{"id":22959,"date":"2023-01-24T16:06:51","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T21:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=22959"},"modified":"2023-01-24T16:06:51","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T21:06:51","slug":"richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html","title":{"rendered":"Richard Dreyfuss Discusses the Issue so Important, He Gave Up Acting For It"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_22962\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22962\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/01\/Richard-Dreyfuss_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22962\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/01\/Richard-Dreyfuss_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22962\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy Hutchins \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Actor Richard Dreyfuss, famous for roles in movies like \u201cJaws\u201d and \u201cAmerican Graffiti,\u201d sat with Glenn Beck on his podcast to discuss his retirement from acting and his new passion: promoting teaching civics in schools. Although Dreyfuss \u201cretired\u201d from film acting in 2004, he has continued to appear in various roles throughout his 75 years. After his initial retirement in 2004, he spent 4 years in Oxford studying civics. In an interview with\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevefarber.com\/the-return-to-senselessness-with-richard-dreyfuss\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Steve Farber<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, he revealed financial needs had brought him back to acting throughout the years. \u201cI was in Oxford for four years. You can\u2019t do both [acting and Oxford] \u2026 I had left. I met, fell in love and married. I did not invite my wife into a life that was in desperate need of anything. I thought I was loaded, but there was a crisis in the family, and I was no longer loaded. I had to start again. It was the only way I knew how to make a living. It was to do that,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">His real passion, however, has been promoting the teaching of civics in schools. In 2006, he started <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedreyfussinitiative.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Dreyfuss Civics Initiative<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. Its mission is to \u201crevive the teaching of civics in American public education to empower future generations with the critical-thinking skills they need to fulfill the vast potential of American citizenship.\u201d In his interview with Glenn Beck, Dreyfuss spoke about his new passion. \u201cI gave up something I loved and had loved since I was nine years old, only for something else I loved as much,\u201d he said. For him, the purpose of focusing on civics was \u201csaving my country.\u201d \u201cI firmly believe that if we don\u2019t revive the study of civics, we will be dead before 2050. We\u2019ll have the same name, and it will be a nightmare,\u201d he warned Beck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Dreyfuss, who describes himself as \u201cpre-partisan\u201d and <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/richard-dreyfuss-explains-why-hes-no-longer-a-democrat\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">left the Democrat party in 2004<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, has spent decades warning about the lack of civics education and the loss of discourse and debate in American politics. In a recent interview with Megyn Kelly, he lamented that \u201cNo one is teaching the Bill of Rights and that, ultimately, is the society\u2019s picture of proper behavior. No one is teaching that, and no one is calling for it. That is the worst decision a society can come to.\u201d Dreyfuss\u2019s warnings are not idle words either. A 2016\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/ae\/summer2018\/shapiro_brown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">survey<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that only 26 percent of Americans could name all three branches of government. Only 23 percent of eighth graders scored at or above the proficiency level for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics exam. The\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/policy2020\/bigideas\/the-need-for-civic-education-in-21st-century-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Brookings Institute<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0has also pushed for more civics education in schools, noting that \u201cschools can and should play an important role in catalyzing increased civic engagement\u2026 Schools can also directly provide opportunities for civic engagement as a local institution that can connect young and old people alike across the community. To do this, civic learning needs to be part and parcel of the current movement across many schools in America to equip young people with 21st-century skills.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actor Richard Dreyfuss, famous for roles in movies like \u201cJaws\u201d and \u201cAmerican Graffiti,\u201d sat with Glenn Beck on his podcast to discuss his retirement from acting and his new passion: promoting teaching civics in schools. Although Dreyfuss \u201cretired\u201d from film acting in 2004, he has continued to appear in various roles throughout his 75 years.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":22962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Richard Dreyfuss Discusses the Issue so Important, He Gave Up Acting For It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Richard Dreyfuss talks about his decision to retire from acting to teach civics in schools.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Richard Dreyfuss Discusses the Issue so Important, He Gave Up Acting For It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Richard Dreyfuss talks about his decision to retire from acting to teach civics in schools.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-24T21:06:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/01\/Richard-Dreyfuss_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Richard Dreyfuss Discusses the Issue so Important, He Gave Up Acting For It","description":"Richard Dreyfuss talks about his decision to retire from acting to teach civics in schools.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Richard Dreyfuss Discusses the Issue so Important, He Gave Up Acting For It","og_description":"Richard Dreyfuss talks about his decision to retire from acting to teach civics in schools.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2023-01-24T21:06:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/01\/Richard-Dreyfuss_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-shutterstock-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html","name":"Richard Dreyfuss Discusses the Issue so Important, He Gave Up Acting For It","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/01\/Richard-Dreyfuss_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-shutterstock-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2023-01-24T21:06:51+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-24T21:06:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a"},"description":"Richard Dreyfuss talks about his decision to retire from acting to teach civics in schools.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/01\/Richard-Dreyfuss_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-shutterstock-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/01\/Richard-Dreyfuss_credit-Kathy-Hutchins-shutterstock-scaled.jpg","width":768,"height":576,"caption":"Kathy Hutchins \/ Shutterstock.com"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/01\/richard-dreyfuss-discusses-the-issue-so-important-he-gave-up-acting-for-it.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Richard Dreyfuss Discusses the Issue so Important, He Gave Up Acting For It"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a","name":"Leigh Pizzutilla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","caption":"Leigh Pizzutilla"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/lpizzutilla"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22965,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22959\/revisions\/22965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}