A conversation with Richard Dreyfuss is a civics close encounter

It took a minute to get past the voice. Even on the phone from Toronto there was no mistaking the sharp, quick, almost raspy staccato of Matt Hooper talking about sharks, or Roy Neary trying to figure out why the aliens wanted him of all people. It was Mr. Holland and his opus and even Curt the struggling teen of "American Graffiti."

The source of all those voices, and dozens of other memorable characters, was Richard Dreyfuss, only briefly talking about his newest character in "The Lightkeepers." I haven't seen it, but the reviews are good and Dreyfuss is one of the few characters worth watching just because he's there.

What I wanted and got in great measure was the real Dreyfuss, passionately expounding on his crusade to return civics both to schools and to American life.

It always has irritated me that we give celebrities the right to speak with expertise about things they might not know any more about than the next guy. We let them show up and push political agendas or sell pharmaceutical snake oil all because they've gained celebrity status in sports or the entertainment world.

Smart guy

The thing about Dreyfuss is (1) he's a smart guy, and (2) he has been on this civics path for years. He was a conscientious objector back in the Vietnam War days.

I ran into him back in 2004 at the Democratic convention in Boston, where he was working the Florida delegation on civics in public schools.

Now he has his own foundation and Web site called The Dreyfussinitiative.org. If you go to the site, the first paragraph is a Dreyfuss quote: "We are a nation bound by ideas only we have no common ancestry, no common religion, no common military victory or defeat, no common crime that binds us. If you don't teach these ideas to every new generation of Americans with wit and rigor, we are not bound."

The American experience

I don't know that I buy all of that, but he is absolutely correct that every generation has to be taught about the "American experience" and those ideas and events that have made us what we are. It is something we are not doing. If you spend any time in our schools or dealing with young people, you know we are creating generations of citizens ignorant of what goes into being a citizen.

"I've spoken in front of 160,000 people," Dreyfuss says, "and only one person dissented when I talked about teaching civics. That's 159,999 in favor. That one person, by the way, was a school principal and I told him I was going to make him famous.

"America is a verb," he says, "not a noun. It is an evolving concept. If America is just a noun, it should be treated as any other nation - simply a place that is south of Canada and north of Mexico."

Dreyfuss argues we no longer debate complex issues, especially on televised debates. He maintains what we now call debates are little more than televised entertainment shows, with no room for discourse.

Coincidentally, the Florida House this week passed a bill that would require middle school students to take a one-semester course in civics and pass a test on the basic structures of government.

It's a feeble effort and nothing at all like what Dreyfuss is advocating, but at least it is a start.