Mendota High School recognized statewide for civic values

Mendota High School is now part of a network of more than 70 schools in Illinois focused on teaching civic values across disciplines.

Democracy Schools is a program put on through the Illinois Civics Organization in high schools meant to promote students’ active participation as a citizen in a democracy.

“A lot of the time people want to think if we’re talking civics we’re only talking partisan politics, and we’re really talking about the skills of being a citizen, participating and belonging with other people in a community and in a democracy,” said Social Studies Department Chair Jason Artman.

Artman has been involved with Illinois Civics for the past six years and helped lead Mendota through the application process to become a Democracy School. He said becoming a Democracy School is important because teachers across all disciplines will now instruct with civics in mind, helping students become active, engaged citizens.

“You’re teaching students across the curriculum to get along with each other, to listen to different viewpoints, to analyze, to understand sources of information and be critical consumers of what they’re seeing and reading,” Artman said.

Illinois Civics is an organization that is a resource of information for the required implementation of civics classes in Illinois. It provides curriculum tool kits, implementation plans and information on social science standards and the importance of civics.

To become a Democracy School, Mendota went through a year-long application process through Illinois Civics. The school was officially accepted and recognized Sept. 15 at a conference in Lisle.

The majority of Democracy Schools are located in the Chicago suburbs, and the closest other Democracy School is Normal Community West High School in Normal.

Artman said when looking at what’s going on in the world, there’s not great examples of civics in what people would consider normal American politics.

“Right now, it seems divisiveness is the way to go, and when you look at it, I think there’s an awful lot of people who consider the United States quite polarized,” Artman said. “Getting along with each other and talking about issues doesn’t have to be a political process, it needs to be a human process.”

Artman said the Democracy Schools program is unique, and he hasn’t heard of any other states adopting a similar program. He said Illinois has been one of the leaders in the growth of civic education across the country for the past few years.

“We have an understanding that there’s a very strong network of people with civic education in mind in the state of Illinois and we want to be a part of that.” Artman said. “We want to have a greater capacity in it than one or two teachers ... we want to involve all parts of the school as much as we can.”