Sandra Stotsky
This American educator is a Research Associate at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education and Director of the Harvard Summer
Institute on Writing, Reading, and Civic Education. She is also putting
her principles into practice outside the classroom as a Deputy Commissioner
of Education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A convenient resource
for learning more about her ideas is her recent Digest,
"Civic Writing in Education for Democratic Citizenship," prepared in July
1999 for the ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education
(ERIC/ChESS). It begins: "A major component of education for democratic
citizenship is the teaching and learning of intellectual skills needed
for effective and responsible participation in civil society and government,
such as skills in civic writing." In this Digest, Stotsky
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defines the concept of civic writing and the active ways
in which it goes beyond civic literacy understood simply as a citizen's
ability to read
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identifies five major purposes of civic writing:
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to personalize civic relationships with public officials
and/or to express a civic identity with other citizens
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to obtain information or assistance
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to provide public information or to offer a public service
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to evaluate public officials or services
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to advocate for people or causes
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recommends ways of teaching this "essential component
of citizenship in a democracy."
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