Teaching Civics in Unstable Times: Guidelines for Defining "We" in American Democracy

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

American political culture runs through civics classrooms, and the degraded dialogue and scorched-earth partisanship that has defined modern American politics is an indicator that all is not well in our nations schools. Teaching Civics in Unstable Times: Guidelines for Defining We in American Democracy offers a fresh, expansive view of what civic education can look like in K-12 classrooms, and presents three strategies to help teachers, curriculum writers, and administrators turn their schools into laboratories for democracy that train young people for the moral and intellectual challenges of democratic citizenship.
This book defines democracy as a way of life that is characterized by frequent public engagement, stubborn open-mindedness, and rigorous debate. Our democratic government depends on our citizens leading a democratic life, and civic educations chief priority is to teach young people how to do so. Civic curriculum has spent decades obsessing over names and dates that fail to give students a sense of their vaunted place in our governing system. This book presentsthree strategiesfor teaching civics that invest young people in our shared, grand experiment in self-government and prepares them to lead our nation towards a politics that is more compassionate, inclusive, and inspired.

Reviews

As someone in elected office for over two decades, Tripodos insight is spot on. Teaching citizenship and the basic tenets of democracy have never been so important to Americas future. -- Scott Galvin, North Miami City Councilman, and executive director of Safe Schools South Florida
The very future of our republic depends on genuinely educated citizensthose who learn history blended with context, those who are as eager to listen as much as they are to argue, and those who spend all their lives gathering facts in the pursuit of The Truth and are never sure they have arrived. The path to real wisdom is found in Andrew Tripodos excellent text. -- David Lawrence, retired Miami Herald publisher and chair of The Childrens Movement of Florida
In an era of hyper partisanship when many believe our nations democracy is under assault, Tripodos book offers a trenchant critique and corrective. In Teaching Civics in Unstable Times, the author, a high school government and history teacher and curriculum writer, argues that our best path forward begins in the classroom. A thread running throughout the book is a series of thought-provoking questions that invite the student to think deeply about the complexities of this experiment we call American democracy. In addition, Tripodo provides a rich menu of suggested activities to prompt civic engagement noting civic education is more about characters than content. This book serves as a valuable guide for teachers committed to helping prepare our next generation for meaningful civic engagement. -- John Davies Ed.D, educator and former Head of School at Miami Country Day School; author of Educating Students in a Media Saturated Culture and DOA: Education in the Electronic Culture
This book is nothing short of amazing. I truly hope that Mr. Tripodos ideas, especially the ones having to do with service hours, are implemented into multiple schools curriculums. I can say that I am proud to have been taught by the author of this work. -- Kevin Lavandeira, 11th grade student
Teaching Civics in Unstable Times offers unique and innovative methods of preparing students to become model citizens. -- Sebastian Guillen, freshman at the University of South Florida

Author Bio

Andrew Tripodo has spent the last ten years designing social studies curricula for charter school networks, traditional public schools, and independent schools around the world. A social entrepreneur and social studies teacher, he is the director of the Society And Me Program at the Cushman High School in Miami, Florida.