When did you learn civics?

[serryjw]

I never had a civics class in K-12 school. In the last 25 years I have been active in politics and watched many news shows before the internet...and you?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. It was required

that we take a test on both the US and Illinois constitutions before we could graduate from high school. I went to a university lab school, and it was neat, because the social studies class where we learned this talked about current affairs-we had the lowdown on the beginnings of Viet Nam thanks to testing out textbooks that were intended for use later in public schools. Not bad for 1968.

[nashville_brook]

2. "civics" was an integral part of all my education

[droidamus2]

3. Summer of 1971

We had to take civics, which I took in the summer of 1971, and PAD (problems of American Democracy) as required courses in California. PAD was more of a critical look at how our government and system work. Actually made you do some critical thinking which doesn't seem to be very appreciated these days, at least on the right.

[serryjw]

7. ?? I graduated from LA

high school in '68 and never took one. I was never taught anything about the constitution, democracy or other forms of governement..not even about our presidents.

[droidamus2]

21. Maybe it was just my school

I thought the civics/pad set of classes was a state requirement maybe it was only my school or district that required it. Now that I think about it I am not even sure all students had to take it. I was on the college prep track maybe it was just something they thought those that would go on to college should have.

[Staph]

4. In tenth grade, I believe, . . .

my social studies class was Problems in Democracy, or maybe Problems of Democracy. It was a very long time ago. I enjoyed the class because we discussed and did practical things. We reviewed the voting process, with copies of the real general election ballots. We talked about federal taxes and the IRS, and then we filled out 1040 and 1040A tax forms, using data that the teacher provided.

Golly, I haven't thought of that class in decades. I guess that it really fueled my interest in politics and government.

Thanks for the kick in the brain!



Edited to add: My civics class was in 1968-1969. It sounds like that was an influential and formative year for many of us!

[serryjw]

18. OMG I'm jealous

never had any of this...all I remember was studing WWII. I think we stopped there.No geography( I am still awful!) and no gov't/civics

[Redstone]

5. High school, 1966-1970.

Redstone

[Odin2005]

6. 9th Grade, 2000-2001

All rose colored BS. The economics stuff was all corporatist-capitalist propaganda.

[hopein08]

20. 9th grade also...but 1996-1997

It was a combo class...Civics & Economics...strangely I found the economics more interesting through by my Mirco/Macro-Economic college courses in 2001-2002...I hated it with a passion.

Can't honestly remember much about Civics. Except that we had to write a book about the Bill of Rights. That was fun and I've remembered them ever since.

[VelmaD]

8. required for HS graduation in Texas

We learned all the basics.

But I really learned all I know about civics from Schoolhouse Rock. :)

[H2O Man]

9. At home.

I was home schooled in civics.

[RebelOne]

10. When I was in junior high, civics was an optional course

so I never took it because it seemed too totally boring. But look, this was so long ago that most kids were not interested in politics or government issues.

[EST]

11. 1961

[DawgHouse]

12. 9th grade. My favorite class ever.

I took more classes later but this was my introduction to civics.

[longship]

13. 1965 - Cooley High School, Detroit Michigan - Mr. Clubak

He had a sublateral lisp like Churchill. We made fun of him behind his back, but he was a good teacher. We *learned* civics.

11th grade.

[Raine]

14. Elementary grade school

but I went to private school so maybe they got on it sooner. :shrug:

[A Brand New World]

15. 1972 - my senior year of high school. It was required to

graduate in Ohio.

[Gormy Cuss]

16. If you mean learning the rights and responsibilities of citizens,

the government structure and the Constitution, it was integrated in Social Studies starting in 5th or 6th grade with more complex topics introduced in higher grades. If you mean a global view of civics, never.

[UTUSN]

17. When I found DU n/t

[frogbison]

19. 1969

We read Newsweek magazine and I have norecollection of their bent at that time. I'm sure I could have gotten a lot more out of it had Mr. Rothmeyer been willing to engage us.

Next stop was vietnam...

C'mon, all you big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
We got ourselves in a terrible jam
way over yonder in vietnam.

[NMMNG]

22. 8th grade n/t

[droidamus2]

23. Interesting approach

When I learned civics in the summer of 1971 they had an interesting approach. There were 2 civics classes that were at the same time of day so they made one class the House of Representatives and the other the Senate. While you were learning how government work you were divided into commitees and had to write up your own legislation. Then you had to get it passed in your house (representatives for me). If your bill passed your house (ours did) you then had to present it to the other class/house to see if you could get it passed there. My commitees bill was on the environment and we figured if you threw in something for everybody it had a better chance to pass so we had everything from 'save the whales' to clean water and air. I still remember it because ours was the only bill to pass both houses.

[evirus]

24. mostly just middle school

other then that im majoring in political science in college but thats not required like the middle school class was

[mtnester]

25. Required in my high school

and was referred to as Principles of Democracy or more affectionately as POD - and required your senior year.....FULL year

And we had a teacher who made it fun...we dreaded her because she was new and had new ideas about study habits (new then, integrated now). She ruled the classroom, but allowed enough personal exploration and discovery, as long as you followed her study methods and were logical about arriving at your conclusion.

It was 1978, and she also introduced us to the SQ3 study method. We poked fun at her and bitched about how tough she was, but no one skipped her class, and we regularly TP'd her house. You do NOT waste good TP on the house of someone you dislike.

She was only a few years older than we all were at the time, maybe around 25 and we all were around 18. She is ALWAYS invited to our class reunions, and she comes every time.

We still love her! She is head of the Social Studies Department at the same school, tenured out the butt, has her PhD, and we have heard she is retiring after the next school year.

We learned more in her class I think than any other class presented that year...other than World History in 10th grade, where another fantastic teacher made learning exciting. Sadly, he died suddenly just 4 years ago...and had apparently ingrained himself to every generation as a beloved teacher...my son had him and loved him as well.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

26. 7th and 8th grade in a Catholic grammar school on the SW side

of Chicago. But since I came from a Democratic political family, I had been hearing stories about Dem politics and politicians forever.

I was also fortunate enough to have a had great US history teacher in junior and senior year of high school. In our HS, junior year covered American history up until the end of the Civil War and senior year concentrated on post Civil War history to the then present, 1970.

Mr. Fanning was young, probably about 24 or 25 and one of the very best teachers I ever had at any level of schooling.