The Answer Sheet: Civics Education


Posted at 11:55 AM ET, 04/22/2010

Volcanic ash may disrupt college admissions process
By Valerie Strauss
Add one more thing that may be disrupted by the eruption of a volcano in Iceland and the ash cloud spreading above Europe: U.S. college admissions.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:55 AM ET, 04/22/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education | Tags:  association for college admissions counseling, college admissions process, effects of volcano eruption, may 1st acceptance date, nacac, volcano and college admissions

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 01/18/2010

Listening to 'I Have a Dream'
By Valerie Strauss
It is one thing to read the words “From every mountainside let freedom ring,” and it is entirely another to hear the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver the magnificent "I Have a Dream" speech that helped change U.S. history. Once you hear it, it is not possible to forget. So today, on this national holiday that commemorates King and his impact on this country, sit down with your children and listen.... Where you can hear and see it, and why it wasn't easily accessible for a long time.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 01/18/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education, Civics Education | Tags:  Martin Luther King, history

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 01/11/2010

School seizes 9/11 shirts of Arab-American students
By Valerie Strauss
Some Arab-American students at Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn, Michigan--home to the country’s largest community of Arab-Americans--designed and had made sweatshirts that referenced the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to the Detroit Free Press, the sweatshirts had these words, “You can’t bring us down.” Above those words is the number “11” intended to be the twin towers of the attacked World Trade Center, with little windows drawn in each digit. To the right is a thunderbird, the mascot of the school, flying toward the “11.” Other people at the high school were insulted.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 01/11/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education | Tags:  confiscated sweatshirts

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 12/10/2009

Real role models: Kids who use adversity to help others
By Valerie Strauss
Heard enough about Tiger Woods as a fallen role model? My colleague Tracee Hamilton, in her Post column today, makes definitive mincemeat out of anybody who thought Woods was a role model in more than great golfing technique. How about teenager Brryan Jackson as a role model for kids? When he was 11 months old, his father intentionally injected him with HIV-tainted blood, hoping to avoid paying child support. Brryan got AIDS but survived and is doing amazing things to help others.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 12/10/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education, Civics Education | Tags:  kids as role models, role models

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 11/26/2009

Why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving (when the Pilgrims ate deer)--and other holiday myths
By Valerie Strauss
This is the story you and your kids probably learned in school: In 1621, Pilgrims, dressed in black and white with buckles on their shoes, held a feast in Plymouth Colony to celebrate their first harvest. They invited Wampanoag Indians, and everyone gobbled down turkey and pumpkin pie. It turns out that only some of that is true.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 11/26/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education | Tags:  Thanksgiving, historical myth, history

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 11/11/2009

What should schools do when they become the target of hate groups?
By Valerie Strauss
Some Washington area schools are being targeted for protests by an extremist church from Kansas whose website attacks gays, blacks, Jews and other minorities, as well as any whites who manage to get along with them. On Monday, Westboro Baptist Church members protested at private Sidwell School in the District, where President Obama’s two daughters attend. Yesterday it was Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School in Montgomery County because, the church website says, the school has a diversity club.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 11/11/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education, Civics Education | Tags:  Sidwell Friends School, hate groups

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 10/29/2009

Should teachers reveal their political opinions in class?
By Valerie Strauss
The Group splits on whether teachers should reveal their own political opinions to their students in class.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 10/29/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education, Civics Education | Tags:  Teachers, The Group

Posted at 02:51 PM ET, 10/08/2009

Teachers, Scientists and The Dalai Lama Hold a Different Kind of Education Conference
By Valerie Strauss
An education conference began in the nation’s capital today but it was not about standardized tests, national content standards, merit pay for teachers, or charter schools. Educators, scientists, the Dalai Lama and others came together to discuss how to cultivate in students the qualities not normally given much attention in most schools: social responsibility, self-control, compassion.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:51 PM ET, 10/08/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education, Civics Education, Civics Education, Civics Education | Tags:  Arne Duncan, Linda Darling-Hammond, Marian Wright Edelman, The Dalai Lama, school reform

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 10/07/2009

SPOTLIGHT: U-Richmond President Edward Ayers Is On a Civil War Mission
By Valerie Strauss
There is, it turns out, a “great untold story” of the Civil War and Edward Ayers is determined to teach it to you and your children.Ayers is one of the nation’s leading Civil War scholars, who, two years ago, serendipitously became president of the University of Richmond in the capital of the Confederacy. He is intent on using the gift of location and the approaching 150th anniversary of the Civil War (in 2011-2015) to spark a public discussion on the Civil War that sounds very different than past conversations.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 10/07/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education, Civics Education | Tags:  Civil War, President Edward Ayers, University of Richmond

Posted at 11:55 AM ET, 09/11/2009

P.S.: Who Watched Obama's Back-to-School Speech
By Valerie Strauss
My colleague Nick Anderson on the national schools beat offers a postscript to the flap over President Obama's back-to-school speech: There was much buzz beforehand about whether it was appropriate to show students the speech that Obama gave Tuesday at...

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:55 AM ET, 09/11/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education, Civics Education, Civics Education | Tags:  Arlington Public Schools, Calvert County Schools, D.C. schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, Howard County schools, Montgomery County Schools, P.G. Schools, President Obama, back-to-school, education speech

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 09/07/2009

A Lesson on Labor Day
By Valerie Strauss
Labor Day is the perfect day to explain to kids complaining about going back to school just how much worse things could be for them. In fact, they once were: Kids were forced into back-breaking jobs day and night in...

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 09/07/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education | Tags:  American history, Labor Day, workers

Posted at 09:25 AM ET, 09/04/2009

Kids Should Listen to the U.S. President
By Valerie Strauss
Children should listen to the U.S. president. Period. Notice I didn’t say “agree with” or “blindly follow.” But the furor over a speech that President Obama plans to give Tuesday, live online at noon urging kids to take their education...

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:25 AM ET, 09/04/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Civics Education | Tags:  civics education, obama, speech