'Project Citizen' Teaches Youth the Power of Democracy
Youth engaged in politics explore lawmaking at the annual meeting of The National Conference of State Legislators.
Evergreen Story: Revised from first publication in The Colorado Statesman (August 2002)
"Project Citizen is teaching young people to monitor and participate in the legislative process as a way of socializing a lifelong commitment to active citizenship," said Michael Fischer from the Center for Civic Education in Calabassas, Calif.
In a partnership between CCE and the National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL), Project Citizen as a nationwide program giving middle school students hands-on experience formulating and advocating new laws on the local, state and federal levels.
"We invite students to take on real-world problems," Fischer said, "so there's lots of cooperative learning in teams that gives them a chance to practice higher-order thinking along with developing their social interaction skills."
"The goal is for students to know they can make a real difference in the world," said Barbara Miller, Colorado state coordinator for Project Citizen. "We want them to see the importance of participating as a citizen in our representative democracy."
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Global Sense News to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.