Judge Midge Rendell, Senior US Circuit Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd District, discussed the center founded by her and her then husband, Governor Ed Rendell, to promote non-partisan civic education and engagement and to teach the Constitution and Civics to K-12 students, with age-appropriate programming.
She reminds us that while PA students must now take a test on their civics knowledge before graduation, there’s no reporting or action taken based on the results and schools are not required to teach it. The Federal Government provides $50 per student for STEM education and just .05 cents on civics.
Read Aloud programs bring local attorneys into classrooms to read books about democracy, introducing kids to career opportunities and discussion about citizenship. Literature-based mock trials take a well-known children’s story or historic event and litigate the issues found in them, for example, was Goldilocks committing a crime by entering the bears’ home? Fifteen judges oversee the trials with students taking on the roles of jury, witnesses, prosecution and defense.
For educators the Rendell Center offers professional development programs through webinars and symposiums as well as a summer class on Teaching the Supreme Court for advanced placement students. Materials for all educators, as well as home-schoolers can be found on their website.
Finally , we discussed the upcoming Citizenship Challenge, an annual essay competition where teams of students tackle a constitutional issue, with prize money for winning schools and the opportunity to present a skit about their work at the National Constitution Center. This year’s topic is Should the Constitution be amended to eliminate the Electoral College system and replace it with the popular vote? And the deadline is November 1. Details and entry instructions are also at rendellcenter.org.