Education > We The People and Project Citizen
The Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge was recently named the State Coordinator for the We The People and Project Citizen program through the Center for Civic Education. As the State Coordinator, the Freedoms Foundation will act as a liaison for the State of Pennsylvania; as well as coordinate between the numerous regional districts. We at the Foundation are looking forward to what this new found partnership with the Center for Civic Education will do for civics education all over Pennsylvania.
The primary goal of We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution is to promote civic competence and responsibility among the nation’s elementary and secondary students. What makes the program so successful is the design of its instructional program, including its innovative culminating activity.
The instructional program enhances students’ understanding of the institutions of American constitutional democracy. At the same time, students discover the contemporary relevance of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The culminating activity is a simulated congressional hearing in which students "testify" before a panel of judges. Students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles and have opportunities to evaluate, take, and defend positions on relevant historical and contemporary issues.
Since the inception of the We the People program in 1987, more than 28 million students and 90 thousand educators have participated in this innovative course of study. The program enjoys the active participation of members of Congress, as well as support from professional, business, and community organizations across the nation.
We the People: Project Citizen is a curricular program for middle grade students that promotes competent and responsible participation in local and state government. The program helps young people learn how to monitor and influence public policy. In the process, they develop support for democratic values and principles, tolerance, and feelings of political efficacy
Entire classes of students or members of youth organizations work cooperatively to identify a public policy problem in their community. They then research the problem, evaluate alternative solutions, develop their own solution in the form of a public policy, and create a political action plan to enlist local or state authorities to adopt their proposed policy. Participants develop a portfolio of their work and present their project in a hearing showcase before a panel of civic-minded community members.
The Project Citizen program is administered with the assistance of a national network of state and congressional district coordinators in every state and is conducted with the assistance of the National Conference of State Legislatures. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Education by act of Congress. Additional funding at the state level is also provided by an increasing number of state legislatures.
