Ralph Nader's The Seventeen Traditions: Lessons From An American Childhood

This excerpt from Ralph Nader’s The Seventeen Traditions: Lessons from an American Childhood depicts the significance of the traditions of history, education and argument, and civics as well as express how these concepts are connected. While Nadar experienced these things as a child and his narrative refers to events when he is younger, these virtues are vital to the engage citizens to actively participate in government and impact their communities. To gain more aware and active citizens, these citizens must be equipped with history. In Nadar’s writing, history takes the form of stories and experiences of past places and peoples. As Nadar and his family visited their native country, they “absorbed the cultural history of custom, myth, folklore, festivities, food, humor, and religion ” (52). On their travels, history likened geography as they explored “the cities and villages and terraced countryside of [their] ancestors” and people gathered to share “food and stories” of what once was (52). However, since information of the past can only be recollected and passed down, it is important to note the one must take information with skepticism as …show more content…
Civics refers to the responsibilities and duties of citizens. The quality of one who is civic is “a personality that seeks out struggles for fairness and gets involved” and the most prominent method to participate is to vote (Nadar, 142). Participation in local regional meetings is a form of civic action. Unofrtunately, mostly only a few, “the core group of committed voters and taxpayers … engage in the process” of influencing the law to arouse advancement (Nadar, 136). The key to civics is action. It also takes commitment and “a sense of dedication to help one’s fellow human beings achieve a better life” (Nadar, 142). While civics is for every citizen, most do not perform their duties or exercise their