Netflix Makes Civic Education Fun, But Not Much More Than That

Celebrity-studded show “We the People” merges civic education with civic entertainment

By Darius Cowan

Who remembers “Schoolhouse Rock”?

When I was in elementary school, there were days where my teacher would wheel in the cart

with the TV on it, select a movie, press play, and we would spend the rest of class glued to

whatever educational animated program played on the screen for the next hour. More often than

not, the video was “Schoolhouse Rock,” a collection of musical numbers that would explain

pretty much everything, from English to physics.

“Schoolhouse Rock!: America” was a popular one in my classroom. The series explained the

fundamentals of American democracy – how it works, along with our rights and responsibilities

as citizens. To this day, I still recall the “I’m Just a Bill” song, the paper scroll with a button that

read “BILL” sitting on the steps of the Capitol explaining how federal laws are made. Things like

that, cartoons and music and strong imagery, are what stick in the minds of children for years

after.

They were stuck in my mind this summer, while I watched Netflix’s “We the People,” a series the

network describes as “U.S. civics lessons, set to original songs performed by many artists with a

mix of animated styles; attempting to reframe their understanding of what government and

citizenship mean in a modern world.” If I had to elevator pitch it, I would call it “Schoolhouse

Rock” given the Hamilton treatment.

The subjects covered in the series are broad, covering everything from taxes to free speech.

The tunes themselves are catchy and fun to listen to, with a “patriotic hip-hop beat” (this is an

actual quote from the subtitles) playing at the opening and ending of each animated music

video. The style of the animation varies wildly from episode to episode—from cartoonish to

realistic-- but all of it is accessible and fun to watch. This is civic education remade as solid civic

entertainment.

As the title suggests, the show is centered on the people. Every song, video, and storyline in the

series revolves around the idea that the government is meant to serve you, the people. And you

are expected to serve it – holding government officials accountable and checking their power.

The second-to-last episode, titled “We the People,” follows three members of a rural community

who, after experiencing a devastating natural disaster and finding themselves dissatisfied with

the government’s response and lack of aid, rally themselves to become leaders in their own

local government. The message is that all of us, the people, have the right and responsibility to

rise up and fix things ourselves. And it’s a good one.

But the show left me wanting something.

“We the People” is rigorously non-partisan--you can interpret its content however you want.

You’re expected to apply your own perspectives and opinions to each episode, yet the stories

within them often feel vague or aimless. You’re left mulling what, exactly, they’re urging you to

rise up and fix.

Many of the episodes are simply music videos displaying concepts. For example, the first

episode is all about being an active citizen. In the video, a young woman walks around her

neighborhood, sees all the things that are going wrong, and decides to get active in her

community to make some change. In one scene, she locked eyes with a young man sitting in

the back of a police car and being driven away.

I wondered: Is this a commentary on crime or on overpolicing? Is it a commentary at all? Is the

story here supposed to describe how people who aren’t successful turn to a life of crime, or are

we discussing the school-to-prison pipeline? Did I mention that the woman in the video is Black?

Or that the boy in the back of the car is Black? It’s just one scene, barely even a moment, and

yet it sticks with me, as I’m sure it sticks with many Americans after last summer’s protests on

police brutality following the murder of George Floyd. So, what is the point here? Or is the point

simply to start a conversation?

Let’s take another example. In the episode on the court system, which follows a biracial girl

(who, the episode points out, is a product of Loving v. Virginia; I’m not joking) going about her

day, we witness her arriving at school, where she passes through a metal detector and has her

bag searched. This scene gave me pause. It gave rise to memories of school shootings, and

gun rights protests, and my thoughts drifted to the many youth activists who have been fighting

for stricter gun regulations for years. Is any of this in the episode? No. This is an episode on

supreme court cases, not gun laws. And yet. It felt like a blind spot.

I understand that civics education is not a political or partisan education – it’s meant to foster an

understanding of democracy and how it works, not to shape opinions about how democracy

should play out. And I can see that media that intends to start conversations, not guide their

outcome, is important. But I fear that the non-partisan approach that “We The People” has

chosen to take has weakened its impact. There is no mention of political parties or partisanship

at all in the show -- yet anyone coming of age in America right now can tell you that this is what

drives our politics, for better or worse.

I’m pretty sure that old paper-scroll Bill on Capitol Hill, if it returned to the screen today, would

have addressed this reality more directly. “We the People” fails to acknowledge that all of the

topics in its episodes are colored by partisanship in the real world. And that glaring omission

leaves a lot to be desired.