Preface
Why This Pocket Guide Was Created
In 2018 Massachusetts passed a law “to Pro- mote and Enhance Civic Engagement” requir- ing every student to complete a civics project during high school designed to help you: • Analyze complex issues; • Consider different points of view; • Make logical arguments and support claims using valid evidence; • Engage in civil discourse with those who hold opposing views, and • Demonstrate an understanding of the relationships that federal, state, and local policies have here in Chelsea. What the legislation doesn’t men- tion is this: Your civics action project can also be enjoyable and highly satisfying when you see the impact your efforts can have with- in Chelsea as you attempt to focus public and media attention towards your public-minded priorities. Your Students Pocket Guide to Civic Engagement in Chelsea & Massachusetts can be an essential resource as you work on your civics action project, whether you pursue it independently, with friends, or the entire class as your teacher and you determine. Social media, such as Facebook, has am- plified political divisions within our country
as it pumps out provocative, often inaccurate, information designed to generate clicks and ‘likes’ rather than promote informed discus- sion. Extensive research and polling indicate young Americans are losing faith in democ- racy itself and tuning out of elections on the local, state, and national levels. Chelsea’s high school students can become national leaders in reversing this trend. When young adults recognize they can influence the political process through personal action, they become involved and in so doing achieve dramatic impact. (See Chelsea Civics Online (CCO) for examples of the impact student activism has had here and elsewhere.) This Pocket Guide gives you fingertip access to the city and state officials whom you may need to contact as you research your civics action project. We’ve included emails, phone numbers, office addresses and even biographies where available. In addition to the Declaration of Indepen- dence and Constitution of the United States in several relevant languages, some accessible by QR Code, you’ll find chapters on media literacy, how to separate “spin” from facts, how to write Letters to the Editor, how to file
The philosophy of the schoolhouse in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next. Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War and succeeded in preserving the Union, and abolished slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 (although it was not enforced in the South until the 13th Amendment in 1865).
Preface | 3
Students Pocket Guide for Civic Engagement
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