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Current Issues Blog & More

 

The Close Up Current Issues Blog, updated weekly throughout the school year, helps teachers connect current events to their students and classrooms. We know that teaching the news can be time-consuming; by the time you find important issues and identify how to teach them, they are old news. That’s where our blog comes in: unpacking issues in the headlines by providing relevant context, links to classroom-ready news items, and suggested prompts for thoughtful discussion.

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Building Bridges – Controversial Elections in American History

Podcast | November 13, 2020

This episode of Building Bridges looks at the three of the most controversial elections in American history.


Building Bridges – John Lewis

Podcast | November 2, 2020

This episode of Building Bridges looks at the three-decade partnership of the Close Up Foundation and the Civil Rights icon, Representative John Lewis of Georgia.


LGBTQ Equality: Past, Present & the Election

Videos | October 28, 2020

 During this Close Up Conversations webinar, available on-demand, Close Up’s, Mia Charity, discusses ‘LGBTQ Equality’ with Bob Witeck, President of Witeck Communications, Inc. Communications and strategy expert Bob Witeck will discuss LGBTQ rights, focusing on his decade in the Senate, and on the role of corporations in advocating change and acceptance based on his 27 years working with […]


Election 2020: The Electoral College – Wise or Outdated?

Post | October 15, 2020

What is the Electoral College?  In 2016, more than 138 million people voted in the general election, but only 538 of them directly voted for president and vice president.1 The reason that both of these statements can be true is the existence of the Electoral College. The Constitution says that rather than voting directly for […]


The Art of Political Storytelling: How Leaders Win Hearts

Videos | October 15, 2020

During this Close Up Conversations webinar, available on-demand, Close Up’s, Eric Adydan, discusses ‘The Art of Political Storytelling’ with Kenny Cunningham, COO of Article III Project.


Political Violence and the 2020 Election

Post | 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 […]


Building Bridges – The History of the Presidential Debates

Podcast | October 8, 2020

This episode of Building Bridges looks at the history of televised Presidential Debates going back to the Nixon-Kennedy debates of 1960.  We will drill down on the role of the moderator, the 16-year gap in the debates, and we will also look at some of the most fascinating moments in the last 60 years of televised presidential debates.


Building Bridges – The National Political Party Convention

Podcast | October 5, 2020

This episode of Building Bridges looks at the history of the national political parties’ conventions going back to the first Democratic Convention in Baltimore in 1832 and the first Republican Convention in Philadelphia in 1856. This podcast highlights some of the most famous and infamous moments over that long and often politically turbulent history.


Voting Rights: From the Civil War to the Present

Videos | October 1, 2020

During this seminar, available on-demand, Close Up’s, Joe Geraghty, discusses ‘Voting Rights: From the Civil War to the Present’ with Dr. Frank Smith and Dawn Chitty from the African American Civic War Museum.  


Trump and Biden

Election 2020: Guides for Watching and Discussing the Debates

Post | September 23, 2020

There are three presidential debates scheduled for September 29, October 15, and October 22, as well as a vice presidential debate taking place on October 7. For many voters, the debates are the best chance to see the differences between the candidates as they decide how to cast their vote in November. Campaigns put a […]


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