♪ Hello and welcome to Carolina Classrooms.

I'm Laura Ybarra.

On this episode, we're studying civics.

We'll meet the educators preparing the next generation of informed citizens to head to the polls in any election, national or local.

Patrick Kelly is the director of governmental affairs for the Palmetto State Teachers Association.

He also teaches AP US government at Blythewood High School.

♪ Bryce> In this class, it's AP gov.

So we're learning about how the government works, what things influence it, and what people take, like what actions they take to influence it and affect the lives of the population.

Civics is the study of how our system of government operates, both the role of citizens within that process and how the different institutions of government interact with each other.

And it's critically important for students to learn.

In US history, students have to take a US history end of course exam that counts as 20% of their final grade in the course.

That's a statewide standardized assessment.

For civics, what state law requires is for students to take ten questions off the US citizenship test prior to graduation, but they do not have to pass those ten questions.

And those ten questions can vary from district to district.

It's up to the district to choose which questions they administer.

So it is more of an exposure requirement than it is an actual aptitude or achievement requirement.

So last Friday, we, some of you, read an article entitled "Feeding Frenzy," and it talked about how one specific historic moment in modern American history is kind of the dividing line in the relationship between the press and government.

What's the event?

Students> Watergate.

Patrick> Watergate.

Excellent.

So how does Watergate change the relationship between the press and the government?

A lot of it is about giving students time and space to think critically about what they're consuming.

Our students are already active consumers of information through social media in particular, so they're aware of it, they're exposed to it.

But what they need is the time and space to think about what they're looking at.

So I try to make sure that my course is, to the greatest extent possible inquiry based.

It's more me posing questions for students to wrestle with than it ever is about me interjecting views, beliefs or opinion that could be interpreted as fact.

But I never want to go down that path.

What, what else happens as a result?

How does it have an impact on on reporters in the press in terms of their approach to covering the federal government?

And what is the, at least the author of the article last Friday argued that there is an incentive for the press post-Watergate.

What's the incentive?

What are they trying to do?

Yeah, to be the next Woodward and Bernstein, to be the one who breaks the next Watergate.

And so you get this investigative approach that develops post-Watergate to try to expose corruption or misdeeds or the next big breaking thing.

The curriculum standards for AP government require students to wrestle with issues of media literacy, of potential bias in the way information is presented.

So in my course, I don't go about it by saying this particular source is biased.

This is not... What we did in class, instead, is we watched the first 5 minutes of four different news outlets from the exact same day and simply allowed students to watch those five and then guide discussion around what are the similarities you saw?

What are the differences you saw?

What are driving those differences?

Why do you think that's occurring?

And in wrestling with those questions, students begin to exercise the muscles of being able to critically evaluate the information presented to them.

And ultimately, that's what I want as a teacher, because I cannot possibly equip them to navigate every environment they're going to face.

My students today are dealing with Tik-Tok.

My students five years ago were not, and so the students five years ago, if all I had done is said, here are the news sources and this is what you need to know today, as citizens in their mid-twenties, they would be completely unprepared for what is in many cases the dominant source of news for young Americans.

So I need to provide my students with opportunities to engage in critical analysis, and then they can apply those skills to any information source that they're going to encounter today or into the future as a citizen.

(students laugh) So, yeah, look at that.

This is high quality stuff.

So for a whole weekend, I'm building Snapchat story for the Department of Education.

This is the content you always knew that you needed, but you didn't have.

This is pretty... Secretary's showing up with... that's Protective Services.

So, it's five and a half minutes of high quality content.

So here's the problem, though.

What the department in the Obama administration didn't fully think through.

They thought they were going to be hip and trendy and wonderful.

But what is the problem with Snapchat in a world of Freedom of Information Act requests?

Why is that a problem, Trey?

Trey> It goes away from my screen.

Patrick> That's exactly right.

The problem with Snapchat is it disappears and all of it is public records.

So this becomes the tool for the watchdog press is that, yes, you have First Amendment freedom to publish information, but you also have a legal right to request the information.

And if you ask for it, it's got to be turned over.

Hannah> Like, as a kid, and, like, as you're growing up, you usually base your views off of, like, what your parents believe first and what you, like, your family members, like, tie into.

So, I feel like by taking classes like this and courses, you can try to build your own belief and, like, your own thoughts of what happened.

So, like, taking this course, I've been able to, like, see more of, like, what goes on to, like, different sides of politics and, like, what they actually believe in and how our, like, government officials and, like, our president will, like, choose, like, what their process is to actually make us, like, vote to what we want to vote for.

Patrick> What's powerful about civics education at the high school level is it is relevant to students, especially if you take the time to help students see the connection.

So yeah, it's it's easy, I think, in an election year to make this relevant because I'm teaching high school seniors, every single one of them is going to be 18 by November of 2024, which means all of them are eligible to vote not just in the November election, they're eligible to vote in February in the presidential primaries, even if they're 17, because in South Carolina, you can vote as a 17 year old in a primary if you're 18 by general Election Day.

And so the civics course gives students an opportunity to understand the nuts and bolts of just the election process as a starting place.

But because it is relevant to them, because they can see themselves fitting within that civics framework as a voter, as an engaged citizen, it becomes learning that is more enriching for them, and hopefully it's something that's going to be beneficial to them throughout life.

As an informed citizen who's actively participating in their community.

Laura> Test your knowledge with this question from the United States Citizenship Practice test.

We'll give you the answer later in the show.

♪ We're heading into another presidential election year, and many students will be voting for the first time as they turn 18.

♪ Athena> scvotes.gov is, I like to call it our all things voter registration in elections for the state of South Carolina.

There are election calendars up there.

There is information.

If you want to be a poll worker, of course, if you want to register to vote, if you want to check your voter registration, check your poll place, if you want to find out information about candidate filing, where do I found out my filing fees?

I like to say if you want to find election night results, all of that is on our scvotes.gov website.

You must reside in the county, the state, the county and the precinct that you're, that you are registering.

You must be 18 years old on the before the next election.

If you are 17 now but will be 18, you are eligible to vote in the primary.

You can register vote on our website at scvotes.gov.

You can go there and download the application and then once it's completed, you can mail it, fax it, or return it in person or scan and email it to us.

You could also online at scvotes.gov and the information that we use is from the Department of Motor Vehicles database.

So basically it will pull the voters information.

The thing about that is if you choose to take that route, you want to make sure your information has been updated with the DMV first and then you can proceed to apply online and then -- or register online.

And then thirdly, you can visit your voter registration office and you can register to vote in person if you are receiving services from other state agencies like the DMV or maybe Department of Social Services, you can also update your voter registration or register in person at those other state agencies.

You would need definitely need a South Carolina issued photo I.D.

So it could be a South Carolina issued driver's license.

It could be a South Carolina issued identification card, a concealed weapons permit.

It can be federal ID, It can be also a passport or passport card.

And one more in our voter registration office, we can now print you a voter excuse me, voter photo ID card.

So you can also use that as well.

So basically, it is a little plastic card that has your photo on it and your voter registration number.

And you can also use that to vote.

♪ You would go to your poll place on Election Day.

On the day of the election.

However, we now have two weeks of early voting prior to every election.

So if for some reason you need to vote early, you could come to the whatever early voting centers that the county, the voter registration office has opened for early voting, you can vote there or again, go to your polling place on Election Day, always 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. the day of the election.

It does not matter if voters were in line at 6:30,5:30, 5:00.

We cannot open the polls or declare the polls are open until 7 a.m..

However, polls do close at 7 p.m. but if the voter was in line before 7 p.m., it does not matter that the line is wrapped around the building, does that matter that it's 10:00 when that person actually gets to vote.

But if they were in line to vote by seven, they will get to vote.

I think is is extremely important, simply because a lot of times this stuff does not get taught at home.

I wasn't taught about government or voting and that type stuff at home.

So I think it's very important.

You know, civics teaches us my, my rights and my responsibilities as a citizen.

And I think knowing those rights and responsibilities is important.

So that's why, that's one reason why.

And then as far as government, I think civics and government, that whole it goes hand in hand because you want to know who's governor.

It's important for you to know who's governing you, who's making decisions about you, about your life or the world you live in.

I just remember because my background is education, I was teaching civics or what good citizenship looks like to four year olds.

I basically applied, you know, what we do in the classroom to show good citizenship.

And if a four year old child can get it, I'm showing good citizenship when I clean up behind myself or when I share or follow the classroom rules, I think it is is important and it needs to continue to be taught in education.

Laura> Officials in Bamberg offer education and outreach programs that give students an opportunity to use the voting machines for class elections.

Contact your county voter registration office for information on programs they may offer.

♪ Here's the answer to our questions on the citizenship test.

♪ Dr. Elizabeth Smith runs the Riley Teachers of Government Program at the Riley Institute at Furman University.

The program gives educators the opportunity to attend classes and see government in action firsthand.

>> Here, at Furman, we have the Richard Riley Institute, and the Riley Institute is named after the former governor of South Carolina, two term Governor Richard Riley.

He served in the eighties, the education governor for South Carolina.

He was a Furman graduate.

Very appropriate for this namesake and for us to be talking about Secretary Riley while we're talking about civic education, because he is a huge proponent of civic education and of education generally.

He helped get passed the Education Improvement Act in the 1980s, which created a penny sales tax that led to great opportunities for improvement in South Carolina schools, funding new buildings, hiring of more teachers, greater professional status for teachers, all of these amazing things.

He then went on to serve as Secretary of Education, longest serving Secretary of Education, beloved by people on both sides of the aisle.

So the Riley Institute is named after him, and the focus of it here at Furman is on educating the public, doing research on education and providing programming for professional leaders, including our teachers.

So one of the programs that we have that I run is the Riley Teachers of Government Program, and we've done this program for over 20 years, served over, I think, about 250 teachers have participated in the program.

And it's an opportunity for teachers to come and really be the professionals that they are.

So they come to Furman and they take some seminars, classes with Furman professors, which teachers really tell us that they really enjoy.

It's an opportunity to kind of go back to college and just learn about the scholarship and what's kind of the newest things that are happening in the field of politics and history.

So they spent some time here at Furman.

And then the other great thing about this program is we then all fly up together and we go and spend the week in D.C. and occasionally I'll have teachers who are teaching social studies, teaching civics education, teaching American government, and they themselves have never had the opportunity to visit Washington, D.C.

So we go to Washington, D.C. We meet with education experts at the variety of institutions that are up there.

Almost every museum has an education specialist that works directly with teachers to tell them how to use their resources and take it back to the classroom.

So, for example, one of the things that we do during the week is we go to C-SPAN and which is an amazing resource for teachers.

It has amazing research sources for teachers, has C-SPAN in the classroom, and teachers get to meet Brian Lamb, who started C-SPAN and learn about all these resources and ways that they can connect students with the resources and use them in the classroom to energize students.

We go and visit the House and Senate, watch them in session, sit in the House and Senate galleries and watch the legislative process in action.

We always do this program around the third week in July, which is right before Congress goes into recess.

So they're really busy and really active.

So it's always really exciting and we learn the rules of legislating and quorum calls and watch the debates that happen where sometimes no one's in the chambers, but they're talking to the cameras and it's just a great opportunity for the teachers to have real world experience with politics.

We get to watch congressional committees happen and then they can go back to the classroom and they have direct firsthand information.

We meet with the state legislative delegation, firsthand information to share with students and really help get them excited about politics and what's happening and what's happening in Washington, D.C.. and know why.

We're an amazing pluralistic democracy that have so many access points for the public.

But in D.C., the access is is amazing.

You know, you can go watch a Supreme Court hearing.

You can go knock on your member of Congress's door and talk to them, and you can just walk up.

It's really, really remarkable.

But we also can do that at the state and local level.

You know, typically, your state capital is not that far away from you.

Your state legislators are available to talk to you there, but also back in your home district and local.

We always kind of forget about local politics.

Local politics affects so much of our lives.

And those local elected officials are very accessible and willing to have you participate and engage.

Political scientists generally think that it's important that you know just some basic facts about the institutions, the rules.

So we regularly expect that individuals would know that there's three branches of government and what those branches do to have some awareness of our Constitution, to have awareness of U.S. history, and also to know how to participate in the political system and to be engaged actively.

But we also know, though, is that Americans don't have very high levels of political knowledge.

And that's concerning because it's hard to protect your own interests.

It's hard to feel efficacious to feel like you can be an effective citizen if you don't understand how the process works.

And we know that people who have more political knowledge are more likely to participate in our system, and our system works better when we have more voices included and participating actively in the system.

So political knowledge is really important.

The United States is the longest lasting democracy in the world.

Most democracies do not survive.

Democracy is very fragile.

It depends.

It can't just be sustained with laws.

It requires people who are willing to sustain it with trust.

And by following norms and by being willing to work together to solve problems, we can't just depend on a government to solve our problems for us, we have to work together ourselves to solve the problems.

And that's hard.

And we have to live with people that we may not agree with and we have to live peacefully with them.

Democracy is hard.

And so for that very reason, democracy is fragile and most democracies fail.

So we need to be on guard.

We need to stay informed.

We need to keep exercising our rights, and we need to know who we're voting for and why we're voting for them and what matters to us.

So it's really, really important.

We could, we could lose this incredible thing that we have.

As a democratic system, you have rights and you have responsibilities.

It's important to know your rights.

It's also important to know what your responsibilities are.

Civic education is essential to developing the kind of political knowledge that's necessary to be an effective citizen in our democracy.

Laura> Here's another question from the practice US Citizenship test ♪ At Southeast Middle School, Lekena Ackerman students have been learning about the documents that are used to govern the country.

She tries to make the lessons interesting and memorable.

Lekena>(laughing) It's like that.

That's one way, I would dress up in stuff like that.

I want you to write every, every time I say, "Oop" write something down.

Ready?

Here we go.

Listen.

Samantha> She makes it interesting by having a different style of learning, like how she does things different from the other teachers.

She puts the stuff that we're learning into play, like, into fun things that we want to do so differently from the other teachers.

And I feel like we just connect to her more and want to learn more from it.

Tacara> She do funny things.

She dress different.

And it's fun how everyone else dress the same.

She dress different from everyone.

She stands out.

Because I like the fun colors.

She does the funny hairdos and everything else.

It makes you pay attention.

I remember stuff from, like, which outfit she was wearing, which day, stuff like that.

Lekena> I think sometimes it's like, it gets missed on at South Carolina.

South Carolina started most of this.

We were important in the Declaration of Independence.

We were important in creating the Constitution.

Civics goes through us.

And so I think it's pretty easy at the eighth grade level as well, is that the kids are starting to get on to news.

And even if they get it from Snapchat or TikTok or whatever, they're still looking at the news and it's easier for me to pull in those real world sources for them and then I can easily jump back to something that's within our own history.

And as always, when you bring your local history or your state history, it makes it more interesting for, for them anyways.

Caleigh> Yeah, we're learning about the government branches.

That's important to learn about so that you can understand it.

And if you want to get involved with it, you can understand how to get yourself involved with it.

Sydney> It's important because it's where our laws are made so that you can learn things that you can and can't do and things that are important for when you get older, like how your votes can affect the government and things like that.

♪ Lekena> All right, so that's the word that we gonna focus on today.

That word is nullification.

Can y'all say nullification?

Students> Nullification.

>> Thank you.

So, just like how you view Constitution, Constitution means...?

Student> Law.

>> Wait, the Constitution means what?

All students> Law.

>> Thank you.

So for nullification, do you see any word in nullification that looks and sounds maybe familiar?

Well, the way I do important vocabulary is I have, um, I'll say the vocabulary, and they have to repeat back to me.

It's like one of those things where you got, like, the little kindergarteners, "One, two, three, eyes on me."

It's almost like that.

But this is eighth grader.

So if it's something that's important for them to know, like the Constitution, constitution, law, that's it.

They just say, if I say it and that's any time that I say it, so I'll, like, I'll even forget sometimes that I've already told them to do something like that.

And so I'll be teaching it.

I'll bring up the word constitution and they'll go, "law," just real quick.

And so that means that, you know, after they hear it so many times, they don't even notice that they're doing it.

But they know the meaning of those words.

So we do that and we did a little bit of that today.

Another thing is I try to bring back in those root words, those Greek and Latin root.

They hate me for that, but, but they understand where those words are coming from.

So another one word that we've done recently was when we was working on the Declaration of Independence was the preamble.

So I explained to them that previous before amble means to literally walk.

And so I explained to them that the preamble is walking into, into what the declaration is, it's an introduction.

And so then taking that, they'll say it's a pre walk.

But if I ask them, "Where's the preamble, does it come in the beginning, the middle, or the end?

And so, you have to always think about what is to get them back into thinking about thinking: metacognition.

I learned something in school too.

(laughs) Corrian> It's important to learn that, so when, so, so, like, when you get older, you can already know how to vote and stuff like that.

Lekena> These kids are going into the world in less than five years now.

They're excited to vote, and they can change the world.

And I think that, like, watching the news and things, that terrifies some people because they think that this generation is one of those - and they are - instant gratification.

But I have seen, and I continue to see in them, it ain't always instant gratification.

They want to bring the world together.

We have to guide them as to how.

And so I always think of myself as a changemaker.

It is my privilege to be able to usher in a new group of citizens, but they have to do it the right way.

And that's, that's what I'm here for, just to guide them into it.

Laura> Here's the answer to our question from the citizenship test.

How did you do?

Did you know the answer?

♪ Thank you so much for joining us.

You can find more education stories on our Web site.

CarolinaClassrooms.org.

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We'll be back on TV in March.

♪