Civics 101

Whether you fly it, wear it or want nothing to do with it, the American flag says a lot in and about the United States. Red, white and blue is far from exclusive to our nation and yet it is very much our brand... and very much branded on anything we can think to put it on.

So where did the American obsession with our flag come from?
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Today we share our second installment on why things are tough in the civics world. Specifically, we talk about how students are doing in civics classrooms and on national assessments.

But! It's not all bad news. Shawn Healey (Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer at iCivics) takes us through the myriad state bills that are currently in the legislative process which will affect civic education, and we hear from three students (Ava-June Tackett, Shreya Raman, and Ben Kurian) on what they think can improve civic learning and reduce partisanship.
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Once upon a time, American British colonists were separated from power, decision-making, culture and information by thousands of miles and many weeks. As Helena Yoo-Roth puts it, time flowed evenly outward from the homeland.

This is the story of waiting, longing and realizing that time might just be on our side as we approached the American Revolutionary War. Helena Yoo-Roth is the author of the forthcoming American Timelines: Imperial Communications, Colonial Time-Consciousness, and the Coming of the American Revolution.
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This is the first episode in a series we are doing with iCivics, who invited us to their National Forum for Civic Learning Week.

Today we share the many conversations we had with civics and social studies teachers from across the country, and we explore the results from a nationwide survey on what they're going through right now. And, finally, what could be done to help them?

To learn more about iCivics and their myriad resources for teachers and students, visit them at https://ed.icivics.org.

To read about the survey conducted by iCivics, click here.
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For Americans today, it's a treasure. Scripture. The thing that made us. It wasn't always that way, though. This is the story of the Declaration of Independence before it was enshrined in our collective national consciousness. Back when it was a news headline and we had no control what others thought of it.

Our guest is Emily Sneff, author of When the Declaration of Independence was News.
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