Current Issues

Includes additional action opportunities and also lists useful websites. A relatively new one is the Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization founded last year by Al Gore: www.climateprotect.org

A student reading explores why gas prices are rising. A Document-Based Question has students consider competing views on what to do about it.

After a brief reading and a sampling of news reports, students consider the role of bias and opinion in the news.

An overview of income tax laws and the accompanying chart provide the basis for student inquiry into who benefited most from the Bush tax cuts. The questions and assignment that follow test students' ability to read a statistical chart and draw conclusions from it.

As controversy grows over military recruitment in high schools, we offer a set of rigorous, inquiry-oriented and student-friendly readings and activities that explore many aspects of the military, the draft, and the war:

An opening exercise and two readings offer students an opportunity to learn about the Patriot Act and to grapple with some of its controversial provisions.

Now is a teachable moment for study and discussion of the First Amendment and the religiously tinged politics of our time. Here, a quiz, a short history of the First Amendment, four case studies and suggested classroom activities.

What right, if any, "to keep and bear" arms does the Constitution guarantee individuals? What right, if any, does Congress have to regulate them?

Readings and activities on WorldCom, the profitable world of stock options, and other financial shenanigans and what Congress & the President are doing about it.

What should the U.S. do in Iraq? A student reading offers an overview of the five most discussed strategies, issues associated with each, and suggestions for class activities and student inquiry.