This paper examines the research on students' and adults' knowledge of government and queries: "Will the civics and government standards (or any others) make any difference?" Contending that the present teacher education environment does little to promote active learning in the government classroom and that present government teachers have not…

Although the demise of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 was described as "the ultimate victory of Democracy," this paper asserts that serious internal problems exist within modern democracies throughout Europe and the United States today. However, civic education offers a potential remedy. Part 1, "The New Democratic…

This document is an exercise for teachers who are seeking to increase student understanding of the rise and expansion of democracy in new or emerging nations. The exercise complements the National Education Goals for Student Achievement and Citizenship. By design, the exercise challenges students to plan and to conduct (based on the timeless…

This booklet is designed to help student participants in Close Up's Washington and Williamsburg Special Focus Program make connections between colonial Williamsburg (Virginia) and the present. Students are encouraged to see Williamsburg as a historical backdrop by which to study four fundamental ideas that have shaped the development of the United…

In the United States, the Bill of Rights is most often thought of as the charter that establishes individual rights in categories such as "freedom of expression" and "rights of the accused." In this essay it is argued that this conception of the Bill of Rights, while perhaps acceptable for constitutional law, does not provide…

This unit on the Federalist era of U.S. history examines some of the issues that have endured from the earliest days of the nation to the present: free speech, the right to rebel, foreign policy, the balance of federal and state authority, and the relative importance of various constituencies. Student understanding of such issues develops through…

This document is the report of a project to strengthen democratic reforms in Poland by enhancing student and teacher understanding of citizenship in a democracy. The goal of the initiative is to promote the development of democracy in Poland by instituting a new citizenship curriculum in Polish schools. The immediate goal of this project was to…

American society and its educators are faced with many challenges, particularly from the growing use of computers, which lead to the question of whether the American dream of a viable democracy with an equal chance for all can be revived. The individual, community, thought, and morality provide four standpoints from which to consider technological…

Eleven lessons illustrating different strategies for teaching about academic freedom and suggested related readings are provided. (Author/DE)

Traditionally, the schools' role has been to transform children from players to workers by teaching them to relinquish pleasurable activity in and of itself in favor of obtaining pleasure from achievement from the end results. Advocates for greater democracy, however, believe that education for citizenship can only be achieved through a child's…

This paper explores the notion of philosophic-mindedness as it relates to the conceptions of educational leadership and democracy. Three essential questions are treated: (1) Ought educational leaders to be philosophic in their work? (2) Need educational leaders be democratic? and (3) How do these conceptions of leadership, democracy, and…

The purpose of this instructional kit is to provide secondary school teachers with activities and discussion topics to help students understand the nature of prejudice and how it conflicts with basic American values. The materials presented address seven educational objectives: (1) helping students understand that pluralism is a basic…

Chapter 7 of a revised volume on school leadership, this chapter advocates the use of participative decision-making (PDM) at the school site level, outlines implementation guidelines, and describes the experiences of some schools with PDM systems. A cornerstone of a reform movement to make organizational operations more democratic and less…

Students should be taught civic competence, values, and dispositions; and skills needed for a democratic society should be acquired through formal education. U.S. schools must teach moral and civic values consciously, yet these values should be taught beyond civics and values clarification courses. The narrow focus of this type of course is to…

American public education is in trouble but educators have no long-term plan of action, are not thinking comprehensively, and are ignoring lessons of the past. A review of events since Sputnik (1957) reveals several lessons. From 1957 to 1963 national curriculum programs and isolated school experiments were introduced but did not take hold. In the…