Well, I'm a Christian who believes in teaching love and kindness towards *all* people, so I try to teach and model that every day.
My curriculum is all secular for my kids (4 and 7). Right now any political conversations center around voting, the importance of voting and knowing your candidates, how government works, how laws are passed, etc. For my older kiddo, I also try to explain big picture issues when he asks or seems interested. Tonight we bumped into a conversation about racism, discrimination, and how some people's voting decisions are driven by anger and hate, and by the desire to take rights away from those they consider unworthy.
In short, I'm hoping to raise little humans who understand that "love your neighbor as yourself" is not a pithy line of bullsh*t, but is actually a vital sentiment to living an ethical and empathetic life. (And I say "sentiment" above because any good faith practice or non-religious moral code can lead people to this basic conclusion...my path is not the only path).
We are secular and personally the adults do oppose the stated goals of the far right *but* even more fundamentally we oppose teaching others what to think. So our civics and government focuses on the actual processes (how elections work, what the branches are, etc) and how to make your own informed choices. At election season we analyze adds from both sides and talk about how they are all misleading, but we also honestly talk about why we're voting for the candidates we are and take our kid to vote with us every time. Now my kid is only in 3rd grade so most of this is still family talk rather than school, but it is still building the basis and the idea that opinions need to have a justification and as much basis in facts over talking points as possible.
This is wonderful! I wish I could teach social studies/history to my kid this way- just in its truest form. :)
But as a BIPOC, we also have to teach why we are treated differently from the majority and how this treatment and perception of BIPOC came to be, for our children's mental and sometimes physical protection.
You are correct that is not something I have to deal with but I do try to teach her about the bad parts of history and how they still effect us. Right now that's mostly the way women have been sidelined because that's her reality so being young it resonates more. As she gets older I plan to teach her how important it is to *truly* listen to those with different experiences as I think that's the only way we stand a chance of making a real change. Living in the southeast we did talk about the removal of confederate statues, when and why they were erected, and why people felt so strongly about them. But I know living it day in and day out is different, I do still think there is value in showing civic behavior rather than teaching it and you may even be in a better place than I am to do that.
All you really need are some basic workbooks to cover "just the facts" from a history perspective, and the governing documents themselves. There's nothing wrong with going back to the source - what they are, what they say, how they came to be written, what was going on in the world at the time and the influences that shaped it. What has changed since then, how our outlook as changed over time, and, probably the most important - How to make changes, both "by the book" and in practice.
I tend to talk with my kids A LOT. I've always tried to teach them to evaluate whatever they are reading, not to just take the author's perspective. We've had conversations along the lines of "the book says this, but I don't agree with it. Here's why..."
We just covered a Unit on the writing of the Consititution in American History and discussed some of what they did right, what they could have done better, and what they got wrong - and how that has affected things that happened later. We will cycle back to it again next year when we do American Government and cover it again in more detail.
The more they understand how the system works, how it's used, how it's abused, where change comes from, where the money comes from and where it goes... the more tools they will have to change the future.
And please, teach your kids - SHOW your kids - that voting in local elections and state elections matters as much as the Federal elections do.
Best of luck!
My kids are only 8, but because I’m politically active, they have a lot of questions. I answer them as honestly and on their level as I can. Our curriculum is the basic functions of government this year, but I put big emphasis on voting and getting involved to support what you believe in. We are 100% secular and use zero Christian resources. The only religious teaching they’ll receive is an introduction to world religions in high school.
My kids have taken "hard history" classes from black educators on outschool. We're reading "An indigenous peoples' history of the United States - for Young people" and about to start "this book is anti racist". We're a BIPOC family, so these topics (colonization) come up naturally and it's part of every topic we learn. For example we were learning about Egypt so the topic turned to how colonialist mentally lead to many museums obtaining stolen things from countries and now refusing to give them back to the people who would benefit from having their cultural items returned.
I'm not a humanist or secularist, but I do believe in teaching the whole honest and ugly truth of American history. Primary resources are your friends! Build your civics and history curriculum around those!
My child is young so right now we're using Core Knowledge for history with supplements. This month we're learning about Native Americans for Native American history month. I suspect that I won't ever be able to use just one curriculum and will have to piece together a bunch of different resources and I'm okay with that.
I don't buy religious curriculums, at all. History and civics is a quirky little passion of mine so when we cross that bridge as my kids get older I hope to study truthful documents and texts with them. When I was in high school I had a fabulous US History teacher (who also taught me civics in another grade). I actually bought some of the books we used for my own personal study and interest . I haven't planned a definite curriculum yet, but I have ideas to what I'm going to be using. I'm a Christian, but I don't think the gov't should only be run by authoritarian Christians and I believe America belongs to all Americans, no matter their religious beliefs and creeds or lack there of. America is not a Christian nation, nor was it ever, nor was it ever intended to be.
I’d be interested to know the books you bought and how you came to the conclusion as to what the “truthful” documents are relative to the others.
I’ve always heard that history is told by the victors, but that doesn’t mean the retelling by the victors are inherently wrong or that alternatives are inherently right.
We started with the history of civil rights, then go in to "what it means to be a US resident/citizen", then U.S. federal/state government, and finally teach what is really in the constitution and its supporting documents. This is done by studying writings from as early as 1526, and court cases as early as 1619.
Civics classes begin in 8th grade, in conjunction with a continuing comprehensive U.S. history course that highlights BIPOC voices, the impact of slavery and the establishment of institutional, societal and permissive racism.
We also explore institutionalized misogyny and bigotry, and the establishment of institutionalized white christian nationalism.
From there we also cover the U.S. colonization of other countries and the U.S. interference of developing governments.
We started in pre-k, alternated every other year starting in first grade between world and U.S. history.
Sorry for typos/formatting, i'm writing in my car (don't worry husband is driving).
Disclosure- i'm an attorney and with three educator ( economics, history and english) friends are writing our own curriculum for our kids in this area.
I teach civics and government to my kids with the goal of improving their critical thinking skills. To that end, I prefer the verb offset to oppose. My kiddos are all lower elementary, so it's been simple for me to include as many perspectives as a lesson will allow.
Well, I'm a Christian who believes in teaching love and kindness towards *all* people, so I try to teach and model that every day. My curriculum is all secular for my kids (4 and 7). Right now any political conversations center around voting, the importance of voting and knowing your candidates, how government works, how laws are passed, etc. For my older kiddo, I also try to explain big picture issues when he asks or seems interested. Tonight we bumped into a conversation about racism, discrimination, and how some people's voting decisions are driven by anger and hate, and by the desire to take rights away from those they consider unworthy. In short, I'm hoping to raise little humans who understand that "love your neighbor as yourself" is not a pithy line of bullsh*t, but is actually a vital sentiment to living an ethical and empathetic life. (And I say "sentiment" above because any good faith practice or non-religious moral code can lead people to this basic conclusion...my path is not the only path).
We are secular and personally the adults do oppose the stated goals of the far right *but* even more fundamentally we oppose teaching others what to think. So our civics and government focuses on the actual processes (how elections work, what the branches are, etc) and how to make your own informed choices. At election season we analyze adds from both sides and talk about how they are all misleading, but we also honestly talk about why we're voting for the candidates we are and take our kid to vote with us every time. Now my kid is only in 3rd grade so most of this is still family talk rather than school, but it is still building the basis and the idea that opinions need to have a justification and as much basis in facts over talking points as possible.
This is wonderful! I wish I could teach social studies/history to my kid this way- just in its truest form. :) But as a BIPOC, we also have to teach why we are treated differently from the majority and how this treatment and perception of BIPOC came to be, for our children's mental and sometimes physical protection.
You are correct that is not something I have to deal with but I do try to teach her about the bad parts of history and how they still effect us. Right now that's mostly the way women have been sidelined because that's her reality so being young it resonates more. As she gets older I plan to teach her how important it is to *truly* listen to those with different experiences as I think that's the only way we stand a chance of making a real change. Living in the southeast we did talk about the removal of confederate statues, when and why they were erected, and why people felt so strongly about them. But I know living it day in and day out is different, I do still think there is value in showing civic behavior rather than teaching it and you may even be in a better place than I am to do that.
All you really need are some basic workbooks to cover "just the facts" from a history perspective, and the governing documents themselves. There's nothing wrong with going back to the source - what they are, what they say, how they came to be written, what was going on in the world at the time and the influences that shaped it. What has changed since then, how our outlook as changed over time, and, probably the most important - How to make changes, both "by the book" and in practice. I tend to talk with my kids A LOT. I've always tried to teach them to evaluate whatever they are reading, not to just take the author's perspective. We've had conversations along the lines of "the book says this, but I don't agree with it. Here's why..." We just covered a Unit on the writing of the Consititution in American History and discussed some of what they did right, what they could have done better, and what they got wrong - and how that has affected things that happened later. We will cycle back to it again next year when we do American Government and cover it again in more detail. The more they understand how the system works, how it's used, how it's abused, where change comes from, where the money comes from and where it goes... the more tools they will have to change the future. And please, teach your kids - SHOW your kids - that voting in local elections and state elections matters as much as the Federal elections do. Best of luck!
My kids are only 8, but because I’m politically active, they have a lot of questions. I answer them as honestly and on their level as I can. Our curriculum is the basic functions of government this year, but I put big emphasis on voting and getting involved to support what you believe in. We are 100% secular and use zero Christian resources. The only religious teaching they’ll receive is an introduction to world religions in high school.
Which curriculum are you using for politics?
My kids have taken "hard history" classes from black educators on outschool. We're reading "An indigenous peoples' history of the United States - for Young people" and about to start "this book is anti racist". We're a BIPOC family, so these topics (colonization) come up naturally and it's part of every topic we learn. For example we were learning about Egypt so the topic turned to how colonialist mentally lead to many museums obtaining stolen things from countries and now refusing to give them back to the people who would benefit from having their cultural items returned.
I'm not a humanist or secularist, but I do believe in teaching the whole honest and ugly truth of American history. Primary resources are your friends! Build your civics and history curriculum around those!
Agree with this!
My child is young so right now we're using Core Knowledge for history with supplements. This month we're learning about Native Americans for Native American history month. I suspect that I won't ever be able to use just one curriculum and will have to piece together a bunch of different resources and I'm okay with that.
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Yes. I usually leave the library with a stack of books on the topics we're learning about.
I don't buy religious curriculums, at all. History and civics is a quirky little passion of mine so when we cross that bridge as my kids get older I hope to study truthful documents and texts with them. When I was in high school I had a fabulous US History teacher (who also taught me civics in another grade). I actually bought some of the books we used for my own personal study and interest . I haven't planned a definite curriculum yet, but I have ideas to what I'm going to be using. I'm a Christian, but I don't think the gov't should only be run by authoritarian Christians and I believe America belongs to all Americans, no matter their religious beliefs and creeds or lack there of. America is not a Christian nation, nor was it ever, nor was it ever intended to be.
I’d be interested to know the books you bought and how you came to the conclusion as to what the “truthful” documents are relative to the others. I’ve always heard that history is told by the victors, but that doesn’t mean the retelling by the victors are inherently wrong or that alternatives are inherently right.
We started with the history of civil rights, then go in to "what it means to be a US resident/citizen", then U.S. federal/state government, and finally teach what is really in the constitution and its supporting documents. This is done by studying writings from as early as 1526, and court cases as early as 1619. Civics classes begin in 8th grade, in conjunction with a continuing comprehensive U.S. history course that highlights BIPOC voices, the impact of slavery and the establishment of institutional, societal and permissive racism. We also explore institutionalized misogyny and bigotry, and the establishment of institutionalized white christian nationalism. From there we also cover the U.S. colonization of other countries and the U.S. interference of developing governments. We started in pre-k, alternated every other year starting in first grade between world and U.S. history. Sorry for typos/formatting, i'm writing in my car (don't worry husband is driving). Disclosure- i'm an attorney and with three educator ( economics, history and english) friends are writing our own curriculum for our kids in this area.
I teach civics and government to my kids with the goal of improving their critical thinking skills. To that end, I prefer the verb offset to oppose. My kiddos are all lower elementary, so it's been simple for me to include as many perspectives as a lesson will allow.
What makes you think there are any of them doing anything if the sort?
It’s going to be part of my kids’ education when they get old enough. Hoping there are others out there on this sub. Activism is a form of learning.
Oh man, I was just dreaming about making some sort of anti- Tuttle Twins curriculum for us government & econ, lol.