Civics with Dean – Class 1

Civics with Dean: This class focuses on liberty (yours), the power of the individual, and concepts of self-government. There will be an emphasis on what you need to know to be an active citizen and awareness of your rights. We will discuss certain amendments and how they IMPACT you (street law), financial literacy (can I afford that?), basics of government - information to know when you can say enough, as well as the rights and privileges you are owed! izzit* time we see how government works for us, our responsibilities, and how to get an equitable outcome for you?

More often than not, students seem to dread history and/or civics for many reasons. One reason is the voluminous amounts of reading the student must complete to “keep up” with what inevitably becomes the second reason: rote memorization of facts. Names, dates, key figures, etc. What needs to be infused in the classroom dynamic is the educator’s passion, emotions, expertise (tying the past to their understanding). In the movie Jerry Maquire, Cuba Groding, in his role as Ron Tidwell, screamed, “Show me the money!” Translated to students today, show me the relevance! With the right resources, you, the educator, will show them the money/relevance.

Civics Class 1 – Back in the Trenches (Classroom)

Syllabus – check. Notebooks, izzit pens and flash drives ready for students – check. I was ready for my first Civics class. As the 2020-2021 school year began, I started with the Pledge of Allegiance.     

While it's a traditional start to a school day, I had a hidden agenda! By the time we all got to "…and to the Republic, for which it stands…" I stopped the class.

"What is a Republic? Why is it in the Pledge?" The questioned was posed and students offered various responses. After allowing them a few awkward attempts toward to answer, I immediately started izzit.org's Teachable Moments (a short video that both gets to the point and shakes things up,) A Republic. As I looked across the classroom, students were attentive and engaged. The Teachable Moment allowed me to then reframe the question, "Why did the founders believe a republic would be better than a democracy?" Student answers became more along the lines of what our Framers intended. 

The idea of liberty was introduced, and we began to discuss individual & property rights and what liberty meant to each of them. LIBERTY was written on the whiteboard and students added their thoughts (see picture). Since a republic form of government and liberty are synonymous, I turned the class discussion to what gave our Founders the impetus, the ideals of both individual liberty & property rights, and how government serves the people. To help stimulate the conversation, I queued up another Teachable Moments, Magna Carta. This “great charter” happened over 800 years ago, but ties to the U.S. founding documents, underscoring that each document safeguards a person’s right to property. It began to help students piece the puzzle together. Great discussion and ideas were shared. 

Finally, I wrapped my class with the homework assignment - completing the First Amendment Word Games (Found in First Amendment educational video under izzit Extras). This will help students build a foundation for understanding prior to next week’s Bill of Rights, First Amendment discussion.

Bio:

Dean Graziano is the Vice-President of izzit.org. He is a multi-state, award-winning educator and former Curriculum Specialist Teacher grades 6-12 Social Studies, with over 25 years in education. He served on the Massachusetts MCAS Standard Setting Panel, and also selected by the College Board to be an Advanced Placement Reader for U.S. History. He worked on the historical inquiry model and a national presenter for ABC-Clio, a Social Studies data base company. 

In 2007, in a surprise visit to his school, he was awarded the United States Department of Educations' American Star of Teaching Award. Dean was selected as the 2017 State of New Hampshire's Extended Learning Opportunity Coordinator- of -the Year. Dean’s pilot program in Rochester, NH was singled out by NH Governor, Chris Sununu as the model for the State of N.H. Career Academies. In 2019, he developed and implemented a proposal to purchase a Mobile Classroom ( a new & remodeled 36’ RV, aka M.A.P.s) utilizing Perkins V funding, to bring CTE/WBL programming - leveling the playing field/equity for ALL NH students and spoke nationally at several ACTE Conferences on this model.

econlife - The Mystery of the Artless Heist by Elaine Schwartz

Our story starts in the Netherlands with a museum director who wanted a painting by John Constable. In London, an art dealer had precisely what he was looking for. The two got together and agreed that the painting would be sent to the museum.

There was one glitch.

Paying For the Painting

The museum could not pay for the painting. However, by showing the painting to several donors, the director secured the purchase price. He just had to wire the money to the seller.

But then the unexpected happened.

The museum received an email that changed where the money was to be sent. Instead of its original destination, the $3.1 million was wired to Hong Kong. And then it disappeared.

The museum says the Constable painting belongs to it because they sent the money. The seller says it is the legal owner of the Constable since it never got paid. Each side says the other was hacked.

A court recently declared the museum could not sue the art gallery for negligence. But they need to decide much more. Someone has to own the Constable painting.

The court will decide.

 Our Bottom Line: Private Property Rights

In a market economy, clearly articulated private property rights are crucial. Only then can goods and services be bought and sold with minimal transactions costs. Only then will owners be willing and able to improve and innovate. And, only then, would a buyer be willing to transfer the purchase price.

At first, the art gallery and the Dutch museum could negotiate the sale of the Constable because everyone knew who owned it. Now, until the courts clarify ownership, that painting is going nowhere.

It will remain at the Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede, Netherlands:

My sources and more: Thanks to Bloomberg Radio for alerting me to the Bloomberg Businessweek “Heist” Issue. From there, artnet came in handy. (The Constable painting is today’s featured image. Called “A View of Hampstead Heath,” it dated back to 1824.)

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.

econlife - Why Now Is the Perfect Moment for a Mars Mission by Elaine Schwartz

Now is the perfect time to go to Mars. Otherwise we have to wait another 26 months.

Every two years or so, when the Earth and Mars are on the same side of the sun, it’s the ideal time to schedule a visit. Just 35 million miles apart, the (relatively) short distance creates a window that the U.S., the U.A.E., and China will use to learn more about Mars.

Mars Missions

Launching between July 30 and August 15, NASA’s Perseverance projects a February 18, 2021 Mars landing. During a mission that will last approximately one Mars year (687 Earth days), they hope to find evidence of ancient life and to try out a Mars helicopter. The rover also will collect rock and soil specimens that a future flight will pick up and take back to Earth.

This 2 3/4 minute video describes their rather complicated plans for the pick up:

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates expects a take off tomorrow for its Mars mission. But, rather than land on Mars, their Hope probe will orbit the planet. The goal is to collect data about Martian weather that will let them compare daily and seasonal changes. While it’s a U.A.E project, they collaborated with U.S. scientists at the University of Colorado and will take off from Japan.

China has said that they will launch their Mars mission during the next several weeks. Called Tianwen-1, the name of their Mars explorer means “heavenly questions” and comes from a 2,000 year old poem. Its goal is to orbit, land, and collect data from the planet. (NPR said the specifics are sparse.)

On July 17, the rocket carrying Tianwen-1 was photographed on its way to the launch pad:

Our Bottom Line: Outer Space Property Rights

As economists, we can ask who will own the specimens that NASA and perhaps China collect from Mars.

Looking back, we could find a parallel in 17th century New England where the legal right to private property unfolded gradually. Many of the settlers had come from English manors when the land and tools were communally owned. In towns like Sudbury (currently Massachusetts) they continued sharing their land and tools. Soon though, with people moving westward and claiming their own land, private ownership evolved. By the end of the 18th century, we have Alexander Hamilton defending the sanctity of contracts. He knew that the success of capitalism depended on respecting individual property rights.

For outer space, we have a UN agreement from 1967 that precludes nations from declaring sovereignty over planetary possessions and from engaging in military activity. Long after, in the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (2015) the U.S. Congress said “exploration” and “exploitation” were okay.

You can see that it all is rather vague. Outer space property rights have not been clearly established nor do we know who can make them.

So, when a future Mars mission brings back the rocks that Perseverance left for it, we won’t have definitively established who owns them.

My sources and more: The NASA, the NY Times and NPR are good places for facts about this summer’s Mars missions.  The perfect complement, Politico’s “Who Owns the Moon” discusses outer space property rights.

Our featured image of Perseverance is from NASA.

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.

izzit: Educational Treasure Found by Ed Tooley

FREE! That word caught my attention as I perused my list of e-mails. Teachers receive numerous educational advertisements over the internet daily. Most products are unattainable because of the cost. At the school where I teach, there happened to be a “freeze” on all purchases because of budget issues. But this advertisement said, “Free.” We could afford free.

I was suspicious and skeptical. But the name izzit also had a curious ring to it. I had to know what it was all about.

I am so thankful that I made the effort some years ago to investigate this free offer. I have been able to show a number of izzit.org videos over the years. The response is always positive. The videos are short in length, but deep in substance. The content  makes students and teachers think, discuss, analyze and pursue educational issues that are meaningful and weighty.

In graduate school, educators are taught, or should I say ingrained with, an effective thinking strategy called Bloom’s Taxonomy. The purpose of this strategy is to help teachers lead students into higher-level thinking activities. The taxonomy has six levels. The lowest level begins with basic knowledge, and then each level proceeds to higher-level thinking skills, such as analysis and evaluation. The izzit.org products track with this method very well. 

The videos make students think about serious and important subject matter, like property rights, markets and entrepreneurship. As an educator, I search high and low for materials and activities that are both interesting and substantive. The products izzit.org creates hit the mark on both counts. They're student-friendly, which captures their attention. The subject matter encompasses a topic that make students analyze and defend their positions, rather than just recalling information by rote. The videos come with supplemental materials that will put a smile on any teacher’s face. (We save so much valuable time.)

         

I have used the izzit.org products mainly with my seventh grade social studies classes. It amazes me to observe, first-hand, the quality of ideas and solutions that come from these young people, as they confronted such important issues.

            

Allow me to share a quick story: Not long after I received my first izzit.org DVD, I shared my enthusiasm of the quality of the product with the economics teacher. She showed her senior economics class the DVD I recommended, and a magical moment occurred. After viewing the DVD, a senior economics student went out of her way to inform me just how much she enjoyed the video. She went on and on about how much her class enjoyed both the content, and the quality of the program.

            

One more story:  At a teachers’ conference, I was a seminar

speaker. I had the opportunity to share the izzit.org products with those in attendance. After a few minutes of sharing, a fellow teacher commented about the cost of the products. "What is it?” she asked.

I replied, “How did you know the name of the company?” I also explained the mind-blowing concept of FREE resources for educators.


Are you looking for great resources to use with your students? Well…look no further…this izzit!

POGO (Pick one, get one) Eminent Domain and Who Owns What

Happy 2016!!!

Even though our elves might be a little tired after wrapping up the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway Spectacular, and shipping out ALL those DVDs and Roku streaming sticks, we thought why not start the year off a POGO?! (Pick One Get One!)

From January 3rd - January 30th, you can pick Eminent Domain or Who Owns What? and receive the other as an automatic bonus!

Teach your students about the laws of Eminent Domain. 

Teach your students about conflicts over property rights and government regulations.

Who Owns What? is one of our titles that isn't available for streaming on our website, so you're going to want to grab the DVD version!

Click here to learn more about this POGO.

Another New Release - Check out Recalculating!

In September, for back-to-school, we decided that releasing one new video wasn't enough. We thought that educators might like a choice of options for the new school year. So we released two new videos!

Recalculating is set in India, and it can help your students understand that technology sometimes has uses far beyond what we normally think of for them.

In the national forests of Gujarat, India, the tribal people have been seen as encroachers, thieves who dare to produce food for their families on land claimed by the government. Rama Bhai and his family have worked land in the Sagai village for generations. The technology we use to find our way to unfamiliar places came to their rescue. Learn how GPS operates, and how it, along with Google Maps, saved the day for some of the poorest of the poor in India.

Click here to choose as a FAV  (or to watch via streaming!)

Click here to purchase