But, let's not goof on civics teachers.  It can easily be argued some of the most important public servants in America are civics teachers.

One of my civics teachers looked like Colonel Sanders of KFC fame and yes, we goofed on him for it.  But he understood the Constitution and taught it well, as well as how human nature applied to politics conspired against liberty, and how and why checks and balances were important....  

Another was also a volunteer fireman who looked like Jon Tester without the crewcut, and he managed to cover the entire history of the Western Hemisphere, particularly focused on and as it dealt with the US, from 1492 to 1900, to a class of rowdy eighth graders, in sufficient detail that I still remember a lot of it today.  French and Indian War, Battle of Louisbourg, etc., etc.  

Another (like so many of the teachers, a WWII vet) was a former plane handler on a Fifth Fleet aircraft carrier who'd survived kamikazes, taught about discrimination having seen black sailors blackjacked for not moving fast enough to the back of the bus*, taught about sharia law from his post-war experience roughnecking for Aramco in Saudi (having there seen whippings, amputations for thieves and an execution or two), then came back to the same small town where his ancestors had settled maybe 200 years before and taught the kids there about the world.

I'd rather any of them as a Senator than, say, Joe Lieberman, Joe Biden or Arlen Specter (or probably half the Senate, for that matter).  They all knew that policy and law had real consequences, were not abstract, and had consciences.  And they knew the Constitution and rule of law weren't merely concepts, but are also promises to future generations.