America 101 and Civics Education

Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, in the Fall 2008 edition, had an article by Eric Lane titled "America 101". The header of the article states "How we let civic education slide—and why we need a crash course in the Constitution today."

The concept of Civics education is currently being touted as a high need for our students - a basic understanding of the Consntitution, the Amendments, the way government is structured, and the duty of the citizens under that government.

This is an interesting article, which you can read in its entirety here. I hope you take the opportunity to peruse it's eleven pages.

However, ALL of the Social Studies are in need of a revamping and a heightened interest. Yes, Civics is important, vital even. But so is the knowledge of American History and the history of the World we live in. So is the study of economics and personal finance. So is the study of geography and geographic awareness of nations and cultures. So is a myriad of other Social Studies content areas.

The state has focused on math, reading, and writing - and sort of science. Those are fine. But citizens cannot function in a nation-state with only intellectual knowledge unconnected to their past - a past presented in an unbiased manner, whether politically correct or not. Our legislators - both at the state and national levels - need to realize, accept, and support this.

Yes, we need to support increased interest - and funding - for the study and application of civics. But we need to do the same with the other areas of the Social Studies if we want to have a nation of citizens who understand where they came from historically, and how to survive economically.

Of course, maybe we have to start thinking of how we are teaching it as well.

Essential Question: What strategies can be used to enhance Social Studies education in our schools and our lives?

NGS5

After an intense 3-day discussion with Jennifer Sasser, our District's Math coordinator, I've come to the conclusion that I have mislabeled the initials representing our new Next Generation Sunshine State Standards - Social Studies!

I had labeled it NG5S. I have been informed that the proper mathematical statement is NGS to the 5th power, or NGS5. Now, if I can only figure out how to superscript the "5"!

Anyone with that many "s's" in her last name has to be right!

On another note, the DOE has posted the newly adopted NGS5 to their website. Look!

What did you think of the training?

Tuesday and Wednesday (11/18 – 11/19) a core group of our Social Studies teachers (Middle and High School) came together for some of the best training they had ever had. George and Carolyn Breaz visited our district to present a two-day training on gathering and using digital primary sources gathered from trusted sites on the web. Our participants ranged from new-to-teaching to really-experienced-veterans (over 30 years).

I’ve never come up with a really good title (that would translate into an acronym that I could remember, so we just call it National Archives training, or Primary Resources training. The Breaz’s trained our participants on the processes, resources, and various classroom uses for the materials gathered, culminating with an activity where the participants made lesson plans using the resources. These plans and resources will be shared between the participants and will provide further enhancement for our students. A lot of eye-opening and mind-expanding classroom strategies to involve students with primary resources were also presented. The Breaz’s have a wealth of experience in education, and were a true pleasure to have visit our district.

This training is incredible. All of the participants walked out with their head filled with information and online resources to use that contained the outline of what we did. They were very excited. If anyone outside of Citrus County are reading this blog and would like to contact the Breaz’s, just email me.



The essential question, of course, for our participants is: How effective was this training when translated into classroom use?