Editor: In America students are currently not obligated to do the naturalization test, however are required to gain credit for civics, even if its .5 credit, students from William Smith High School take a class with a civics credit, they are required to pass this class in order to gain civics credit.
Most students are against the idea of having the idea that the naturalization test needs to be a requirement for graduation, the biggest reasons why is because it should not be a necessity if you’re already a citizen, and have the choice to study and do it if you are undocumented or want someone to enter the states, the point of the test is to gain citizenship, not for everyone to test out on.
While it is true that students currently do not need to study the naturalization process and do not have enough knowledge of how their government works, it isn’t a requirement to study the Naturalization test, however that does not mean that it would be in the future. I did research on a report called “where did social studies go wrong.”
The author explains that educational theorists complained that teaching about heroes and history is nothing more than daydreaming. Today nothing much has really improved except that the world needs more young adults to process the history. However some students are failing the naturalization process and most are going well with it. There are stats from previous years that show that the 7th grade has had a lower grade for passing the civics class. The students may find it harder to pass than the last grade so that would mean that the students possibly show less interest the grade after. Requiring the students to learn stuff that new citizens are expected to know a lot more than passing for civics, could either be beneficial or non beneficial. Which is what we would see about the stats and their grades.
Additionally, students need civics classes in order to graduate. People who want to become
naturalized citizens have to pass an exam with a section about civics, the naturalization test.
Although learning civics may increase your knowledge about your country it does not possibly matter for people that are already Americans unless they just want basic knowledge of their own country or government. Non-political students could be going through this class without choice, for example; people that do not want to deal with politics despite knowing about their country, or people of religion that do not wish to be a part of this like Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Article writers state the positive views of what the naturalization test and civics class does for students, but what about the people that don’t want anything to do with it?
The naturalization process should not be forced on kids if they are already citizens, closeted
undocumented people should be supported to study on the topic instead.
—David Martinez, via letters@sentinelcolorado.com
Really?
Spend a little time online, or watching the news, and you will read and hear elected officials betray alarming ignorance of how this country’s government and its Constitution works. Concepts such as the separation of powers and basic constitutional rights are as foreign to our leaders as quantum physics.
And in every election, equally benighted citizens vote for the politicians referenced above. The average American can be counted on to be just as uninformed.
We need more civics education in this country, not less. If it takes mandatory naturalization tests, bring them on. But we are in no position to discourage any civics education in this country.