinct has a convention that is open to anyone who voted either that day or in early voting in the party’s primary. Two major things are done at that meeting. After the election of a chairman for the meeting, the precinct convention elects a number of delegates to represent the precinct at the county or senatorial convention approximately two weeks later. Each precinct can send a certain number of delegates. Once that is done, the floor is open for any delegate to offer a resolution on any topic for discussion and vote. All resolutions that are adopted will be forwarded to the resolutions committee at the next level, the county or senatorial convention. The resolutions adopted in each precinct reflect the philosophy of the majority participating at that convention.

Two weeks from the Saturday following the primary, county or senatorial conventions are held. Each county that is wholly contained in a Texas senatorial district has a county convention. Those counties that are split between more than one state senatorial district have senatorial district conventions. Delegates elected at precinct conventions attend to represent their precincts. At these county/senatorial conventions, delegates elect delegates and alternate delegates to represent their county/senatorial district at the political party’s state convention and adopt resolutions that will be sent to the platform committee of the political party’s state convention.

In the summer, the political parties meet at state conventions to elect party officers and adopt a platform based on resolutions that began in the precincts. Each political party’s platform is a public statement of its governing philosophy. Thus, those who take part in this process choose who will lead that political party for two years and have a voice in expressing the philosophy of the party. The political party is defined by those who participate in its convention process. Parties change over the years based on those who are participating in and defining that political party. Home school parents who wish to take part in this process and give their children that experience should get a copy of the political party’s rules from the party’s county or state headquarters and become familiar with parliamentary procedure. Each time one goes through this process is a great educational experience.

Campaign Process
Political parties seek to implement their governing philosophy by electing their nominees to public office. Therefore, another area in which one may participate in his government is what might be called the campaign process. Many citizens become concerned when they become aware that a governmental body is considering some measure that could curtail some freedom. They react correctly by seeking to influence that body - whether it is a city council, county commissioner’s court or the Texas legislature - to stop the effort to restrict or eliminate the freedom in question. Many veterans of this process have learned that the best possible time to educate an official is while he is running for office. While some argue that they do not want to be involved in politics but do want to influence public policy decisions, those with much governmental experience have found that success in impacting public policy is generally directly proportionate to the success in the campaign process.

Many home school families teach their children to be good citizens by becoming informed about candidates running for local, state, and national elected office and then working as volunteers in the campaigns of candidates who have a governing philosophy that is consistent with the philosophy of the family. In this process, children learn about government and which philosophy of governance they support. They then become experienced in discerning the philosophy of a candidate by asking probing questions that reveal the candidate’s philosophy. Many home school families work for candidates in the primary, and they have tremendous impact because they are helping a political party’s nominee in an election with relatively few voters. If the candidate they support wins the primary and is therefore the political party’s nominee, they then work for the candidate in the general election in November.

Students who take part in this process not only gain a wealth of experience in government and public relations but also develop good social skills as well. In addition, they help protect the freedom of home education by educating candidates and the public about home education in the course of their volunteer work. Many a Texas candidate for public office has been impressed by the maturity and expertise of home school students working in a campaign.

Once candidates become elected officials - whether it is as members of local school boards, city councils, county commissioner’s courts, or the Texas legislature - they especially tend to be available to those who have had a part in their election to public office. Thus, when an issue arises that could impede the goals of home schooling in Texas, elected officials who were educated about home schooling during a campaign and supported by home school families have a natural tendency to be supportive of the home school community and its issues.

Legislative Process
The final phase of government is the legislative process. Governmental bodies made up of elected officials make policy, ordinances, or laws and statutes in the process of governing in their respective arenas. Home school students across Texas have learned about this aspect of government by working with their parents to impact these bodies on issues of importance to the home school community or their families.

Home school students who have worked in this area know that often the greatest challenge is to get an opportunity to speak with the elected official about their concerns. Those who have been part of the campaign that elected the official generally have a contact that makes this challenge easier to overcome. Other home school families have learned that even when they have supported a candidate who was not elected to office, the official who was elected is often eager to satisfy a strong constituency so that they will not oppose him in future elections. Either way, home school students should contact the official in question and seek to have a face-to-face meeting. In that meeting they should politely and respectfully lay out their concerns and ask for a commitment to support the position that would resolve the issue from the students’ viewpoint.

Many times, especially if students are speaking to a representative of the official, the information is taken but no commitment is given. At this point the students should enlist the help of their friends and others who would support their position by contacting this official with the same general message. Very often the right information coupled with many letters, phone calls, and messages will be enough to sway the official to take the student’s position. That is, of course, unless the official has a governing philosophy that is in opposition to that of the students and is unwilling to compromise that position.

In this case, the citizen lobbyist documents the situation for possible use as a campaign issue in the next election cycle in supporting an opponent of the elected official in question. And so the cycle begins again.