What are people saying about democracy education...

"Classroom educators need to fully embrace co-curricular initiatives from outside the school system...It’s time for history and social studies classes, particularly in grade 9 and 10 civics, to get in the game instead of remaining on the sidelines."

Paul W. Bennett, Ed.D., director of the Schoolhouse Institute, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and education columnist for Brunswick News/Postmedia
(March 17, 2025)

"A third of Canadian adults don’t recall learning anything about civics in school. And the results for several key aspects of civic education are also quite poor. Only a third recall learning about current events (39%), how institutions and governments work (38%), and the roles and responsibilities of being a citizen (37%). Only 1 in 10 Canadians say were taught how to discuss controversial issues....
"...Those who can’t recall learning about how institutions and government are 10-points less likely to say they voted in the last federal election. Those who can’t recall learning about current events are 9-points less likely to say they voted in the last federal election...."

from survey report Canadians Lack Basics of Civic Education and It’s Impacting Our Democracy
Abacus Data (January 2024)

"The best civics lesson – the one that sticks – could actually take place in science or art class by giving students the autonomy to identify an issue students care about, then guiding them through the process of becoming informed advocates."

Josh Fullan, former civics teacher
from op-ed in Globe and Mail (April 4, 2022)

"Not surprisingly, youth are significantly more likely to get engaged if they are interested and knowledgeable about politics....educational institutions should collaborate to propose new, innovative activities to stimulate young citizens' interest and knowledge of political processes."

from National Youth Survey Report: A Subgroup Analysis of Political and Civic Participation among Canadian Youth
Elections Canada (2015)

"The new citizens in our study suggested a number of strategies to facilitate their participation:...Workshops for new citizens that offer more in-depth information on the political system than they learn in the citizenship preparation process."

from Ballots and Belonging: New Citizens on Political Participation
Institute for Canadian Citizenship (2015)

"There are concepts and standards of reasoning that students must learn in order to help them rationally address the decisions they must make as adult citizens. One of them is the ability to distinguish between facts and values, and to know the standards that apply in evaluating each. Another is the inclination and ability to gather factual evidence relevant to one’s decisions. Related to this is the ability and disposition to reason accurately in making decisions. Respect for evidence and reason are essential both to personal decisions and the decisions one makes about the kind of society one wants....
"...to encourage high levels of voter turnout, to stimulate interest and ability to make difficult choices about the issues society faces, to promote tolerance, and diminish political extremism, students must acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that active and engaged citizenship requires..."

from Measuring What Matters: Citizenship Education
People for Education (2014)

"Developing a more robust civics school curriculum would positively affect engagement. The Canadian public’s general lack of engagement in the political process [is] endemic and symptomatic of a low priority placed on educating the public at the primary and secondary school levels on civic affairs."

from Parliament 2020: Visioning the Future of Parliament
Prepared by NANOS, Commissioned by the Library of Parliament (February 2010)

"To sustain the connections among information, interest and participation, students need to know their role in the decision-making behind Canada’s policies. Educators sought strategies to encourage students to practise critical-thinking skills and democratic communication. Students in our study wanted to “walk the walk” of political action, outside the bounds of the narrowly defined good citizen in the codes of conduct. Interviewees expressed the need for resources and time to experience politics, rather than to read about it or imagine hypothetical activities. They valued those instances when civic life and schools seemed inextricably linked..."
"...We must provide youth with genuine opportunities for leadership in the civic arena. Students in our study wanted immediate and efficient avenues for talking politics..."

from The State and Potential of Civic Learning in Canada: Charting the Course for Youth Civic and Political Participation
Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN) (June 2007)

". . . in a modern democratic society citizenship requires of us that we not only be law-abiding but that we also participate in our own governance. To do so effectively requires that we have the requisite skills and this, of course, raises questions of how we can best impart these to our children and to the citizen body at large.
". . . Given the importance of teaching fundamental democratic values, we were also somewhat concerned that political education in our schools is taught in a 'passive sense,' limited to the factual description of government structures. Little, if anything, is taught about the actual dynamics of democratic conflict resolution or the importance of active political participation."

from Canadian Citizenship: Sharing the Responsibility
Report of the Standing Senate Committee of Social Affairs, Science and Technology (May 1993)

"There is one key element of our responsibilities that stands out above all others. It is the importance of participation. Participation in Canadian life goes far beyond voting."

from Canadian Citizenship: A Sense of Belonging
Report of the Standing Committee on Citizen ship and Immigration (April 1995)

"It is in the schools where citizenship is shaped that there is the greatest need to bolster the educational resources or our parliamentary democracy. Here, the need is not only for teachers who are knowledgeable about the workings of our parliamentary institutions, but also for the teaching materials that can engage and inform young Canadians in their formative school years. . . . Civic education is of vital importance for sustaining parliamentary democracy. It must be attached a sense of urgency. Nothing less than the essential popular foundation of our parliamentary system is at stake."

Peter Russell
Professor Emeritus (Political Science), University of Toronto
from Two Cheers for Minority Government
(2008, pp. 165-66)

"At first blush, the most likely method of improving levels of civic literacy is civics education. . . . Given limited resources, the best course of action, it appears, would be to aim civics (i.e. introductory political science) courses at 16 to 18 year-olds still in school."

Henry Milner
Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies, Université de Montréal
Fellow, Institute for Research on Public Policy
from Civic Literacy in Comparative Context: Why Canadians Should Be Concerned
(IRPP: 2001, p.22)

"For a generation, the young have endured a cycle of neglect and now they are opting out of the political system in unprecedented numbers. The first item in any democratic agenda must be to end the disengagement of our youth from politics. The way to do so is first to increase their basic civic literacy . . ."

Thomas S. Axworthy
in Policy Options magazine
(December 2003-January 2004 issue)

"For half a century, we have been busy putting in place, on an ad hoc basis, structures and programs that have successfully produced a reasonably just society, at least in comparison to what came before. . . . Our accomplishments, however, now resemble a large mound filled with legal and administrative details. For most people, whether citizens on the outside or working on the inside, it is an impenetrable mass. . . . the obscurity of the mound is one of the key elements preventing citizens from participating as citizens."

John Ralston Saul
from The LaFontaine-Baldwin Lecture
March 23, 2000

"Kids aren't born with the techniques of democratic problem solving, but they are born with one of its key components - the desire to speak out . . . And that's where the struggle for democracy begins."

Patrick Watson
from The Struggle for Democracy
(1989)