Global Connections
Social Studies teachers should possess the knowledge, capabilities, and dispositions to organize and provide instruction at the appropriate school level for the study of Civic Ideals and Practices.
Civic Ideals is one of the most important themes for the improvement of students into full citizens. Ironically US/VA Government is the perfect class to use Civic Ideals and Practices and I barely used it. Certain units in Government only deal with this theme. Unfortunately, I did not teach any of these units. I mostly dealt with groups and institutions, and not the individuals. However, the same principles ideals and they applied throughout my internship.
I was constantly showing students how they could become involved in the process and where there is room for individuals. This is not evidenced in any one lesson plan, however, it was a big focus of my unit plans. In government I would say that how students can interact in the process is always one of the underlying themes that is addressed with nearly everything that is taught. I did not have any one lesson that discussed it because it was present in a small way in every lesson.
I did, however, have specific lesson plans that dealt with civic ideals. The best example of this dealt with the plans that the Continental Congress discussed when they were drafting the US Constitution. The students learned the Virginia, New Jersey, Hamilton, and Connecticut Plans, but more importantly they learned the philosophies that each one represented. The students were especially interested in the Hamilton Plan and we wound up spending more time on this plan than any other. When I told them that Hamilton believed that the people were not intelligent to know how to rule themselves and should leave it to the professionals, the entire class went up in an uproar. They could not understand why this was even discussed by the Congress. I reminded them that this was the same man that in conjunction with Madison warned against factions, and predicted so many other problems. They decided that he had, as they put it, “a blonde moment”. However, I pushed them to look closer at the ideals that are evident in the plan and our world today. I asked them if it has turned into much different than what he said we should have. In one of the classes a student said that the only difference was that it is not the professionals who rule, it is corporations and the rich. He suggested it might have better his way if it kept the rich out of government. This was one of the few moments this semester that my jaw hit the ground. I was very impressed and the class backed him. This was one of the many instances I taught the students about civic ideals and how they were nearly vastly different.
I think I was very successful in teaching this theme this semester because it was evident in nearly every lesson plan I wrote. I was also able to stress some of the civic ideals as presented above. This really interested the students and I think they enjoyed our discussions. I will continue to use this theme no matter what I am teaching, even math. One of the reasons for a public school system is to create citizens out of children and I will be sure that all students know how they can become involved in the process of government. Below is an example of a lesson plan I designed to show how I will implement this in the future.