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Radio host Sheilah Kast follows a class during We the People simulated congressional hearings and investigates the state of civic education in Maryland. This blog entry includes a link to the radio story.
MIAMI – More than 440 civic educators from the United States and seven other countries will convene at the InterContinental Hotel for the eighth annual We the People: Project Citizen leadership conference, Oct. 9–12. Sponsored by the Center for Civic Education, the conference brings together public officials, government scholars, classroom teachers and international educators to examine effective and engaging methods in teaching civics.
On Saturday, Oct. 10, Florida State Representative Rene Garcia, District 110, gives the keynote address, “Project Citizen – A Model in Civic Discourse.”
On Sunday, Oct. 11, Florida Supreme Court Justice R. Fred Lewis speaks on “Judicial Decision-Making in the Public Policymaking Process.”
Two years ago, a Project Citizen class took a healthy first step in lowering obesity rates in Mississippi. The fifth-grade students at Quarles Elementary School decided that advocating for sidewalks near their school and in their neighborhoods would lead to greater physical fitness in the community.
"We figured that we needed safe routes to school so kids can walk, because a lot of kids don't have sidewalks around their houses. So if we put in sidewalks, kids could walk to school and it would give them good exercise,” said Liz Haney, now in the seventh grade.
Thanks to their hard work, it will be easier for residents in this Long Beach community to ride their bicycles or walk their way to better health. Over the summer, the Mississippi Department of Transportation awarded a $320,000 grant to build sidewalks and bike lanes.
Prescott High School teacher Mark Goligoski was recently awarded the John J. Ross Memorial Award for Excellence in Law-Related Education in Arizona. The award is given by the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education to recognize exceptional contributions to civic education. Goligoski, a U.S. and Arizona government teacher, uses We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution in his classroom.
"My number one goal is to provide students with the information and the skills necessary to not only be active participants, but to form their own opinions. It goes beyond politics; this is for anything in their lives.”
Thirty educators from 14 states will meet in Chinle, Ariz., to immerse themselves in Navajo history, culture and government during The Navajo Nation Experience.
Sponsored by the Center for Civic Education, the three-day seminar includes lectures by Navajo leaders, historians and scholars, plus trips to important historic and cultural sites including Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley.
Success is especially sweet for We the People: Project Citizen students in Milford, Ohio, who changed their school’s policy on lunch trays. Second grade students at Pattison Elementary convinced school officials to make the switch to lunch trays made of sugarcane. The eco-friendly, biodegradable trays may be used in all the schools in Milford Exempted Village School District next year.
The Center for Civic Education and the American Association of School Administrators are offering free classroom materials to commemorate Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, September 17.
The Constitution Day and Citizenship Day materials were created for grades K–12 and adapted from the Center’s We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution and Foundations of Democracy curricular materials. Two new lesson plans about the executive branch and Abraham Lincoln’s constitutional legacy are on the Web site: constitutionday.civiced.org.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – U.S. Rep. John Lewis (GA-05) will give the keynote address to open “We the People: A Seminar on the Civil Rights Movement” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, at the Tutwiler Hotel. Cosponsored by the Center for Civic Education and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the three-day seminar brings 35 educators from throughout the country to learn about the movement from civil rights leaders, “foot soldiers” and scholars.
We the People: Project Citizen and the Arizona Foundation for Legal
Services & Education are recipients of the third annual Leaders of the
Year in Public Policy Awards sponsored by the Arizona Capitol Times.
“This event was created to shine a spotlight on leadership and
excellence in Arizona public policy,” said Ginger Lamb, vice president
and publisher. “This year’s honorees were nominated by their peers for
this honor and all have had a positive impact on the state.”
Rockwood Valley Middle School's “Ban Smoke: It’s No Joke” earned a
superior achievement level for the Missouri youth at the
Project
Citizen National Showcase. Sponsored by the Center for Civic Education
and the National Conference of State Legislatures, the showcase
featured more than 50 portfolios, which were evaluated by state
legislators attending NCSL’s annual meeting this summer in
Philadelphia. The seventh-graders' project also caught the attention
of the Wildwood City Council, which is now considering their proposed
smoke-free ordinance.
Education Week reports on the work by the Center for Civic Education, two retired U.S. Supreme Court justices, a former U.S. senator, and an Oscar-winning actor to expand civics in K-12 curriculum. Mary Ann Zehr examines the state of civic education in America's classrooms and the efforts to generate broader support for the subject in educational policy.
The California Channel interviews teachers, students, and evaluators
at the state's Project Citizen Showcase in Sacramento. The showcase,
held in the Capitol in early June, features elementary, middle, and
high school students presenting solutions to public policy challenges
in their schools and in their communities. During oral presentations,
students discuss the selection of a public policy issue, research on
that issue, alternative solutions , their proposed solution, and a
political action plan to adopt their policy.
Students at the We the People-Frontiers International competition talk
with journalist Brittany Lee-Richardson about the importance of civic
education in their lives. The News21 report features interviews of
middle and high school students attending the event in Birmingham, Ala.,
earlier this summer. Erin Braun, state coordinator for the We the
People: The Citizen and the Constitution program in Indiana, discusses the need for civic education requirements in schools. This segment is
part of News21's Young Voter series, which looks at the
influences on American voting behavior and attitudes.
Project Citizen students appeared on the July 22 episode of the Washington Journal on C-SPAN. The students asked questions of the morning's guests, Congressman Gene Green (TX-29), and Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Rothfeld. The Project Citizen students queried Green about the pending health care legislation in Congress and talked with Rothfeld about the recently-passed California budget. The students asked their questions via Skype from C-SPAN's bus at the National Conference of State Legislatures' Legislative Summit in Philadelphia, host of the Project Citizen National Showcase. Youth from Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Texas, and Virginia are participating in the conference as student ambassadors. They are presenting their public policy portfolios and speaking with legislators about their Project Citizen experience.
About 30 middle and high school teachers become students this summer
as they study the Constitution and the Bill of Rights during the We
the People: The Citizen and the Constitution educator institute in
Iowa. The teachers will also hear from scholars to gain greater
knowledge about the foundation, philosophy, and history of the
Constitution and Bill of Rights. The institute will wrap up with the
educators participating in a mock congressional hearing, the
culminating activity of the We the People program.
We the People
WCAI/The Point (Press Release) - Jun 24, 2009
The Point went to Chatham High School in Massachusetts to talk to
students about the school’s rich tradition in the We the People: The
Citizen and the Constitution competition and the program’s guiding
force, retiring teacher Thomas Flaherty.
Students from Wauwatosa West High School reflect upon their experience
in representing Wisconsin in the We the People: The Citizen and the
Constitution National Finals in Washington, D.C. The class, made up of
18 juniors, brought home the Unit 5: The Rights That the Bill of
Rights Protects award.
In a recent appearance before the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vice President Joe Biden recognized the effectiveness of civic education programs to “shore up the foundations of democracy and tolerance” in the war-torn region. During his speech, Biden praised the work of nongovernmental organizations including Civitas@Bosnia and Herzegovina, a partner of the Center for Civic Education’s Civitas International Programs. The Center began working with the civic education organization shortly after the signing of the Dayton Accords in 1995.
Fifth-grade students from the Elk Grove Unified School District in California displayed their knowledge of the Constitution, the federal government, and the Supreme Court during We the People simulated congressional hearings held in May.
Students debated whether Supreme Court justices should be elected by citizens and discussed the common good, among other topics related to American constitutionalism.
“I think it’s absolutely phenomenal that our students in elementary grades have taken on the understanding of the foundation of a democracy that guides our country,” said Dr. Steven Ladd, Elk Grove Unified’s superintendent.
A Project Citizen class in Port Orchard, Washington, examined the lack of sleep and its effect on students. Columnist Larry Little writes about the work done by eighth-graders at Cedar Heights Junior High School and their proposal for school to start one hour later.
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