Each day leaders from emerging democracies come to the United States with a relatively surprising question. They want to know how they can create a civil society sector in their countries. They ask for guidance on teaching democratic and philanthropic principles to their children, and about systems for passing on the tradition of private citizens working for the common good. They come to the United States because they recognize its civil society sector is fundamental to building and sustaining a secure democracy, supporting government, and making our heterogeneous society function.
Their questions echo many of those posed by teachers and civic leaders: How do we engage children in civic life? How do we harness youthful idealism and combat growing cynicism? How do we teach caring about others, particularly those less fortunate? What is missing from our courses in government, history, economics, sociology, psychology, and philosophy that results in young adults who lack an understanding or passion for the noble ideas of their society?
It is astonishing, but true: the United States has difficulty answering questions from emerging democratic nations because, until recently, the transmission of the philanthropic tradition from one generation to the next was informal, and so effective as to be transparent. There has never been a formal curriculum for teaching the facts or inculcating the values of the civil society sector.
We have relied in the past on faith institutions, families, friends and neighborhoods to teach children the value and significance of service and giving. We have assumed that our children know their heritage as citizens who do not need to be "empowered" by an outside agency, but who are born empowered as their inherent right of citizenship. It is sadly ironic that today, as emerging foreign democracies seek our assistance in establishing philanthropic traditions of their own, the traditional forces for teaching this ethic to children are eroding.
The International Philanthropy Curriculum Standards, and the Learning to Give Lessons that teach the benchmarks, were specifically designed to meet the need for intentionally teaching the world’s youth the philanthropic traditions and beliefs of a civil society.