Economics is a central part of civic education. Students need to know about the Constitution and the party system, but active citizenship in the twenty-first century requires much more than the standard civics courses offer. Economic issues dominate public policy debates ranging from Social Security to immigration to international security. If…

Throughout the world, today's students are being characterized as digital natives, the "net generation." This twenty-first-century student cohort is adept at multi-tasking and at using a variety of tools and resources including electronic search engines, blogs, wikis, visual images, videos, gaming platforms, and social networking.…

Students need the thinking skills necessary to function in today's complex society and in an ever increasingly interdependent world. Social studies, through its various disciplines, is the appropriate place in the school to develop and practice the critical thinking skills needed to evaluate government policies and possible solutions to…

This article describes "We the People: Project Citizen Program," a curricular program for middle school students. "We the People" promotes competent and responsible participation in local and state government. Additionally, it helps young people learn how to monitor and influence public policy. Entire classes of students or…

This guide provides a rationale for public issues discussions, defines what public issues are, provides guidelines for directing discussions, summarizes roadblocks to productive discussions, suggests sample activities, and poses guidelines for using resource people. A list of organizations and published resources is appended. (JDH)

Argues that childrens' rights should be taught in the social studies curriculum. Suggests that study of the components of the U.N. convention on childrens' rights (provision, protection, and participation) is integral to achieving major citizenship goals. Includes global education, interdependence, culture, change, scarcity, and conflict as…