Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham spoke to CSULB students and faculty Tuesday at the University Book Store to promote his new book America, the Owner’s Manual: Making Government Work for You. Graham, who was a two-term Governor of Flordia before his election to the U.S. Senate, also spoke to students in a political science class and history class later in the day.
Graham, 72, said his book is meant to outline a roadmap for average U.S. citizens who are interested in assembling and making a change.
During his lecture, Graham stressed the importance of educating youth on their civic rights and responsibilities. He described civics classes in schools today as what he calls “spectator civics.”
Schools teach students how to watch the game of democracy, not to participate in it, Graham said. Graham also likened the subject to a music history class, where students learn about music but don’t ever pick up an instrument and actually play.
The former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee shared his experiences on teaching civics, or U.S. Government, to high school seniors for 18 weeks at Miami Carol City High School in Florida. While teaching, Graham realized the students he taught were soon to be high school graduates, but didn’t know anything about civics and their civic duties. He also taught civics at Harvard University in 2005 and found Harvard undergraduate students to be just as illiterate in government as the high school seniors in Miami. His reasoning behind this was that civics have taken a back seat in the classroom since the Vietnam War.
“The far left thought civics was being used to teach students that Vietnam was ok,” he said.
“The far right thought civics taught people how to revolt, so they striped schools of civics classes.”
Graham strongly emphasized the power citizens have to change public policy. The former senator used Cindy Lightner, founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, as an example. He mentioned that thousands of lives are saved each year because one mother wanted to do something after her daughter was killed by a drunk driver.
“The fact that one woman could start an initiative that cut the amount of drunk driving related deaths in half is amazing,” Graham said.
After the speech, F. King Alexander, President of CSULB, reinforced the fact that students should take an active roll in government.
“It may take forecasting the consequences of not getting involved in public service for students to get the message that their failure to be hands on is critical in shaping their futures; perhaps not with the outcome they’d like to see,” Alexander said.
Graham has served in public office for over 40 years. He was the Governor of Florida from 1979 to 1987 and then a U.S. Senator from 1987 to 2005. He retired from the Senate in 2005 and is currently teaching civics as a professor at the University of Florida.