By Bob Gibson

If a teacher invited the governor of Virginia or a U.S. senator to address a high school government class, how many hoops would the teacher have to jump through?

What if the invited official was a president, a school board member, a city councilor, county supervisor or member of the General Assembly?

Could two officials, or even a pair of candidates, address a class or assembly and respond to questions from students?

The answer depends on where the teacher works. The policies are all over the map.

In Charlottesville, the policy requires approval in advance from the superintendent or her designee.

What if students want to invite officials or political figures to talk? How long would permission take to be granted?

Virginia lacks a clear, consistent policy or set of guidelines for having public officials or candidates talk with students in schools.

Albemarle County has one policy and Charlottesville another. So do about 130 other school systems.

Even though local school systems do say they welcome officials as resources, a clear set of statewide guidelines might help each school invite more civics education by elected officials and candidates of all stripes.

Students and teachers should be able to question their officials and learn about government from those who are elected.

Civics education is a slowly dying part of public education and could use more attention, not less, in the classroom. Other subjects are stressed more in state standards and are therefore taught more.

As a member of the Virginia Commission on Civics Education, I’ve heard more than 20 good suggestions for ways to strengthen civics.

Here are 10 of them:

1. Explore and encourage online games that link civics and technology. Civics can be fun to learn.

2. Offer teachers an online course that focuses on Virginia’s state and local governments. Half our teachers may not know what makes this state’s system different from others.

3. Create a day every month or two in each school division for elected officials to discuss issues with government students.

4. Stage issue debates between students and have public officials judge the debates and offer critiques.

5. Explore incentives and funding for professional development opportunities for social studies teachers.

6. Work with the Virginia Department of Education to develop an AP caliber civics course with a strong state government component.

7. Create a governor’s school in civics.

8. Infuse the 12th grade government curriculum with adequate instruction in state and local government.

9. Work with the Virginia Department of Education to develop standards for instruction around the discussion of controversial issues.

10. Teach the words, origins and importance of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution in grades 3 through 12.

The Bill of Rights is a great place to start with these words: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

-30-