[ti:Teaching American Students About US Founding Documents]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]Should American high school students know at least as much
[00:06.08]about their country's historic documents as immigrants seeking citizenship?
[00:15.12]Many states and schools are asking that question.
[00:21.60]People who want to become American citizens
[00:25.68]must know about the Declaration of Independence,
[00:30.88]the Constitution and the Federalist papers.
[00:36.06]These documents were written in the late 1700s
[00:41.48]by some of the founders of the country.
[00:45.81]But, some experts say American students generally know little
[00:52.72]about these founding documents.
[00:55.84]They say if students do not understand the documents,
[01:02.12]they cannot know how the American system of government operates.
[01:08.92]So, an increasing number of American schools are requiring
[01:16.64]students learn about these documents before they can graduate.
[01:23.24]Individual states are using different methods for teaching the subject.
[01:30.96]Since 2012, Kentucky, Arkansas and at least 12 other states
[01:39.56]put into effect such requirements.
[01:43.91]Students in those states learn about the founding documents
[01:49.44]as part of their social studies classes.
[01:52.99]But lawmakers in other states -- including Minnesota
[01:58.76]-- want to give students a greater understanding of the documents.
[02:04.56]They want schools to teach a separate course about them.
[02:10.56]Maida Buckley is a retired history and government teacher in Fairbanks, Alaska.
[02:18.20]Last year, she spoke at a meeting of state legislators
[02:24.04]studying the issue of civics education.
[02:28.88]She supports expanded study of the founding documents.
[02:34.01]Buckley says, "when you have a system of government that is based on ideas
[02:42.16]-- espoused in the Declaration of Independence
[02:46.12]and carried out with a working document in the Constitution
[02:51.20]-- those ideas need to be taught."
[02:56.16]In many states, Republicans and Democrats support the teaching of the documents,
[03:03.16]although their reasons may differ.
[03:06.78]Some are concerned about the lack of public involvement in school boards and town halls.
[03:15.19]Others are worried about the way Republican President
[03:20.28]Donald Trump and his supporters use their power.
[03:26.04]Gregg Amore is a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives.
[03:31.28]He also has taught history classes in high schools for many years.
[03:38.84]He supports a bill that says the "survival of the republic"
[03:44.16]depends on Americans understanding their country's principles and history.
[03:51.95]He says "we clearly have seen there is a serious civics deficiency
[03:59.44]in this country, all the way up to the top -- the very top."
[04:05.52]The Joe Foss Institute is a non-profit civics education group based in Arizona.
[04:15.12]It is campaigning to persuade states to pass laws requiring their students
[04:22.32]to know the answers to the questions on the citizenship test.
[04:28.04]But some supporters of civics education do not support such laws.
[04:35.20]Charles Quigley is the executive director of the Center for Civic Education.
[04:42.82]He says students take too many tests already.
[04:48.62]Quigley's group developed "We the People,"
[04:53.12]a nationwide civics education program.
[04:58.48]Some teachers at North Smithfield High School in Rhode Island
[05:03.64]are using the "We the People" curriculum to teach about the founding documents.
[05:10.51]The curriculum calls for students to take part in a national competition
[05:17.64]in which they must defend their ideas.
[05:23.24]Recently, students debated whether police may search
[05:28.16]a suspect's smart phone without receiving permission from a judge.
[05:34.60]They talked about the Constitution's limits on searches.
[05:40.07]And they discussed the past opinions of Supreme Court justices about searches.
[05:48.16]Natalie O'Brien is the teacher.
[05:52.84]She tells her students to think about the more than 200 years
[05:58.88]of American history and legal thought.
[06:03.92]Megan Skinner is a 15-year-old student at the school.
[06:10.08]She says she did not think about politics before she took O'Brien's class.
[06:17.37]But she says now she uses the founding documents
[06:23.52]when her family and friends talk about President Trump's administration.
[06:29.56]"It gives us an entirely new perspective on all the events that are going on,"
[06:37.40]Skinner says. "You see all these things in the news,
[06:42.56]and especially about the election, and all the things
[06:47.08]that are going on with the executive orders he (signed), the travel bans.
[06:52.52]Before this class, we wouldn't have understood these things."
[06:57.65]I'm Caty Weaver.更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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