How to Raise a Citizen (and Why It's Up to You to Do It)

How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It) by Lindsey Cormack, Jossey-Bass 

I’ve been civically engaged for as long as I can remember. As a child, my parents let me pore over their study guides as they prepared for their U.S. citizenship test. They then took me to the polls nearly every time they voted and openly discussed politics at the dinner table. On my eighteenth birthday, I headed straight for my AP Gov teacher’s classroom first thing in the morning and filled out my voter registration forms. I majored in political science in college and worked directly in the political sphere for half a decade after that. All this to say, I’ve hardly been the person who needs to be reminded to vote each cycle; rather, I’m the eager know-it-all pulling up the MyVote Wisconsin website to help a friend check their voter registration status.

But I now find myself in uncharted territory: I have a nephew and niece who have recently come of voting age, and I’m teaching an undergraduate class on community activism at a local women’s college this fall semester, right as the nation barrels towards a high-profile presidential election. Sure, I’m confident in my own everyday grasp on politics and government, but how should I approach my new responsibility of mentoring the next generation of citizens?

It isn’t often that one finds a bona fide instruction manual for such life events, yet this is exactly what political science professor Lindsey Cormack delivers in her new book, How to Raise a Citizen. Aimed primarily at parents but suitable for anyone responsible for young people, this short yet rich volume begins by explaining how the country got to its current state of civic disengagement and political extremism. It then champions the role of parents and other trusted adults as changemakers, and it offers a guide to having impactful age-appropriate conversations that encourage young people to discover their own motivations and agency. Finally, the remainder of the book serves as a primer on U.S. government basics, starting with the electoral process, to the contents of the U.S. Constitution, to the concept of federalism and how federal, state, and local governments interact with one another. 

I imagine that I’ll be returning to the second half of the book most often in the coming months, as it lays out complex governmental and political processes in language that is easy to comprehend and then convey to others. But what I found most impactful on my first read-through were the first two chapters, where Cormack offers statistics and analysis on the state of civic education in our schools and explains the structural reasons for how we got to our current conditions.

For starters, there’s no consistent standard for civics education across each state. Some states offer civics courses, some administer a civics exam to high school seniors (but vary in whether it’s mandatory to pass it to graduate), some start their civics education as early as kindergarten, some only require it for a semester, et cetera, et cetera. Shifts in educational policy, such as the emphasis on standardized testing, mean students broadly receive intensive training in math and reading throughout their K-12 years to boost their test scores but don’t spend as much time on subjects like social studies. Yet even in schools with greater available resources, the conversations around civics education have become fraught. “Talking about politics carries more risks compared to teaching subjects like trigonometry or English grammar,” Cormack writes, noting the steady increase over the past few decades of parental backlash towards educators attempting to cover political subjects.

“Some dismiss lower turnout and participation for younger voters as youthful laziness or indifference to politics, but this explanation falls short,” Cormack writes. “When people know about a system and how to participate in it, participation goes up.” Even a few years ago, I would have said that the crux of political organizing depended on how successfully one could persuade people to vote for a particular party or candidate—which is, frankly, exhausting. As Cormack notes, the real solution is far simpler. Young people in their late teens and early twenties are testing their newfound adult personas and looking for meaningful ways to contribute to society. It’s less a lack of motivation than it is a lack of know-how that keeps them from taking up their civic duties. Looking back to 2020, Cormack writes: “Voter turnout increased for 18- to 24-year-olds more than it had in decades as the great majority of these new voters were able to vote from home with the guidance of their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Ultimately, this book helped me reframe how I want to approach my conversations on civic engagement moving forward—not just with young people but with anyone. When most of us shy away from political conversations, it’s because all we’ve experienced lately is partisan conflict: red versus blue, pro versus anti, your side versus mine. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In the end, we are all united by the functions of the democratic republic that we live in. We should be checking in on each other with curiosity and without judgment, making sure everyone has the right tools to engage in this political system. Instead of lecturing my students and my young relatives on the importance of voting—or, even worse, trying to skirt around the subject entirely—I’m excited to spend the next few months figuring out how much they know, helping them learn the rest, and setting them off to be empowered citizens, all with this book as my primary guide.