The shift from the Industrial Age to the Information Age is transforming our civilization. Vast economic, social, and political changes are already underway. Preparing students for a radically different world in the 21st century requires a reaffirmation of the principles of democracy and community that have served as a beacon in the first two centuries of the American experience. Our schools, colleges and universities can play a key role in fostering a more civil society.

Corporate downsizing, the increasing automation of the manufacturing and service sectors, the shift from mass to elite workforces, growing job insecurity, the widening gap between rich and poor, continued racial tensions, escalating crime, new patterns of immigration, an aging population, and the globalization of the economy are creating a host of new uncertainties and challenges for the American economy.

At the same time, government, at every level, is being fundamentally transformed. The "welfare state" is being pared down and entitlement programs are shrinking. The social net is being streamlined and overhauled and government subsidies of various kinds are being reduced or eliminated.

The new economic and political realities stir us to look once again to America's civil society for help and guidance as we have on so many occasions in the past when our country found itself in the midst of profound change. While historians are quick to credit the market economy and democratic form of government with America's greatness, the civil society- the Third Sector- has played an equally significant role in defining the American way of life.

The nation's hospitals, social service organizations, religious institutions, fraternal orders, women's clubs, youth organizations, civil rights groups, animal welfare organizations, theaters, orchestras, art galleries, libraries, museums, civic associations, community development organizations, neighborhood advisory councils, volunteer fire departments and civilian security patrols are all institutions of the Third Sector.

Today, more than 1,400,000 nonprofit organizations are serving the needs and helping fulfill the dreams of millions of Americans. The civil society is the bonding force, the social glue that unites the many diverse interests of the American people into a cohesive social identity. If there is a single defining characteristic that sums up the unique qualities of being an American, it would be our capacity to join together in civic associations to serve one another.

America's Third Sector will need to play a far more expansive role in the coming century as an arena for job creation and social service provider. The civic sector must also become a more organized social and cultural force in every community, working with, and, at times, pressuring the market and government sectors to meet the needs of workers, families and neighborhoods. Thinking of society as three sectors that work together to create a productive and caring society opens up new possibilities for reconceptualizing the social contract and the kind of education we give our young people.

Broadening The Mission Of American Education
Weaving a seamless web between school and community needs to be made an urgent priority if we are to meet the growing challenges of the coming century. A quiet revolution, to bring school and community closer together, has been spreading through the nation's schools and colleges over the past ten years. The effort is designed to create that seamless web. "Civil education" is based on the premise that a primary purpose of schooling is to help young people develop the skills and acquire the values necessary for civic life. Advancing the goals of a civil education requires that educators look to the non-profit sector in addition to the marketplace and government, to inform curriculum development, pedagogy, and the organization of schooling.

Civil education is gaining ground in schools around the country. Many school systems have established service learning activities which integrate service within the curriculum and/or enable students to earn credit for their involvement in neighborhood non-profit organizations, service oriented businesses, and other Third Sector enterprises. Some schools have established character education and citizen education programs to promote civic values. A growing number of schools have begun to recognize the power of connecting civil society and course curriculum. The civil society furnishes ample material for broadening and deepening the school experience across a range of academic studies. All of these initiatives are designed to create a seamless web between school and community.

At a time when teachers, parents, and communities are becoming more concerned about the growing sense of alienation, detachment, and aimlessness of the nation's students, civil education is an important development. Civil education engenders a sense of personal responsibility and accountability, fosters self esteem and leadership, and most of all, allows the feeling of empathy to grow and flourish.

Civil education can give a student a sense of place and belonging, as well as add personal meaning to his or her life. Civil education also provides a much needed alternative frame of reference for a generation increasingly immersed in the simulated worlds of the new telecommunications revolution. Television, computers, and now cyberspace, are becoming an ever more pervasive force in the lives of our students. The new Information Age media technologies offer an array of innovative teaching tools and learning environments for American students. Still, a growing number of educators worry that children growing up in front of the computer screen and TV set are at risk of being less exposed to the kind of authentic real world experiences that are such a necessary part of normal social education and youth development. Civil education, combined with the appropriate use of the new Information Age technologies, can act as an antidote to the increasingly isolated world of simulation and virtual reality young people experience.

We believe that civil education needs to be incorporated into the heart of the school experience. Learning that occurs through active student participation in service and other aspects of civil life benefits the student, as well as the community. Students learn best by doing. At the same time, weaving the rich 200-year historical legacy and values of the Third Sector into a broad range of curricula, provides a context and framework for children to understand the importance of service learning in the community and the central role that the civil society plays in the life of the country. Learning about the heroes and heroines and the many organizations, movements and causes that have helped forge America's civil society, offers historical role models for children to emulate and a positive vision to help guide their personal journeys in life. Weaving a seamless web between school and community can enhance academic performance and provide a more meaningful educational experience for American students. A civil education also benefits the community itself. Millions of young people reaching out with helping hands to friends and neighbors can enrich the civic life of communities across the country.

As we enter the Information Age, we face the very real challenge of redirecting the course of American education so that our young people will be ready to wrestle with both the demands of the new global economy and the austere new realities facing government. We need to bear in mind that the strength of the market and the effectiveness of our democratic form of government have always depended, in the final analysis, on the vitality of America's civil sector. It is the wellspring of our spirit as a people. Shifting the social paradigm from a two sector to a three sector focus and strengthening the role of the civil society, making it once again the center of American life, is essential if we are to renew our social covenant in the new century. Preparing the next generation for a life-long commitment to the civil society is, perhaps, the single most important challenge facing educators and the American K-12 and collegiate systems as we make the transition into a new era and a new economic epoch in history.

Jeremy Rifkin is the author of “The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post Market Era.” He is also co-chair of The Partnering Initiative on Education and Civil Society, whose mission is to prepare students for a lifelong commitment to the values of the civil society. This article was written in 1996, but still seems quite relevant.