We talked about the Second Amendment this week in my Civics classes. In a normal term we spend very little time on it, as there aren't many interesting legal questions involved - nothing like free speech or The Church of Lakumi Babalu Aye vs. City of Hialeah, that most euphoniously named of Supreme Court cases.

Effective citizens are sophisticated consumers of information. They ask hard questions about the issues facing their community, state, and nation. All of these behaviors are learned, not innate.

United States history is the story of a compelling idea that continues to revolutionize the world. Unfortunately, American schools today disregard that history.

American ideas are important, an essential element for charting our future. Unfortunately, we may be losing our ability to discern quality debate.

Where are the lessons of responsible citizenship? Where is the citizens' manual? Civic responsibility is not innate. It must be learned, and so it must be taught.

There is a lot of talk today implying that the purpose of education is job training. Our nation will not survive if our education system merely produces economic units. We must safeguard the future of the republic by educating to increase the most essential national resource: informed, engaged citizens.

Partisanship and rancor are not new. We have not fallen from some republican ideal into a new style of debauchery. Our political battles have been hard-fought and hard-won right from the very beginning.

Who's responsible for instilling in our young people an appreciation for history and citizenship? Many of us -- teachers, educators, and members of the public alike -- are very concerned about the demise of social studies.

By Meredith Wade I rolled out of bed at the ungodly hour of 8 a.m. on the first Sunday of summer to thrust clipboards at random strangers downtown, ho...

I am fed up with teacher-bashing. It seems everyone is willing to belittle teachers. But these same critics are not willing to step forward and do the job themselves.

The connection between having at least a high school education and getting out to the polls is something that civics and government teachers think about every day. How do you encourage students to see politics as relevant?

Civic education is vital in preparing students for the responsibilities and obligations of democratic citizenship. But a third of native-born American citizens fail the history and civics exam administered to immigrants who are seeking U.S. citizenship.

The United States Constitution is one of the most influential political documents of all time, and it is the cornerstone that supports our liberty. ...

We ought to be teaching our nation's students about law, rights, and the operation of our system of justice. A future generation of law-abiding, rights-respecting citizens depends upon it.

Kids have "grown up digital" as author Don Tapscott would say. They have computers, and cell phones and video games, Facebook, and Twitter and who kno...