How to get smart again

We’re not stupid, we’re ignorant. Current US history and civic knowledge among American citizens is not good. And worse, it seems as if the extremists are the only ones who care about that stuff. Moderates are choosing to “tune out” from the political process – making it more difficult for consensus to happen. So what? [...]

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We’re not stupid. We’re ignorant.

And there’s a difference, says Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker. The problem is ignorance, not stupidity. We suffer from a lack of information rather than a lack of ability. Recently, Newsweek asked 1000 US citizens to take America’s official citizenship test. You probably know where this is headed. Yeah . . . we didn’t do [...]

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Internet use makes for more engaged citizens

Lots of stuff going on today. So you’re gonna get a different format this afternoon. Summary statements and bullet points. That’s it. Okay . . . maybe a photo or two. But seriously. That’s it. Here we go. The Youth and Participatory Politics people say that being online is good for kids because: Their interest [...]

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Tip of the Week – 2010 Midterm Election Resources

Many of you have asked for specific resources that focus on the upcoming mid-term elections. Hopefully this quick list of tools will help: Democratic Party Republican Party Googlitics Created by a teacher, you’ll find links and lessons to help your students participate and learn about American political elections with online tools from Google Politifact “Sorting [...]

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Supreme Court Fantasy League

My son’s senior government class is busy discussing the different Constitutional amendments. And we’ve had our own great conversations about recent Constitutional issues over the last few weeks – specifically 1st Amendment stuff like the Quran burning issue in Florida, the cultural center in NYC and this week’s Supreme Court Fred Phelps hearing. This afternoon, [...]

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