The good citizen

Show me an American high school student who thinks it is cool to be a good citizen, and I will show you a nerd. In our pop culture, the idea of striving to be a good citizen seems quaint and doesn't rate as a worthy goal.

No wonder only about 40 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in this year's mid-term elections. Our civic education efforts, political parties and social institutions have missed the mark. The development of good citizens should take top priority in our democracy.

Voting is the entry-level task for those who profess to being responsible citizens of a country that is self-governed. Despite the illusion of passionate engagement that fills the hours of talk radio, the United States is a country that has a distracted, ill-informed citizenry. The problems we face today and the decisions that we must make about the future require a continuing civil discussion among adults who know what they are talking about. The name-calling, exaggeration and misleading rhetoric that characterize the political scene have no place in the national discussion that must begin in earnest.

Neither does ignorance.

We can be shocked only so many times by surveys that show that Americans are capable of naming more of Snow White's dwarfs than of naming Supreme Court Justices (Zogby poll, August 2006) or that one-third of American adults can name the three branches of government (Annenberg Judicial Independence Survey, September 2006).

It matters when only a minority of a nation's citizens are up to the task of casting informed ballots and otherwise participating in the political process. The power of factions increases as the number of people offering viable alternative views decreases. Common ground all but disappears when the majority stays home and only those who feel the strongest -- and shout the loudest -- about an issue venture out to the public space where government and citizen meet.

And in a close election, it isn't the undecideds on whom the results depend: It is the uninvolved whose votes could have made the biggest difference.

Educators and politicians agree on what makes a good citizen: a combination of knowledge, skills and values. The good citizen has a basic understanding of the political system. He or she has developed the values necessary for living in a democratic society: tolerance and respect for the rule of law. And the good citizen puts values and knowledge to use by participating, whether by voting, volunteering or contributing to the public discourse.

Our society needs and rewards successful entrepreneurs, professionals and skilled craftspeople. But the need for good citizens is far more critical to the success of our country. We can groan all we want about mud-slinging campaigns and the scandal de jour, but our time would be better spent finding ways to raise the status of the good citizen.

Jack Wax is the media relations director for the Missouri Bar, which offers citizenship education programs to students throughout Missouri. On Dec. 15 it will be providing high schools with a free interactive Internet broadcast titled "Music, Freedom and the Bill of Rights."