Civics Mandatory Class

An average citizen can engage in civic life many ways. The ways are important even though that individual participates in that activity only once. One of the ways is to start where they are. This means that the person does not need to know everything. They are bound to make mistakes simply because they are not perfect and it is through those mistakes that they going to learn and get better. The second is to take things step by step. In everything there is a process and there is an order to doing it therefore it is important to take thing one-step at a time. The

Thousands of these young adults are politically informed, politically active and have the concerns and demands many of the people who actually vote have. However, the youth of Canada also have concerns of their own which they are unable to address substantially. People under the age of eighteen for the most part are concerned in matters much different than say an employed thirty five-year-old. The youth under eighteen still are in high school they are concerned about as a grade 10 student from Western Canada High School put "class sizes, teacher disputes, and minimum wage", (Thompson) among other things. He later goes on to state the fact that by the time he has indeed graduated and become eighteen years old, he will no longer be interested in class sizes nor teacher disputes, therefore he will not address them in his decision on who he decided to vote for. This is a very valid argument and it is also true for the most part to say that the voices of these concerned children should be heard via the vote of their parents. The government of Canada sees the parents as a voice for their children, however parents inevitably will vote in a bias towards their needs such as tax cuts. Without the availability and opportunity to vote and voice their opinions in an electoral system the youth of Canada are left to impact the political process in other ways. Thousands of youth are involved in political parties, political rallies and interest groups

The Washington Post is one of the nation’s oldest newspaper platforms for writers to inform their audience about problems in our country. One of America’s traditional practices is its bureaucratic system of democracy. In Sandra O’ Connor and Roy Romer’s article “Not by Math Alone”, the authors’ appeal to logical reasoning and emotion persuades the audience about the lack of civic education for students in school. Through well-detailed statistics and data, the authors attempt to impose rationality upon their readers regarding the importance of student participation for the government. According to the last national civics assessment in 1998, about “two-thirds of 12th -graders scored below proficient” while only “9 percent could list…benefits

Afterall, students tend to lean towards other subjects such as math and science more than history and government. I also believe that politicans should try to reach out to younger voters, those with lower incomes, and the less educated. The government is supposed to protect and represent everybody, which brings light to the problem that those with low incomes and minorites are underepresented. However, I do understand that part of the problem starts at home. Parents have to teach their children the imporatance of their vote, but how do you do that if you did not receive the proper education about politics

Through the duration of this course some of my opinions on civic issues have changed and some have stayed the same. An opinion of mine that has changed is the number of flaws in our education system. This is an important civic issue because the education of young people is deciding the future of this world. This is politically significant because this generation will grow up to be a part of politics whether running for a role in the federal, provincial, or municipal parliamentary or simply voting in an election.

Parliamentary – a system of government in which both executive and legislative function reside in an

Voting in Canada is more important now than ever. At the last federal election on October 19th 2015, there was an overall voter turnout of 68.3%. This was the highest voter turnout Canada had seen at a federal election in two decades. Out of 35,85 million people in Canada, 3,6 million people casted their ballots. However, with the overall increase of people that showed up to this election, the number of young people, especially those aged 18-24 that attended, was at an all time low. This has created a great deal of concern for when these people get to be older and more younger people will be eligible to vote, if there will be anybody in Canada who are still voting with interest and not just abstaining to. It’s important that the most amount of people in Canada vote as possible so that our government is solely represented by people who Canadians agree with their political statements and beliefs. There’s no point in the country being run by people and parties who Canadians don’t agree with because their main job as representants of the country is to voice the beliefs and concerns of those Canadians. It’s important for Canadians to be encouraged to vote young because it is the first years of being legal age to vote that are uninterested in doing so.

To every political system there are many positives and negatives and one critique of compulsory voting systems is that informal and uninterested voting is increased. It has been advocated that compulsory voting brings a large amount of “uninterested voters” to the polls and in turn cast votes that are clearly inconsistent with their own political values compared to those who are more informed and motivated voluntary voters (Selb and Latchat, 2009). In this case the primary concern is when people are forced to vote they will either pick a candidate at random or spoil their ballot which consequently, does not make the outcome of the election representative of the people’s interests. If certain individuals are not interested in politics they should not be forced to contribute in one of the most salient political statements practiced in Canada (Selb and Latchat, 2009). They have the right to choose their level of political participation.

The Abington School District v. Schempp (374 U.S. 203 (1963)), Wisconsin v. Yoder (406 U.S. 205 (1972)), and Amback v. Norwick, 441 v. 68 (1979)) cases discuss how and why education, to some degree, is necessary to prepare citizens to participate in our political system.

Schools are another important faction in delivering affective socialization, but also deliver instrumental socialization to America's youth. Elementary classroom instruction is generally where children receive their first concrete lessons on the American political system. Teachers perform the important civic duty of instructing young Americans in political history, general laws and rights, and patriotism. Take for example the Pledge of Allegiance, recited across the nation in elementary classrooms.

Student Learning Outcome #6 "Engage in reasoned civic discourse while recognizing the distinctions among opinions, fact, and inferences" supported with my Summaries Essay.

Citizenship lessons educate young people about morals and principles within society. Teaching politics in schools would also educate and inform young people about political parties’ manifestos. “Data from the 2009 International Civic and Citizenship

The aim of Social Studies is the promotion of civic competence the knowledge, intellectual processes, and democratic dispositions required of students to be active and engaged participants in public life. Proverbs 19:2 (ESV) states," Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way."For example it is essential for there to be commonalities across the grade levels so that there is a scaffolding of concepts to build from one grade level to the next.

I completely agree with you about civics being taught much earlier than senior year. It is a very valuable class that should be taught early so our students can start applying them early. I wish I was taught how to balance a checkbook, about credit cards, and saving money. History was really boring to me otherwise because all I remember is PowerPoint, lectures and notes. It is not hard to memorize these but when it comes to remembering them hard because it is not memorable enough for students like myself to make connections to what was taught. Memorizing is good for some subjects but history is something that needs connections.

When the founding fathers drafted the Constitution their main focus was creating a nation where everyone would be free from the restraints of a controlling government and treated equal. America has always been a nation of freedom, and needs to remain that way. The youth in this country is charged with the task of ensuring that America remains the “land of the free”. Without involvement in politics this is not possible. If youth are to maintain the American ideals of freedom and equality it is imperative that they be involved in politics. Voting every four years for the president, who is more of a figure head than anything else, is simply not enough. Young people need to take a more active role in politics such as running for a political office, local or national. This is the only way they will be able to put their beliefs into action and ensure that America upholds it’s long standing values of freedom and equality. The youth need to start taking action as soon as they are old enough. However, young people need to be educated on politics and be firm in their beliefs before delving into the world of politics. In recent years the youth have shown a trend of disengagement and apathy toward political involvement. According to “The Good Citizen”, a book written by Russell J. Dalton, political analysts and politicians agree that the youth are losing interest in politics and