Radical Proposal, Citizens Should Know Governmental Process

[From article]
When people from other parts of the world become US citizens, they have to pass a test that includes questions about how our system of government works. Why shouldn’t native-born Americans have to know the same?
Many Americans grew up with civics classes. But today, civics instruction has largely been abandoned — former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor calls this “the quiet crisis in education.”
[. . .]
The questions involve basic knowledge of how the US government works. For example, students would be asked to name America’s economic system or to identify one of the three branches of government.
This last is apparently more difficult than it might appear: A recent survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found that 35 percent of the 1,416 adults questioned couldn’t do it. (You can try the test yourself at civicseducationinitiative.com/take-the-test/).

http://nypost.com/2015/01/02/our-civic-duty/

Our civic duty
By New York Post Editorial Board
January 2, 2015 | 7:11pm

Young Americans Lack Civic Engagement, Knowldege of Governmental System

[From article]
Of all I read about July 4 on that celebratory day, by far the most important and not otherwise mentioned anywhere else was an article titled "Celebrating History We Don't Remember" by Ashley Bateman of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Virginia, which startlingly appeared in the New York Post that very day.
Its essence -- which surprised even me, who has been reporting on this frightening failure of American public education for years:
"Last administered in 2010, the last national civics assessment showed that less than half of eighth-graders understood the purpose of the Bill of Rights and only 10 percent displayed age-appropriate knowledge of our government's system of checks and balances" -- that's the constitutional separation of powers which bars any one of our three branches of government from reigning over the other two, as President Obama has kept doing most voraciously.
[. . .]
An especially knowledgeable source of information on the actual effective teaching of civics in our public schools is CIRCLE: The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, located at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff070914.php3#.U-stG90--yM

Jewish World Review

July 9, 2014 / 11 Tammuz, 5774
Dangers to U.S. liberties we missed on July 4
By Nat Hentoff

Civic Minded Candidates

[From article]

"Reform candidate President Obama has run up more debt in 15 months than unpopular spendthrift George W. Bush did in eight years. Obama once talked of a new unity, but he has polarized America far more rapidly than did Bush.[. . .]

We live in a wartime of economic crisis, crushing debt and endemic political corruption. Rules, obligations and laws don't seem to matter. Personal honor is an archaic, fossilized concept."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/from_battle_to_ballots_cqJoMbe00xT0J6goLVVpCK

From battle to ballots

Veterans aiming at Congress

New York Post

Last Updated: 4:35 AM, May 6, 2010

Posted: 1:43 AM, May 6, 2010

Haters Have No Rights


If the church is 'toxic' will the Hazardous Waste Squad of the Fire Department require a permit? The Mayor exposed them as haters who do not have any rights. The loving Democrats in the Conformist City should hate them back, and deny them their right to speech, their right assemble, the right to petition and their right redress. The First Amendment excludes haters. This church has no right to demonstrate and no right to believe. They are haters. Democrats are lovers and believe in inclusion. These haters must be excluded! If not they may elect the entire city council and take control of the state legislature. They are growing so fast they are becoming a public menace. Give the students the day off to confront these haters by yelling at them, 'You are haters. You are haters!' That would be a great civics lesson in how the Conformist Party works. This church is the cause of poverty, the fighting in Gaza, and the devastation of the rain forest too, and the failing banking system.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1445720764/Guest-commentary-Westboro-Baptist-Church-deserves-a-courageous-stand

Guest commentary: Westboro Baptist Church ‘deserves a courageous stand’
By Larry Aaronson
Cambridge Chronicle
Tue Mar 10, 2009, 10:48 AM EDT


[Comment on Cambridge Chronicle web pages]
Mark Jaquith
1 day ago [Copied March 12, 2009]

1. Roy check your meds.

2. moto, according to Webster's
One entry found.
Main Entry: homophobia
Pronunciation: \h-m-f-b-\
Function: noun
Date: 1969
: irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals


3. Vic read it again. You seem to have missed his point.

I defer to a couple of inspiring figures in my life.
John Lennon: 'All you need is Love'
Bugs Bunny: 'What a maroon!'


[My email to Mark Jaquith after flagging it as abuse.]

Dear Mark,

I admire and I'm grateful for your comments and actions on behalf
of the citizens of this city regarding development But it appears that
you have a limited perspective for rights of citizens.
You disappoint me with your personal attack. It shows you have no
rational argument and hate persons with disabilities something that
Mr. Lennon and Bugs Bunny did not teach you.