Weekly Reader Draws Upon Its Heritage To Address National Citizenship Education
(PRWEB) March 15, 2000
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Interviews with Weekly Reader Sandra F. Maccarone,
Weekly Reader Editor-in-Chief: (203) 705-3452
Weekly Reader Draws Upon Its Heritage To Address National Citizenship Education
Stamford, CT, March 8, 2000 -- Weekly Reader: The Largest Newspaper For Kids In The World ™ launches a new national citizenship education program this week that draws upon its heritage to address the lessons of citizenship at school and at home.
Weekly Reader Promote The Vote 2000 will help students become familiar with the candidates, gain an understanding of the issues and the election process, and learn about their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
The program includes editorial features, surveys, contests and quizzes. It also includes a full-color poster of all 43 presidents as well as a 32-page Guide to Election Handbook which provides information and activities to involve students in the election. The Weekly Reader Classroom Election Kit is made up of a Student Poll ballot card, posters, banners, buttons and a Election Resource Guide.
Weekly Reader students will play an active role in the election as they offer their top concerns to candidates and also decide on their top questions to ask the candidates. In July and August Weekly Reader student representatives will attend the Democratic and Republican Conventions.
The culminating event of Weekly Reader Promote The Vote 2000 is Weekly Reader's historic election poll which has been amazingly accurate. Beginning with the 1956 Eisenhower/Stevenson election, Weekly Reader schoolchildren have been the most accurate predictors of the presidential election. In fact, Weekly Reader kids in grades 4 and up are 100 percent accurate in predicting the election outcome.
"Since research shows that good habits begin early, it is vital that children learn about and participate in our democratic process so that they will be active citizens as adults," says Sandra F. Maccarone, Weekly Reader Editor In Chief.
She adds that "the fabric of our country is woven from Americans being active, responsible citizens. Yet, in one example of lessening civic participation, since the 1972 presidential election, when the voting age was lowered to 18, there has been almost a 20-percentage point decrease in voting among 18 to 24-year-olds, with only 32% going to the polls in 1996."
Weekly Reader's Election 2000 Promote the Vote program seeks to enfranchise young people, nurture them as citizens, and foster a genuine dialogue between the nation's young people and its most prominent political leaders. The ultimate goal is to enable and encourage students to make their own commitment to become active citizens.
In 1991 President Bush released America 2000, which includes as its third education goal: "By the year 2000: Every school in America will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our modern economy."
Under the auspices of America 2000, the National Standards for Civics and Government, issued in November 1994, offer goals for what students should know and be able to do in the fields of civics and government. They state that children should learn not only about government institutions, but also about shared values and the qualities of leadership in America.
The Weekly Reader Corporation has always been committed to helping teachers further these vital objectives. Charles P. Davis founded the first Weekly Reader Corporation publication, Current Events, in 1902. Notice how America 2000 echoes Davis' first editorial of May 20, 1902: "Every issue of our newspaper will have "something important to tell to boys and girls. It will awaken their interest in the great world in which they live, give them a broader view of life, fit them for good citizenship, and help equip them for success."
We electors have an important constitutional power placed in our hands: we have a check upon two branches of the legislature, as each branch has upon the other two; the power I mean of electing at stated periods, one branch, which branch has the power of electing another. It becomes necessary to every subject then, to be in some degree a statesman: and to examine and judge for himself of the tendencies of political principles and measures.
John Adams
