On Tuesday, April 16, the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education held its second annual civic summit to address the question: “How should Massachusetts public schools prepare the next generation for civic engagement and responsibility?”

The event featured a panel of four civics education experts and educators, along with five student representatives from the Massachusetts public school system. Together, they explored topics including student voices, the future of democracy and the accessibility of information for young people in their communities.

“It is absolutely important for students to understand the philosophical foundations of our country through modern application and be able to dig deeply in an authentic way that isn’t just a quick traverse over our institutions,” said Kelly Brown, an award-winning civics teacher at Easthampton High School.

Tashauna Fuquay, a member of the Center of Racial Justice (CRJ) Youth Board, shared her personal experience with the lack of civic education in schools. She said her high school discontinued civics and Black history courses before she entered ninth grade.

“I’ve always thought a cultural course should be mandatory,” Fuquay said. “We’re not learning the type of things in school that most kids need to know.”

The lack of civic education is a national issue. Each year, the federal government spends five cents per child on civic education. While some states require at least one semester of civics instruction, only six require a full year.

Reuben Henriques, assistant director of humanities, emphasized the value of civic learning in empowering students. “Students need to have a knowledge of the past, across societies and disciplines to be able to break any issue down and develop an informed stance on it,” Henriques said. The goal is for students to walk away from their education “understanding the world they live in and being empowered to take action to shape that world.”

Irene LaRoche, a social studies teacher at Amherst Regional Middle School shared her approach to teaching, which includes exposing students to a broad range of cultures, perspectives and historical contexts in order to envision how they can shape the world.

“They can’t imagine it if they don’t have that foundation of knowledge,” she said.

Student panelists also noted the importance of simplifying complex topics when teaching civics.“Government is complex – if we had a simple government it wouldn’t work,” said Oliver Oparwoski, a We the People competition winner. “When you face these questions about the government and think deeply, rarely do you find their answers- and that is frustrating.”

To address this, Brown recommended frequent exposure to the inner workings of government and inquiry-based learning to help make the complex issues understandable for students.

“In the We The People program we focus on complex inquiry questions that have students digging deeply into the philosophical foundation of our country or something modern like immigration policy today,” Brown said. “Students have the opportunity to actually dig and look at things from multiple perspectives.”

Panelists agreed that students must not only understand civic topics but also see how these lessons apply to their lives and the well-being of the country.

“An educated citizen body is the only way we can have a democracy. We can see throughout history that the limitation of education is a tool for limiting people’s political power,” Oparwoski said.

Adam Hinds, Director of The Kennedy Center for the State, added that the best way to prepare children for life-long participation in democracy is through civic education.

“Students need to be aware of the fact that what they’re getting is not just another course- it’s something that is valuable in how they’re going to live the rest of their lives,” he added. “If I had been told, ‘We’re giving you power by teaching these things’, I think I would have been more attentive in eighth grade.”

For students like Qua’Nae Goldston-Thomas, a freshman political science major at UMass, civics instruction has had a lasting impact.

“Historians in my community, coming into the classrooms and speaking with us, really showed me that it’s not on this global or national scale — it really can be at your level,” she said.

LaRoche concluded by noting that civic education also nurtures a sense of identity and belonging.

“Everybody wants to have a sense of joy and belonging,” Irene La Roche said. “I think one of the challenges we have currently in our society is that people are losing some of that sense. They don’t know where they belong. They’re not sure where their community is and they don’t know how to find one.”

For LaRoche and her fellow panelists, the message is clear: civic education is not only about knowledge. It’s  about helping students see their place in the world and recognize that their voices matter.

Lily Powell can be reached at [email protected]