Joanne Jacobs
Politics in the classroom: Can teachers teach the election without bias?
Should teachers teach about the election?
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Joanne Jacobs
Sep 243 min read
Is free speech just for nice speech? Students (and adults) need to know civics
Tim Walz, a former social studies teacher who hopes to be vice president, said, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 42 min read
Proud to be Americans
When Bruno Manno was growing up in the '50s and '50s, his family would gather at his grandparents' Italian tavern, to eat, drink and...
Joanne Jacobs
May 23, 20231 min read
Test reading and civics at the same time
Only 6 percent of eighth-graders can read Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech and identify two ideas from the Constitution or...
Joanne Jacobs
May 5, 20231 min read
History, civics and reading comprehension go together
The more students know about the world, the better they can understand what they read, writes Susan Pimentel in Education Week. The...
Joanne Jacobs
May 4, 20232 min read
Educating citizens: We can do better, but will we?
"The new National Assessment of Educational Progress civics and history results are as deplorable as they were predictable," writes...
Joanne Jacobs
May 4, 20232 min read
40% of 8th-graders are 'below basic' in history
Eighth-graders don't know much about U.S. history and civics, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which...
Joanne Jacobs
Apr 10, 20232 min read
'Ethnic studies lens' vs. 'e pluribus unum'
Washington state plans to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement, but it's not clear what that means, writes David J....
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 3, 20232 min read
It's only Schoolhouse Rock (but I like it)
I'm so old I don't know the words to Conjunction Junction. Schoolhouse Rock, animated musical shorts on grammar, history, civics,...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 3, 20232 min read
Teach civics -- not activism
"Fixating on activism misses the point of civics education," write Frederick M. Hess, a former civics teacher now education policy...
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 19, 20222 min read
Fuzzy civics: Teachers don't value knowledge
I learned about separation of powers, checks and balances and the three separate and equal branches of government -- executive,...
Joanne Jacobs
Sep 2, 20222 min read
We used to share a story about America, but not any more
New laws restricting how teachers can discuss "divisive issues" try "to impose a singular narrative of the United States, because —...
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