Politics with Paul

Approachable, nonpartisan, and nonideological analysis of various political topics by nonpartisan political analyst, writer, researcher, and speaker Paul Rader.

How Do We Make Civics Education More Accessible? w/ Roneka Matheny | Politics with Paul #64

E65 • Oct 28, 2025 • 82 mins

What are the biggest challenges for civics accessibility both for students in the classroom and adults that are past their school years? Where have previous civics initiatives gone wrong? What are some improvements in civics education that can be built upon? Civics4All founder (and former colleague of mine) Roneka Matheny discusses these questions and more with me on today's episode. We also talk about her new book "Civics for All: A Crash Course in US Government and Politics" and its goals, some lesser-known facts about the history of civics education, and ways that you can help civics organizations (including hers) in their work.

Key Points

More people are paying attention to politics now than in previous decades, which is a positive trend for civic engagement.
Initiatives like the Constitution Day survey have shown recent increases in civic knowledge among U.S. adults, indicating that efforts to improve understanding are having some impact.
Civic education should be viewed as a lifelong learning tool, not just something taught in K-12 classrooms, to ensure that all citizens are well-informed and can effectively participate in democracy.

Roneka's links:

Civics4All website: https://civics4all.org/en-us/
Pre-order Roneka's book: https://civics4all.org/book#Pre-order
SubStack: https://substack.com/@civics4all

My links:

Download my FREE 5-day educational email course on how to fight polarization: https://detoxifyamericanpolitics.com/
Buy my book on Amazon (ebook and paperback): https://www.amazon.com/Why-Independents-Rarely-Win-Elections-ebook/dp/B09K8PYM5J/
My website: https://paulrader.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulRaderWrites
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulrader352/
Medium: https://paulrader-42650.medium.com/
Email: [email protected]

Speakers

Paul Rader

Host • 27%

Roneka Matheny

Guest • 73%

Chapters

0:00	Intro: Civics Accessiblity, Roneka Matheny
2:16	Why Roneka is a Civics Educator
9:10	Why Roneka Founded Civics4All
17:20	Roneka's New Book "Civics for All"
22:23	What Aspects of Civics are Particularly Little Understood?
31:04	The Biggest Obstacles Facing Civics in the Classroom
38:22	The Biggest Obstacles Facing Adult Civic Education
53:20	Why Have Some Efforts to Fix Civics Not Been Successful?
1:06:13	Recent Improvements Made in Civics Education
1:11:34	How You Can Help Civics4All, Other Civics Organizations
1:17:02	Random Question: What is the Best Kind of Cookie?
1:18:45	The "Are Peanut Butter Balls Cookies?" Schism

Transcript

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