Teaching our next generation of citizens about democracy is the only way we will keep it!
Democracy — with all its complexities and frustrations — should never be taught as dull or boring. And students should never be made to think they are powerless to effect change. Here are tools that can help:
American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara hosts “the authoritative, non-partisan on-line source for presidential public documents” in order to promote a more informed citizenry of the United States, high quality scholarly and media analysis, and a better understanding of American democracy throughout the world.
Annenberg Classroom. This FREE website is a treasure trove of multimedia lessons about the U.S. Constitution — from award-winning videos to online games. Kids learn about the Bill of Rights, Supreme Court cases and so much more!
DocsTeach is an online tool for teaching about American history and government using REAL documents from the National Archives. Find teaching activities that incorporate a particular document, or create your own online activity.
Electoral College Quiz. Think you know all there is to know about America’s Electoral College system, which determines (instead of the popular vote) who will be the next U.S. President? These questions by 270towin.com require much more than simple math! You’ll learn, for example, that California’s 54 Electoral College votes don’t mean the Golden State has an outsized influence on the election outcome. In fact, the opposite is true! Wyoming — America’s least populous state (according to 2020 Census figures) — has one electoral vote for every 192,573 residents. California is the most under-represented state in the Electoral College system, with one electoral vote for every 732,903 residents.
Freedom Forum. This nonpartisan nonprofit is dedicated to fostering First Amendment freedoms — of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition — for all. It also has an education mission to help students and citizens better understand their rights, with primers such as: Is Your Speech Protected by the First Amendment? and When Did the Jan. 6 Insurrection Move Past the First Amendment? Freedom Forum continues to make available the PDFs of the front pages of more than 400 daily newspapers from across the country and around the world in its Today’s Front Pages section.
iCivics.org offers remote learning activities and online games that let students step into the role of senator, president, legal advocate, political organizer and more.
“Civic duties and behaviors are learned, not inherited. If the seeds of lifelong, prepared and engaged participation are not planted in the civic education classroom, they will never grow, and our people’s strong desires to be active in society will not be channeled into productive discourse and real solutions. We owe it to our children and our society to invest in civic education. In light of the challenges we face today, doing so has never been more important.” — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
The Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy offers several tools for teaching the next generation of citizens about how democracy should work. Its O’Connor Ambassadors Civics & Debate Club promotes civil discourse, civics education and civic engagement for high school students. Camp O’Connor USA is is a free, merit-based summer program (applications are available in January) giving middle school students a deeper understanding of America’s democracy, branches of government and the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. The O’Connor Civics Challenge offers great prizes (including Apple laptops and iPads) to students in grades 6-8 who create an original mixed-media work of art or write an original song, essay, story or poem and/or produce a video focusing on one of the three branches of government, the responsibilities of American citizenship or our system of checks and balances. Students can also focus on the life and legacy of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Anyone can learn from the videos of previous winners of the O’Conner Civics Challenge here!
PBS LearningMedia. PBS has curated FREE, standards-aligned videos, interactive lessons and more for teachers and students. Find Ken Burns In The Classroom videos and resources, including The Catastrophic Impacts of Nazi Ideology.
Schoolhouse Rock! A whole generation learned how a bill becomes a law in a jingle that’s still memorable. Of course, there are updates on this classic, like Politico’s more cynical (and accurate) parody about what really happens to get a bill to the President’s desk.
Voice of Democracy. Veterans of Foreign Wars established the Voice of Democracy audio-essay program in 1947. Each year, nearly 40,000 high school students from across the country enter to win their share of $2.1 million in educational scholarships and incentives awarded through the program. The national first-place winner receives a $30,000 scholarship to his or her American university, college or vocational/technical school. A complete list of other national scholarships range from $1,000-$15,000, and the first-place winner from each state wins a $1,000 scholarship and a trip to Washington, D.C.
What The Constitution Means to Me. There’s a lot of tough content in Heidi Schreck’s award-winning play that wouldn’t fly at public schools fighting book bans and curriculum challenges. And that’s too bad, because there’s nothing boring about this real-life assessment of our Constitution. Schreck earned her college tuition by winning constitutional debate competitions across the United States as a teenager. She resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives in this ultimately hopeful show.
