Teaching the News Archives - Close Up Foundation

The COVID-19 Omicron Variant

December 09, 2021

On November 26, 2021, the World Health Organization announced the discovery of a new COVID-19 variant in South Africa. The same day, President Joe Biden closed the borders to travelers from South Africa and seven nearby nations (Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi) in the hope of slowing the spread of the variant […]

Deliberating About Pressing Issues

September 22, 2021

Classroom discussion of current issues is one of the most powerful tools available to help young people develop the skills and knowledge required for democratic citizenship.1 There are many forms that such discussion can take, including short reactions to news articles, debates, and semester-long legislative simulations. While all of these forms have their place, one […]

Teaching the 26th Amendment

September 16, 2021

One of the most important things that schools can do to promote civic and political engagement is to explicitly teach about elections and voting.1 While this can include teaching about current elections and ballot initiatives or processes such as voter registration, it should also include lessons on the struggle for voting rights by different groups […]

Conflict in Israel and the U.S. Response

May 24, 2021

A ceasefire has brought an end to weeks of increasing violence between Israel and the Palestinian communities in the territory it controls, particularly the Palestinian Islamic-nationalist group Hamas. This latest outbreak of conflict ended a period of relative calm that had persisted for the better part of a decade. Adding to the complexity of the […]

Fallout and Consequences, Part Two: Free Speech and Censorship

January 15, 2021

The fallout continues to mount from the January 6 attack on the Capitol. In previous blog posts, we offered a collection of resources and articles and explored the question of accountability for elected officials. In this post, we examine a thorny issue that is also emerging as institutions respond to riots: the power of private […]

Fallout and Consequences, Part One: Who is Accountable?

January 13, 2021

The events at the Capitol on January 6 are forcing voters and elected officials to face some challenging questions. In a previous blog post, we provided some resources to help you begin to address some of these questions; in an upcoming post, we will examine other questions related to free speech. In this post, we […]

Insurrection at the Capitol

January 08, 2021

On January 6, 2021, Congress convened to certify the Electoral College results of the 2020 presidential election and to affirm the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. Although there has been no evidence of voter fraud, a group of Republican legislators planned to object to the certification process, saying they wanted Congress first to create an […]

A Bumpy Transition: Where Do We Go From Here?

November 17, 2020

On Saturday, November 7, most major media outlets declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election.1 While the Biden team has already begun its informal transition, it has not yet been granted access to intelligence briefings, office space, or other elements of a formal transition.2 This formal transition cannot happen until the General […]

Political Violence and the 2020 Election

October 13, 2020

Journaling Task: Reflecting On Political Violence On October 8, the FBI announced that it had thwarted a plot led by a right-wing militia to kidnap and potentially assassinate Governor Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich.1 Whitmer, in an op-ed published in the Washington Post, laid some of the blame at the feet of President Donald Trump, writing: I’m […]

Protests, Riots, Justice, and the Rule of Law

June 04, 2020

On Monday, May 25, a Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for over eight minutes.1 The next day, video of the killing went viral; by the end of the day, large groups had begun protesting in Minneapolis. In the week since, protests have spread to many major […]