This week — March 11 to 15 — is Civics Learning Week, a prime opportunity for us all to take stock of how we are encouraging Maine’s younger generation to embrace our democratic way of life.

It’s vital that we do so, given the conflict, ill will, and paralysis that so often infect our public life. Civil, fact-based conversations, that lead to well-reasoned solutions to even our least-pressing public issues, seem increasingly beyond our grasp.

We have been looking into the state of civics education in Maine for three years. We’re concerned that our children and youth are growing up disinterested in public matters, disinclined to vote, turned off by the circus of politics. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at this. After all, requiring a single civics course for a high school diploma is hardly a recipe for instilling a sense of civic responsibility and the skills to make democracy work in our next generation.

Last fall, with the support of a small grant from the Unity Foundation, we assembled groups of concerned Maine educators to explore how civics learning — and thus civics teaching — need to improve. Like their colleagues around the nation, these teachers were deeply concerned by the traditional curriculum, the large class sizes, and the lack of imagination plaguing current civics teaching.

To a person, these educators argued that civics needs to “come alive” for their students. It needs to engage them in the real issues their local communities, state and nation are facing. It needs to give them not just the tools to generate solutions to these issues but the motivation to join their neighbors and fellow citizens in bringing those solutions to fruition.

Based on what we have learned from the Maine teachers on our listening tour, we believe that a Maine Civics Network should be launched to support K-12 teachers who are engaged in innovative, community-based, democratically organized, civics initiatives throughout Maine. We are pursuing a plan to do just that.

What might a new approach to civics learning look like in Maine? Our group identified five breakout ideas around which innovations can be developed:

— Civics learning should develop students’ “civic skills,” enhancing their ability to participate in productive, respectful group decisions and problem-solving.

— Civics learning should engage students in examining “real world matters,” learning directly how to participate in their local, state and national public life.

— Civics learning should be “hands-on” in order to develop skills and an understanding of individual and community responsibilities.

— Civics learning should generate a sense of “agency” and “civic hope” in students, creating a sense of “connection to community.”

— Civics learning is enhanced by structuring the learning environment (classrooms and school) in “democratic” fashion to the extent possible, providing a first-hand experience in democratic principles.

Tackling these ambitious improvements will require the creativity and commitment of teachers, administrators, school boards, parents and local municipal leaders. They do not limit civics teaching to social studies teachers but recognize the powerful influence on kids of school culture, disciplinary procedures, and adult models both inside and outside the school.

Teaching civics by examining how our democracy actually functions can be hazardous; leaders will need to support students and teachers looking into how our government wrestles with and hopefully resolves messy public issues. Fortunately, many efforts of this sort are afoot across the land. Mainers can turn to icivics.org, educatingforamericandemocracy.org, generationcitizen.org, and edc.org for assistance both inside the classroom and out.

We recommend starting small. As educators plan for next fall, identify two or three innovations to engage students more deeply in learning about their responsibilities as citizens. The election season offers numerous opportunities. We urge the Maine Department of Education to support these efforts with initiatives educators find immediately helpful.

Maine organizations — such as the League of Women Voters Youth Program (lwvme.org), the “Can We” project at the Waynflete School (waynflete.org), the Maine Council on the Social Studies, and youthworkmakestheboothwork.org — can help.  Ultimately, we need a sustainable network focused on civic learning such as those presently supporting educators and communities in Georgia and Oklahoma.

Martin Luther King Jr. observed that “One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”

Let’s support our teachers in keeping our students awake and engaged in the challenges they face today and will face tomorrow. They can then lead in a thoughtful, informed and compassionate way.

Gordon Donaldson, Emanuel Pariser and Todd West are three experienced Maine educators and founding members of the effort to create a Maine Civics Network.

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