YANKEE POST ANTHONY ROY, President March, 2021 TIM WEINLAND DAN COUGHLIN, Co-Editors

CONNECTICUT COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES YANKEE POST ANTHONY ROY, President March, 2021 TIM WEINLAND DAN COUGHLIN, Co-editors

President’s Message Editors’ Note Last summer, the Connecticut January 6 - what a start to 2021 ! This issue has several Council for the Social Studies articles devoted to the issues raised by politicians committed to look inward to and educators responding to the events of that day. evaluate our organization through Significant in that discussion is a letter sent tothe an antiracist lens. The board of Connecticut legislature by President Tony Roy ( see directors said they would look Page 4) Adding to the discussion, on page 5 we raise at our programs, processes, and concerns we have voiced before: in what ways and to board composition to ensure that what degree are Social Studies classrooms to be held we are upholding a high standard responsible for promoting thoughtful, responsible of equity. This commitment is citizenship. At least one of us it old enough to remember long term and will be mostly when Social Studies was actually called Citizenship conducted behind the scenes, especially within the Education – at the time, it seemed that such a department early stages. Our course of action so far has been to seek title seemed one step shy of indoctrination. And a few help from an outside organization to guide us through of us can recall when the “Social” in Social Studies was strategic planning. Just last month, we signed a contract considered by the radical right as code for socialism . with the Nonprofit Center at LaSalle University and, by Whatever the history of department titles, it seems that the end of this academic year, the board will engage in we are called once again to help “cure” the nation’s ills. a best practices seminar, where we will examine how we currently conduct business and determine how we The pressure for a focus on civics raises the inevitable can ensure that the CCSS board of directors is run in question: to what degree should political issues and the most effective way possible. Following that, we political disagreement be significant components of will begin to explore options for revising policies and social studies courses and classroom discussion? There strategic planning. is no question that the most even-handed treatment of a contemporary issue will still invite objection from In the near term, we have a very promising slate of someone in the community or on the school board. candidates for the board of directors that will bring Indeed, is there an even-handed way to conduct a more diverse voices to the organization. We will include discussion of the “proud boys”? All that said, a civics more geographic, professional, and cultural diversity, course reduced to “pablum”, where controversy is as this is what is needed to best represent Connecticut’s avoided, would have appear to have limited value in teachers as we strive for a world in which all students are educated and inspired for lifelong inquiry and informed preparing students to enter the “real world”. Much of civic action. Reaching this vision continues to be our this is addressed beginning on page 6. primary objective as we advocate and build capacity for high-quality social studies by providing leadership, Along with the pressure for civics we have several services, and support to educators. As board president, I other items for your interest including two proposals for cannot think of a better way of meeting this vision and addressing the Holocaust - one of them Canadian. (page mission than to include as many perspectives as possible. 12) For World History teachers we have unearthed a As we are rolling into spring, it is time to nominate brief description of British poverty in the century. educators and leaders for one of our prestigious awards. If you were looking forward to NERC this Spring we (continued on page 2) (continued on page 2) President’s Message - continued

Each year, the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies CCSS Officers and Board 2020-2021 recognizes excellence, leadership and passion in our Tony Roy, President Global Exp Magnet Sch field. Those nominations come from you. This year, as Nora Mocarski, Vice President Canton HS we all know, has been especially trying and social studies Rich Storrs, Admin Officer E. Hampton MS teachers and leaders have endured to promote the content Max Amoh, Treasurer Yale (ret.) and inquiry practices needed for the future success of our Louise Uchaczyk, Membership Foran HS (ret.) democracy. Let’s remember that social studies teachers Ed Dorgan, Legis. Liaison. Har-Bur MS are on the front lines of ensuring that our Constitutional Elyse Poller, Past President Mansfield MS democracy endures. So, let’s recognize individuals that Stephen Armstrong Rachel Riendeau are helping make this a reality. Please see the awards LeAnn Cassidy Erin Simcik section of our website as the nomination deadlines are Sandra Clark Mary Skelly fast approaching. Karen Cook Justin Taylor Dan Coughlin Alecia G. Thomas In addition to awards, 2021 is shaping up to be another Victoria Crompton Chris Todd remarkable year in terms of programming. In May, we Kelly Falvey John Tully hope to see you all at our Annual Meeting where we will Federico Fiondella Gini Vancil recognize award winners and virtually engage in trivia. Khary Fletcher Greg Frank Honorary Members This summer, there will be a variety of professional Anne Guandalini Daniel Gregg development opportunities that we will be announcing Laura Krenicki Keith Dauer soon. Finally, we are in the early planning processes for our Kate McGrath Sandy Senior-Dauer annual Fall ‘21 conference where social studies teachers Valerie McVey Tedd Levy and leaders from across the state and nation converge to Jennifer Murrihy Tim Weinland engage in professional learning opportunities. We will Melissa Potamianos provide more info as soon as it becomes available. In closing, Connecticut Council for the Social Studies Editors’ Note - continued continues to advocate for social studies teachers in our state. Although we’ve all faced unprecedented disruption note that it was re-configured to a “virtual” conference over the past year, it is clear that we are on the verge of this past Fall. NERC’s future would appear to be building back better. We look forward to a time when it somewhat in doubt. Originally developed by the Mass is safe to congregate and share ideas in person, but, until Council, with the organization subsequently shared with then, please know that the Connecticut Council for the CCSS, the NERC conference enjoyed wide support Social Studies is dedicated to serving our members and from teachers and presenters for many years. Many meeting the moment in terms of promoting the social of us old timers looked forward each year to renewing studies. personal and professional relationships with teachers from other states. We hope that some regional-wide conference will return in 2022.

Finally, we direct you to page 15 for a list of CCSS Support Your Awards. If you have nominations or wish to know more about an award, plese contact Kate McGrath Profession at [email protected]. See the CCSS website - Join CCSS and NCSS CTSocialStudies.org for nomination forms. We wish you all the best as schools work to bring See Membership Form students back to your classrooms.

on Page 17 Tim [email protected] Dan [email protected]

2 State Department Activities

Greetings! There are three opportunities that I want to tell you about. If you are interested in one or more, please let me, know

1. The State Department of Education, the Democracy Center at the Old State House, and the University of Connecticut are co-sponsoring the introduction of a discussion protocol for students called “Encounters”. This is an incredibly successful approach to having students (high school and middle school) read about a topic and then discuss in a very meaningful way. I have seen this being used and have been incredibly impressed. Let me know if you would like to learn more.

2. The Red, White and Blue Schools program is sponsored by the Connecticut State Department of Education, the Democracy Center at the Old State House and the Secretary of State’s Office and every year recognizes schools that do a superior job of teaching civic education. We are not having a formal program this year, but we have tons of materials on voting, on elections, and on other topics in civics education. If you would like us to share these materials with you, with some teachers in your building, or with students please let me know.

3. We will be sponsoring a webinar soon on “Students Taking Civic Action”. Part of this webinar will be students sharing their experiences of how they have shaped their communities. If you have students in your school that would be good participants in this webinar, please let me know.

Some bills, which you probably know about, to keep an eye out for this session: 1. A bill making Native American History a mandated part of social studies curriculum 2. A bill mandating the teaching of civics and civic literacy in the middle and elementary schools 3. A bill mandating a full year of high school civics 4. A bill creating a Task Force to review the teaching of civics in Connecticut

Please let me know if our office can assist you in any way.

Steve

3 An Open Letter to Connecticut’s Legislators for the 2020 Biennium Dear Legislators:

As the Education Committee weighs a variety of measures related to teaching and learning for our state, please consider the importance and role of social studies in a well-balanced, equitable, and excellence-centered curriculum.

The Connecticut Council for the Social Studies (CCSS) is a proponent for curricular inclusivity and understands the importance of students seeing themselves represented in the curriculum. We also support curriculum that promotes anti-bias, critical thinking, civic engagement, and high levels of achievement.

CCSS is also fully aware that the marginalization of social studies in favor of math and reading has had unintended consequences. First, students in younger grades are getting less access to tier 3 vocabulary, which is the cornerstone of social studies curriculum and critical to reading comprehension. Research shows that opportunities to access a wide range of content is directly correlated with higher reading skills.

As a professional organization, we are skeptical and wary about “mandated” curriculum as politics in the form of government mandates may have unintended long-term consequences. Think about the now defunct 1776 Commission. What if that had taken hold with a recommendation by the commission that all curriculum must instill a sense of patriotism in students? Could this have lead to a situation where classroom teachers would not have been allowed to teach students to question authority or debate the actions of controversial “patriots” in our history? As social studies teachers, we are watching the rise of autocracy around the world and are cautious about how education policy might be weaponized in our state. For these reasons, we support model curricula that may guide teachers toward best practices, not mandate scope and sequence.

For all these reasons, we support the state of Connecticut in providing resources so teachers can effectively train students with the skills and knowledge needed for a democratic society. To that end, we have worked hand-in-hand with the CT Democracy Center at the Old State House and with Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) to provide high-quality professional development for teachers across our state. Each year, for more than 20 years, we’ve hosted a state conference for social studies teachers, which is seen as a premier learning opportunity for social studies educators. We are seen as a model organization and leaders in the country by the National Council for the Social Studies. We were the driving force behind developing a position statement for social studies education by the state board of education and the adoption of CT’s social studies standards in 2015. Before then, there were no official standards for the discipline in our state. For the past several years, we’ve been a proponent of the state’s Red, White and Blue program and Connecticut History Day. Currently, we are in the process of aligning our organization to be anti-racist. This includes diversifying our board of directors and reviewing all of our programs. We are committed to the work of setting high standards for excellence for our organization and our state’s social studies teachers.

With all of this in mind, we need help from the legislature to meet our vision that every student must be educated and inspired for lifelong inquiry and informed civic action. First, students MUST have equal time allocated for social studies education at the elementary level. To this end, we are working with CSDE to help develop a model K5 curriculum, but some sort of legislative action to bolster these efforts would be helpful. We believe that such a model must go beyond reading classes looking at “social studies topics.” We anticipate that access to such a model will boost reading skills and instill democratic values such as critical thinking and inclusivity.

In conclusion, we feel that students and our state benefit from a robust social studies curriculum that promotes critical thinking, civic engagement, empathy, and anti-bias. We are wary of mandates as they may be manipulated depending on who holds power. We are looking forward to continuing our relationship with the state government, legislators, teachers, and students to promote excellence, civic engagement, and an equitable society.

Sincerely,

Anthony Roy, Board President - Connecticut Council for the Social Studies

4 continued on page 5 Civics For Our Times: Some Thoughts Tim Weinland

The events of January 6, 2021 – and the build-up to them – have raised new interest and political pressure for the teaching of Civics in Social Studies classrooms. Your editors have expressed concern over much of this pressure for several reasons. The articles that follow open up some of the issues that should be considered when mandating and developing a Civics course.

First and foremost is the question What do you leave out of a Social Studies program if you mandate a year- long Civics course? Already there are pressures to include addition material or courses covering Black, Latino/a, and Native Peoples. Geographic and Economic knowledge among high school graduates is often limited. Any secondary school history course, other than American, is optional in many school programs; one can imagine a significant percentage of high school graduates with no exposure toWorld History.

What is it that we really want a student to know about Civics? Is it a knowledge of the Constitution? The powers and functions of the branches of government or how a bill becomes a law?

Does anyone think that a Civics course will help develop a better citizen? Is a “better citizen” more patriotic, more aware of how to protect her/his rights, more tolerant and willing to consider alternative views?

Might we think of a course in civics as a course promoting active, informed citizenship? For example, could a civics course be a series of case studies of current issues and how those issues are being addressed, ignored, and compromised by local, state and/or national governments? Is it unreasonable to consider some historical background, economic implications and geographical context as an essantial parts of addressing a contemporary issue? We would argue for such an issues-based Civics course.

We raise these questions because we believe that a knowledge of Civics begins and ends with the ability to reason, debate, research and yes, argue strongly for a point of view supported with accurate and relevant information Any Civics course must encourage students to question “fact claims” and challenge the range of views on any issue discussed in the news of the day. And the knowledge and intellectual habits that grow out of such a course should contribute to an understanding of the limits of disagreement to avoid threats and ad hominum attack In short, we urge that those legislators voting on a Civics requirement, and those teachers charged with creating the course, should focus less on the forms and functions of government institutions. Central to any Civics course should be an understanding of and experiences in how each of us can responsibly contribute to our democracy.

In the pages that follow, we offer several proposals on how one ought to rethink Civics Education. Vermont has weighed in with a legislative proposal. Three other articles that follow point out alternatives including the Hechinger Report that points up some of the possibilities and problems for bringing political issues into the classroom.

Read on . . . .

5 Bill proposes mandatory civics education in Vermont schools Milton Independent KATE BARCELLOS Staff Writer. Jan 23, 2021 MONTPELIER — Teaching civics and history could be mandatory in Vermont’s public schools if Senate bill S.17 is signed into law.The bill as introduced requires public high school students to take and pass a civics course as a mandate in order to receive a high school diploma, according to a specific curriculum outlined in the bill. Sen. Joshua Terenzini, R-Rutland, who co-sponsored the bill, said the return of civics would be welcome in the age of social media and the rapid spread of information and misinformation online. Sens. Randy Brock (R-Franklin), Dick McCormack (D-Windsor), Cheryl Hooker (D-Rutland), Brian Collamore (R-Rutland), Anthony Pollina (P/D-Washington), Jeannette White (D-Windsor), Joe Benning (R-Caledonia), Christopher Bray (D-Addison) and Alison Clarkson (D-Woodstock) co- sponsored the bill. “Our country is divided more so than any time in my generation,” Terenzini said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s important to see that, beyond our personal opinions our nation is delicate and precious and needs to be preserved...teaching civics is important, because it is important to know where we came from, where we are...and that our nation’s future is largely in our hands.” Terenzini, who was first sworn in to the Rutland Town Selectboard on the weekend of his 21st birthday, said he deeply believes in the mission of civic education and civic duty, and the imssion of empowering young minds to serve as representatives in government. “Those young minds in those classrooms — nobody should be counted out,” Terenzini said. “We need young voices, young minds, and for them to know that you can get elected to senate at 33 if you put your mind to it.”

Proposed curriculum The curriculum, according to legislative documents, would have to cover a range of topics, including: — Philosophical principles — Unalienable rights — Contract theory of government — Popular sovereignty — Republican principles — Democracy — The United States Constitution, including the separation of powers and checks and balances, majority rule, minority rights and individual rights as articulated in the Bill of rights and the 14th amendment to the US Constitution — Federalism, including the Supremacy Clause — 10th Amendment to the Constitution — Necessary and Proper Clause — Judicial Review, including the doctrines of plain meaning, original intent, and inference Terenzini said concentration on simple historical facts, constitutional knowledge and American civics should remain the focus of the curriculum, unaffiliated with partisan politics, and stressed his concern that students run the risk of acquiring a false sense of understanding of the historical and civic context. “It’s a real problem,” Terenzini said. “Students should leave high school with a solid understanding with what a privilege it is to live in the greatest country in the world.” The bill, if signed into law, would be slated to take effect on July 1, and shall apply to high school students who graduate in or after the 2023-2024 academic year, documents read.

Join CCSS . . . and be eligible for reduced rates for conferences See Membership Form on page 17

6 Redrawing the civics education roadmap Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite. March 1, 2021. The Harvard Gazette

State standards for civics education in the U.S. usually require that K-12 students learn hard dates and facts, like the events of Shays’ Rebellion or the details of the Stamp Act. A group of scholars and educators wants to change that approach by prioritizing knowledge over the number of facts, and asking “driving questions” that integrate information, conceptual reasoning, and critical inquiry. In a report released today, “A Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy,” researchers at Harvard, Tufts, and other institutions laid out this strategy and other recommendations for a large-scale recommitment to a field that has seen investment decline during the last 50 years to the point where it now attracts just 1/1000 of the money spent on STEM subjects. “We pose thematic questions that come from history and civics. The two are integrated and complementary, and they both need to be addressed,” said Peter Levine, a professor of citizenship and public affairs at Tufts University and a member of the project’s executive committee, during a conference call with the media last Thursday. “For example, what were the experiences with the British government of British colonists of indigenous Americans, of enslaved Americans, and of indentured Americans? That’s a much deeper, richer, question.” This educational shift from “breadth to depth” is one of several plans laid out in the report, developed as a roadmap to reconsider and support civics and history education at the K-12 level. As part of an interdisciplinary and cross-ideological mission, the researchers consulted with more than 300 scholars in history, political science, and education, as well as teachers, education administrators, civics providers, students, and policymakers. “The goal is to tell a full and complete narrative of America’s plural yet shared story,” said Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor. The roadmap is “unprecedented in its scale, in terms of the number and diversity of people who have been brought together … with the goal of developing a strategy to provide excellence in history and civic education for all students,” said Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and a corresponding principal investigator on the report. Other members of the leadership team included Jane Kamensky, Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History and Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, as well as colleagues from Tufts University, Arizona State University, iCivics, and more. The researchers saw an urgent need for their work amid ongoing diminishing investments in the field at the national, state, and local levels, combined with growing polarization in American political culture. “The country is very divided [and] we know from repeated high-quality surveys and studies that there’s widespread loss of confidence in our very form of government, in the American civic order. America, we think, is in this bad place in part because the American education system — not only in schools, but in higher education — has neglected the teaching of civics and American history,” said Paul Carrese, a principal investigator and founding director at the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. Compared with STEM education, which is funded at a rate of $50 per student per year in the U.S., civics and history education are funded at a rate of just 5 cents per student per year, and “as a consequence, we now have a citizenry and an electorate that is poorly prepared to understand our form of government and civic life, and to appreciate it and actually use it to be informed and engaged citizens,” he said. ” The report was organized around seven essential themes: Civic Participation; Our Changing Landscapes; We the People; A New Government and Constitution; Institutional and Social Transformation — A Series of Reboundings; A People in the World; and A People with Contemporary Debates and Possibilities. The group explained that these themes provide an intellectual framework for more specific pedagogical activities in the classroom. The report says that the roadmap is not a curriculum or mandate for state standards in education, but rather an ambitious guide for educators, practitioners, and policymakers to change the current approach to civics and history education at every level of government. “The goal is to tell a full and complete narrative of America’s plural yet shared story. We’re trying to celebrate the compromises needed to make our constitutional democracy work, [and] cultivate civic honesty and patriotism, while leaving space both to love and critique this country,” said Allen. Equally important to the style of civic inquiry is the content, and the researchers emphasized the need to weave diversity and plurality into all aspects of civics and history education, inspired by methods common in university-level civics education but not fully integrated into K-12 models. They also stressed the importance of interpersonal civic engagement and disagreement while also emphasizing civic virtues of respect, honesty, and “moving forward together,” which has become more urgent in an age of growing misinformation online. “All of us, young people and adults, now need both digital literacy and digital mastery — strong understanding of how to sort material found online,” said Allen. Strong civics education, she added, should teach students “how to read laterally and check the sourcing of information, and how to understand the perspectives framing the provision of information and argument as well as competencies in contributing to the public sphere productively through our own use of digital tools.” The group also published five “design challenges” articulating the structural and content dilemmas that educators may face when

continued on page 8 7 continued from page 7 following the roadmap, such as simultaneously teaching the “dangers and values” of compromise in self-governance and supporting responsible student civic action. “These are the rich, complex challenges that confront educators at all levels in civics,” said Levine. “What we do is name them and make them explicit, so that the whole community can work on them over time.” The report marks a first milestone in a multiyear implementation plan, which the researchers want to achieve by 2030. In the coming decade, they propose three goals: to provide access to high-quality civic education to 60 million students (roughly the same number of children in U.S. schools now); to make 100,000 schools “civic ready” through resources and learning plans; and to equip 1 million teachers with the tools to implement the roadmap through professional development. “This is a long-term project to rebuild the heart of excellence in history of civic learning,” said Allen. The Educating for American Democracy project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education. Educating for American Democracy was led by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, and iCivics, the country’s largest civic education provider.

Massive investment in social studies and civics education proposed to address eroding trust in democratic institutions Joe Heim Washington Post. March 1, 2021 It has been a bad 12 months for the practice of civics in America. The U.S. Capitol attacked by thugs. An alleged plot to kidnap a state governor. Bogus claims of widespread election fraud. Violent protests in the streets. Death threats against public health officials. And a never-ending barrage of anger and misinformation on social media directed at, and by, politicians, leaders, pundits and an increasingly bitter and frustrated populace. As the battles have raged, trust in institutions — government, media, the law — has plummeted. So how did we get here? And how do we get out? For many close observers, a direct line can be drawn from today’s civics crises to a long-standing failure to adequately teach American government, history and civic responsibility. Breadth has been emphasized over depth, they say, and the cost is a citizenry largely ignorant of the work needed to sustain a democracy. Now, a diverse collection of academics, historians, teachers, school administrators and state education leaders is proposing an overhaul of the way civics and history are taught to American K-12 students. And they’re calling for a massive investment of funds, teacher training and curriculum development to help make that happen. The Educating for American Democracy (EAD) initiative will release a 36-page report and an accompanying 39-page road map Tuesday, laying out extensive guidance for improving and reimagining the teaching of social studies, history and civics and then implementing that over the next decade. The partnership’s diagnosis is urgent and unsparing.“Civics and history education has eroded in the U.S. over the past fifty years, and opportunities to learn these subjects are inequitably distributed,” the report states. “Dangerously low proportions of the public understand and trust our democratic institutions. Majorities are functionally illiterate on our constitutional principles and forms. The relative neglect of civic education in the past half-century—a period of wrenching change—is one important cause of our civic and political dysfunction.” Work on the report began two years ago with $650,000 in grants from the Education Department and the National Endowment for the Humanities to come up with a plan to address what some have described as an existential issue for the country. The grant was later increased to $1.1 million. More than 300 individuals with experience at all levels of civics, political science and social studies education contributed to the project, including many with disparate views and ideas about how the work should be done. That emphasis on diverse viewpoints and input was intentional and necessary, said Louise Dubé, executive director of iCivics, a nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 2009 by former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor to promote and create content for civic education in schools. Dubé headed work on the report along with leaders in civics education from Harvard, Tufts and Arizona State universities. “This project is about restoring the ability to self-govern, and clearly we have a serious problem with that right now,” Dubé said. “At the core of what self-government requires is for you to understand the history, to understand it from multiple perspectives to know more history, but also to be able to talk and discuss with others who disagree with you and to form a path forward. And all of those things are very critical right now.” Less memorizing of dates The report calls for an inquiry-based approach that would focus less on memorizing dates of wars and names of presidents and more on exploring in depth the questions and developments, good and bad, that have created the America we live in today and plan to live in well beyond the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. What students need, the report argues, is not a laundry list of facts, but a process that produces a better understanding of how the country’s history shaped its present.

continued on page 9 8 continued from page 8

Before social studies standards in Pennsylvania were revamped, teaching the subject was like preparing students to do well in a game of Trivial Pursuit, said Shannon Salter, a high school social studies teacher and curriculum designer in Allentown. She rattled off some of the previous teaching requirements. “Did you teach the War of 1812? Did you teach Teapot Dome? Can your students memorize the capitals of all 50 states and spout them in alphabetical order?” Salter said. “It was all a list of items that you could recite on a multiple- choice test and treating it as though that was meaningful learning in history and social studies.” What students need, Salter said, is an awareness of how to get involved in the issues of their communities and a much better understanding of how systems work and how individuals can participate in the processes of electing, debating, governing and consensus-reaching. With the new social studies standards, classes can build critical thinking skills that teach students “how to raise your voice in your community and advocate for your needs,” Salter said. “They’re learning to collaborate to solve problems and challenge the way things are so that the country continues to become that more perfect union that we envision.” The new focus on educating students to become more knowledgeable citizens calls for an investment in teacher training, curriculum development and an approach that would emphasize teaching of history and civics to the same degree as STEM and English language arts courses. The report doesn’t provide an estimate of costs, but its goal is to reach 60 million students, 100,000 schools and 1 million teachers by the end of the decade. “What we really need is national will to do this,” said Danielle Allen, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and one of the leaders of the EAD project. “We have had national will around investment in STEM education, and the results of that show themselves. My colleagues in STEM fields at the university level will say that they’re getting the best prepared students they’ve ever gotten. We can’t say the same thing in the domains of political science and history and things like that.” No national standards But while the road map provides guidance for states on how to implement the new approach, getting buy-in from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, territories and tribal nations won’t be simple. Unlike with math and science, there is no nationally agreed upon set of standards for teaching social studies. Each state issues social studies guidelines for school districts to follow, and these requirements vary widely. Stefanie Wager, president of the National Council for the Social Studies, said that there has long been a need for a common vision and guiding document for social studies and that the EAD report and road map will meet it. But there’s still a lot of work to be done before states will get on board. “Part of the reason we’re in the mess that we are in as a country is that we are so different in terms of what happens in states across the country in terms of teaching social studies,” said Wager, a former teacher who until earlier this year worked for Iowa’s department of education. “The road map has a good possibility of moving us in the right direction, but if every state does something very different with it in terms of implementation, then it loses its magic. The devil, I think, is in the details of how it is implemented.” Paul Carrese, a member of the EAD’s executive committee and director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, said it was important that the group provide not a national curriculum but a framework that all 50 states, the District, territories and tribal nations would take seriously and embrace. He acknowledged the challenge that presents but said the need is urgent. “We obviously think education for informed and engaged citizens is fundamental to national security and as important to the country as economic preparedness and competitiveness,” Carrese said. “For the civic fabric of the country, the situation couldn’t be more grave than it is right now.”

Should teachers be apolitical? CHARLOTTE WEST FEBRUARY 2, 2021. THE HECHINGER REPORT

Samantha Palu, a high school government teacher in South Dakota, came to school on Jan. 7, 2021, armed with a plan to talk to all of her classes about the attack on the U.S. Capitol the previous day. When she started at the school in August, she was told not to say anything “political” in class — a difficult mandate for an educator whose job it is to teach about politics.

But for Palu, not addressing the Capitol violence would have been a dereliction of her duty as an educator. “I just knew that I couldn’t stay silent, because that would just add to the problem,” she said. “This stopped being Republicans versus Democrats. These were domestic terrorists that did this and that’s what I told my students.” During the discussion, a student walked out of her class. The school’s administration later received a phone call from the student’s family expressing concern that Palu was advancing a “political agenda,” she said. Palu’s principal backed her up, but she worries about backlash when she tackles controversial topics in the future.

Across the country, teachers like Palu have grappled with how — and whether — to discuss the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and other seismic events with their students. While some districts instructed teachers to address the insurrection in class, others did not provide any guidance at all or asked that their educators remain silent on the issue, teachers said.

There is a longstanding principle that public school teachers, as representatives of the state, must not attempt to influence

continued on page 10 9 continued from page 9 their students’ political beliefs, according to Wayne Journell, an education professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. While that basic stance is relatively uncontroversial, he said, it has gradually morphed into a belief that teachers should be apolitical and refrain from sharing their personal views with students. This has contributed to school and district policies requiring teachers to remain politically neutral in the classroom. Educators often hear cautionary tales in the media of colleagues who were disciplined for being “too political.” Parents, meanwhile, are increasingly pushing back when they hear of teachers discussing current events with students. As a result, teachers are sometimes reluctant to discuss any controversial topics at all — especially in the current climate when the legitimacy of science and facts has been called into question.

Political neutrality “is really difficult to navigate, because it seems like as a country, we can’t even agree on some of the basic facts,” said Isabel Morales, a high school social studies teacher in Los Angeles. “One of my colleagues said, ‘I never thought that saying that we have to count the votes would be considered partisan or that I’m indoctrinating students.’” Yet experts say that it’s impossible to remove politics from the classroom because teaching itself is a political act. “Education itself is political — who chooses the textbooks, who funds schools, how schools are funded,” said Alyssa Dunn, an education professor at Michigan State University. “So to say that curriculum has to be apolitical is a misunderstanding of the fact that education is a political space to begin with.”

Studies, meanwhile, show that teachers disclosing their beliefs has little influence on a student’s own political views. “It’s not synonymous with indoctrination,” Dunn said. “You’re not requiring students to share your belief, you’re just sharing yours with them.” In his research, Journell found that students don’t care where their teachers stand politically as long as they feel like they aren’t being pressured to think a certain way. “They actually like knowing where their teachers stand,” he said. “It’s the district administrators and parents who cause the problems.” In fact, teachers disclosing their beliefs can help students learn to think critically, Journell said. Being introduced early on to the idea that adults have individual viewpoints helps young people understand the concept of bias and better distinguish between fact and opinion, he said. But while teachers should share their own views, they should never tell students how they or their family members should vote. “Teachers should help students understand what they believe and why they believe it,” he said.

In fact, teachers disclosing their beliefs can help students learn to think critically, Journell said. Being introduced early on to the idea that adults have individual viewpoints helps young people understand the concept of bias and better distinguish between fact and opinion, he said. But while teachers should share their own views, they should never tell students how they or their family members should vote. “Teachers should help students understand what they believe and why they believe it,” he said.

Yet many teachers say they feel uncomfortable simply discussing topics that might be perceived as political. In a recent EdWeek Research Center survey, 86 percent of teachers reported that they did not talk about former President Trump’s claims of voter fraud with students. Most said they didn’t because it was outside their discipline, but 18 percent said that the topic could lead to parent complaints and 14 percent said that they feared being accused of indoctrinating students. Studies, meanwhile, show that teachers disclosing their beliefs has little influence on a student’s own political views. “It’s not synonymous with indoctrination,” Dunn said. “You’re not requiring students to share your belief, you’re just sharing yours with them.”

While there hasn’t been any systematic study of how many teachers have lost their jobs because they expressed their political opinions in the classroom, educators sometimes have an outsized view of how often such discipline occurs because of the incidents that garner public attention, said Dunn. “All we see are the major stories that make the news, not the many hundreds of thousands of teachers who engage in issues of justice in their classrooms every day,” she said.

Last fall, for example, an English teacher in Texas made headlines after being placed on paid leave because she had Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ posters on the walls of her virtual classroom. The teacher was reinstated but then declined to return to her classroom and instead called for the introduction of explicit anti-racist policies in the district. continued on page 11 10 continued from page 10

Teachers who do not feel they have the support of their administration, or hold political beliefs at odds with the prevailing views in their community, tend to feel less inclined to talk frankly with students about current events and other issues, say teachers and experts. Educators teaching remotely during the pandemic may also be more reluctant to engage in controversial topics because parents are often present for virtual instruction. Teachers in schools with a progressive curriculum backed up by state standards about what students should learn, and those with the support of a strong teachers’ union, are often more comfortable having these conversations, according to educators and experts.

Mark Gomez, a history and social studies curriculum specialist for the Salinas Union High School District, works in Monterey, a predominantly blue county in California. He said that liberal and conservative educators alike feel they are silenced by notions of political neutrality. “I’ve had teachers express how they feel like they’ve been targeted and called out for having unpopular conservative views in our school spaces,” he said. His district, which is majority Latino, has adopted a social studies curriculum that includes ethnic studies and critical race theory. But even though talking about race is built into the curriculum, teachers still sometimes get mixed messages from school leaders about what they can and cannot say on that and other issues, he said. Other teachers say they’ve found ways to navigate potentially explosive conversations — with a lot of practice. Duane Moore, a 20-year veteran in the classroom, teaches U.S. government and African American history in right-leaning Hamilton, Ohio. He says he’s not shy about letting students know his political views because he builds a strong foundation based on facts and mutual trust. “It’s no secret that I dislike Trump,” he said. “But I don’t place my dislike at the forefront of my discussion of the events of the day. The kids also know that I’m going to be fair about the information that I share with them and that I’m very particular about my facts.”\ When Terrance Lewis, a social studies teacher in Columbus, Georgia, first started teaching four years ago, he invited representatives of the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit providing legal representation to wrongly convicted individuals, to come to his ninth grade government class to discuss racial disparities in sentencing. The topic is outlined in Georgia’s state social studies standards. Soon after the classroom visit, a parent complained about it on a community Facebook page, arguing that talking about race is divisive and it’s time to move on, Lewis recalled. Some parents defended Lewis, he said, but most “were calling for my job.” Lewis’s principal supported him, though, and emailed the parent who made the original Facebook post, which was eventually removed. Now, before any discussions that could be considered controversial, Lewis emails parents and describes how the topics fit into state social studies standards. “I think a lot of times parents think you force their children to think one way or the other,” said Lewis. “And I just do that just to be proactive and to ensure that parents are [informed].” Some educators, though, say that sharing their thoughts on an issue can impede students’ ability to form their own opinions. “The heart of the work I do is based on inquiry,” said Shari Conditt, a government teacher in Vancouver, Washington. “So I’m really more focused on question-asking than I am on answer-giving.” “I can’t divorce who I am and how I think about the world all the time from how I teach,” Conditt acknowledged. “The best I can do is try to cover it up as much as possible.” She does that by paying attention to her words. When a video of former President Donald Trump making vulgar remarks about women was released just weeks before the 2016 election, Conditt said she “talked around it,” rather than directly criticizing Trump’s conduct. She told her students that one of the candidates had made a comment that angered people. And she focused the conversation on one question. “This is how I put it: ‘You have to ask yourself, are you comfortable with how the candidate has spoken about women?’ ” she said. “The minute I use the word ‘misogynistic’ in my classroom, I know that I’m going to be hearing from my conservative parents.” The social studies teachers at Morales’ school in Los Angeles have focused on media literacy in the aftermath of the Capitol attacks. She showed a clip from PBS stating that pro-Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol, and also noted claims that the rioters were antifa, a far-left activist group. Morales then discussed how to think critically about those statements and discern which was accurate. “This is something we’re seeing in our society that we cannot agree on,” she told her students. “And so the skill that we need to build as a classroom is really knowing what the truth is. And so if we are hearing people say different things, how can we find out the truth?” Going forward, said Gomez, the educator in Monterey County, California, schools ought to be encouraging students to have more conversations about politics and other controversial topics — not less. That’s how youth will encounter different perspectives, and help refine their own. “These are young people who are still formulating their own civic identities, so to deprive them of that, I think that’s a disservice,” he said.

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11 The Holocaust, history and today’s politics Teaching the Holocaust, alone, is not the solution to confronting antisemitism, racism, bigotry, and hatred

CT VIEWPOINTS by AVINOAM PATT AND LAURA HILTON JANUARY 27, 2021 The CT Mirror

On January 6 the world watched as domestic terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC. The pictures seared into our memories of this day are replete with symbols of hatred, racism, and extremism: The Confederate battle flag, the white power hand gesture, and the gallows erected near the Capitol reflecting pool. What many may not have noticed within this sea of white supremacy was the prominence of anti-Semitic images: the black sweatshirt reading “Camp Auschwitz, Work Brings Freedom,” and T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan: 6MWE = “6 million wasn’t enough” above Italian fascist symbols. Those who wore these shirts invoked the Holocaust, not to deny it, but to promote the continuation of its aims and ideology.

Sixteen years ago, the UN officially declared January 27 an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust. By the time Soviet troops arrived at Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, the SS forcibly had marched almost 60,000 starved and exhausted prisoners from the Auschwitz camp system westward into Germany; more than 15,000 would die on such death marches. At this camp, the Nazis exterminated 1.1 million people, 90% of whom were Jewish.

Among those Jewish prisoners liberated at Auschwitz, however, was a 25-year-old Italian chemist by the name of Primo Levi. Two years later, Levi would publish his account of his 11 months at Auschwitz under the title If This is a Man (later translated into English as Survival in Auschwitz). Levi’s account of Auschwitz focused not only on the day-to-day existence of the camp and the interactions amongst the prisoners he encountered there, but also dissected, in clinical and dispassionate fashion, what Levi termed “the demolition of man,” the process whereby the inmates at Auschwitz were completely dehumanized.

The existence of Auschwitz serves as a reminder of just what humans are capable of. When we teach about Auschwitz, we must remember that the camp stands as a symbol of the failure of humanity to stand up to unchecked hatred, bigotry, and tyranny, as a symbol of the challenge that confronts good people when faced with the absolute worst of human behavior. As the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum reminds us: “The Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words.”

In recent years, this noticeable rise in hate speech, antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia has provided renewed momentum to legislative efforts to “fix” the problem, and by the end of last year, 16 states mandated some form of Holocaust and genocide education. Even so, state boards of education rarely provide the additional resources necessary to gain specialized training on the topic. Thus, the memory of the Holocaust is actually subverted and trivialized, used by politicians to avoid doing the hard work of fixing a broken educational system. Indeed, as Alvin Rosenfeld argued in “The End of the Holocaust:” “the very success of the Holocaust’s wide dissemination in the public sphere can work to undermine its gravity and render it a more familiar thing. . . . Made increasingly familiar through repetition, it becomes normalized.”

As educators, we know that the fix to rampant and willful ignorance, baseless hatred, and vile behavior is not so simple. We need a massive investment in basic internet and information literacy to save our democracy. Our belief in democracy rests on humans’ ability to reason, to separate fact from fiction, myth, and conspiracy theories. Equipping people with these basic tools is a starting point. We absolutely need to teach our students about Auschwitz and about gas chambers, but we also must teach them to distinguish between historical facts and the twisted lies of conspiratorial fiction and propaganda.

Teaching the Holocaust, alone, is not the solution to confronting antisemitism, racism, bigotry, and hatred. Teaching the Holocaust, alone, out of context, will not save our democracy. We need a systematic framework that teaches students the responsibilities of citizenship, the basics of human rights, and addresses massive income disparities and wealth gaps that plague public education in this country. Teachers need to be trained how to teach difficult topics, how to engage in difficult conversations, and not to avoid what feels uncomfortable. If teachers teach the Holocaust, they need to be able to explain how easily a democracy can be subverted, how easy it is for ordinary people to turn their heads and look away, and how a system of discrimination can evolve into a policy of extermination. The pervasiveness of the symbols of the Holocaust – swastikas, facile comparisons to concentration camps and Nazism across the political spectrum – indicate that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned. Indeed, they have become completely trivialized. This at a time when Nazis are literally marching in torch-light parades, carrying out pogroms in synagogues, and attempting to take over Congress. Holocaust denial and distortion is not new, but for a long time it was fostered by a relatively small number of lunatic conspiracy theorists. The growth of the right-wing internet and social media means that a prominent space now exists, purposefully built and shared, continued on page 13 12 continued from page 12 where antisemitism, racism, and white supremacy can feed off one another. The crowd that attacked the Capitol on 6 January not only proudly demonstrated their white supremacist beliefs but also indicated their readiness to put beliefs into action. They seek to use violence and hatred to create a world that matches their goal: destruction of those who believe in the equality of humans. Holocaust education, by itself, will not be enough. Let us resolve to teach our young people how to determine the difference between historical fact and fiction. Let us equip our students with the tools to recognize hate speech, conspiracy theories, and dubious web resources. Let us hold big tech companies accountable for profiting off organized hate and discrimination, while hiding behind claims to “free speech” only when it is convenient. Let us hold them responsible for funding basic internet and information literacy. Maybe then we can help people understand why taking over Congress in an Auschwitz shirt is indicative of deep and real threats to our democracy.

Fostering true understanding of the Holocaust means changing how we teach about it Jody Spiegel, Naomi Azrieli · for CBC News Opinion · Jan 27, 2021 Visitors stand beneath the gate of the Auschwitz 1 death camp in southern Poland, where 1.1 million died between May 1940 and Jan. 27, 1945, when Soviet troops entered the camp and liberated it from the Nazis. It is now a Unesco World Heritage site, maintained as a memorial to the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany. ( Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images). In the first month of 2021, there have been references to the Holocaust from the most unlikely places. They’ve been on t-shirts worn by right-wing extremists while storming the U.S. Capitol. They’ve been uttered by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who used Kristallnacht as an allegory of the insurrection, and by media commentator Glenn Beck, who likened social media de- platforming to the hardships faced by the Jews of Europe being moved into Nazi ghettos. Jan. 27 marks 76 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and is recognized as UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day. However, more than three-quarters of a century after the war, what was once living memory is moving into inaccurate understandings of history. Two years ago, the Azrieli Foundation released a study on knowledge of the Holocaust in Canada. The results of the survey exposed critical gaps in Holocaust awareness and knowledge among Canadian adults. We learned that shockingly, 62 per cent of millennials didn›t have basic knowledge surrounding this historic event: that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. If we are to ensure that people know the most fundamental facts, we must start by changing the way we teach the Holocaust in schools across the country. Jewish deportees are seen arriving at the railway terminus at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland, circa 1942. (Hulton Archive/ Getty Images) A recent follow-up survey of Canadian teachers found that the primary learning objectives of 80 per cent of those teaching about the Holocaust are to develop social and moral values, and reinforce principles of human rights and genocide prevention. It also found that more than half of these teachers have less than three hours to focus on the topic. Whether because of time constraints, lack of historical knowledge or wanting to provide the information in a way that students can relate to, teachers are jumping to lessons that can be drawn from the Holocaust before explaining what the Holocaust was. Key lessons we learn from the Holocaust are the importance of democracy, how choices matter and how not to be a bystander. Lessons about the Holocaust set the event firmly in its historical context and teach about the precursors that led to the destruction of European Jewry. When we discuss the Holocaust only through the lessons that it can teach us, we turn it into a metaphor. The Holocaust should be taught as a specific event — understood within political, geographical and sociological contexts. It can be a challenge for teachers to connect students to the topic, but in trying to make this historical event meaningful, it’s a mistake to draw direct lines from past actions to choices students currently face in their own lives. For example, the Holocaust was not an extreme form of bullying. It was a genocide, and likening it to bullying trivializes a horrific period in world history. Standing up to bullies is an important lesson for students, but it’s not a lesson to be drawn from the Holocaust. Survivor and author Pinchas Gutter describes his time in the Warsaw Ghetto as an apocalyptic hell. «People were dying in the streets. German officers were hunting Jews like animals. Men with wheelbarrows collected bodies, dumping them into a pit in a cemetery. I saw scenes which no one could describe. If the world existed for a trillion years, there wouldn›t be enough words to describe the horrors I saw.” Likewise, American political commentator Glenn Beck was wrong. Being removed from a social media platform is absolutely nothing like the experience the Jews faced being forced from their homes into ghettos in the 1940s. The vast majority of ghetto inhabitants died from disease, starvation, shooting or deportation to killing centres. This type of thinking catastrophizes something small, and simultaneously reduces an event that, as historian Yehuda Bauer said, «was unprecedented and set the precedent for how all future genocides can be understood.» By oversimplifying the past without taking the time to learn about the actual and complex events of the Holocaust, this tragedy is stripped of its content and watered down to sound bites and “teachable moments.” Students must be equipped with the knowledge to recognize inaccurate and inappropriate comparisons. They also need the time and space to reflect on the history of the Holocaust in order to make it meaningful in their own lives. Effective Holocaust education fosters empathy for those who experienced the events. When young people face difficulties in fully appreciating the circumstances of the Holocaust, focusing on the experiences of individuals can be a powerful means of engagement. We must begin with the story of Jewish life before we can draw lessons from Jewish death. The victims of the Holocaust deserve respect, and that begins with gaining an understanding of the culturally rich community that faced genocide. When the most common image students have of the Jews of Europe is that of a downtrodden person being driven into a cattle car, with the Jews as victims, we give credence to the perpetrators’ narrative. The Holocaust isn’t a metaphor or cautionary tale that can be used to warn young people of the dangers of bullying or of society failing its citizens. It was the destruction and attempted eradication of thousands of years of European Jewish life. It was the denial of the inalienable human rights of people simply for being born Jewish. While we would like to draw moral conclusions from this — in the classroom and in the world — we first must learn about it and understand how the Holocaust was even possible.

13 ‘Naked and starving’: letters tell how English paupers fought for rights 200 years ago Donna Ferguson Dec 20, 2020. The Guardian They were destitute, their children were starving and their short, pitiful lives were often marred by heartbreak and suffering. But they knew that, morally, they had rights, and they understood how to make their voices heard. Now, previously unpublished letters of penniless and disabled paupers living in the early 19th century reveal the sophisticated and powerful rhetoric they used to secure regular welfare payments from parish authorities, despite being barely able to read and write. The letters, which were sent to the overseer of Kirkby Lonsdale parish between 1809 and 1836, demonstrate how poor families were “masters” at navigating the complexities of the Old English Poor Law and negotiating effectively for long-term financial support. “It’s the closest you can get to an oral testimony [of these paupers] in the historical record – we think almost all of these letters were written by the people who signed them,” said Steven King, professor of economic and social history at Nottingham Trent University. In some letters the paupers write phonetically and in their Cumbrian dialect – exactly as they would speak the words they are writing. “Some of these people talk as if writing inflicts pain. They have to navigate a medium with which they are wholly unfamiliar. They are literally writing from sound,” said King. Paupers were forced, through sheer desperation, to write such letters when they became destitute after moving away from their home parish. This is because, under the Old Poor Law, those in need were only allowed to ask for financial assistance from the rate-payers of their home parish and not simply the parish they were living in. Often, it was only by writing humbly to the overseer of their original home parish and demonstrating why, morally, they “deserved” his help that impoverished families could get any relief at all. “The system makes it difficult for them [to get support], just like the modern welfare system makes it difficult for people,” said King. “They have to find a way – and that’s what they do.” For example, the rhetorics of “nakedness” and “starvation” are deployed with great effectiveness by several different correspondents, such as when one parishioner writes: “The children are all nearly naked and starving.” This would have been seen as immoral and “an affront to dignity”, according to King: an overseer could potentially lose his moral standing in the parish by ignoring such a letter. Another wrote: “I hope you will befriend me at this time or it is up with me on all sides.” “These people have no legal rights – but they are very adept at asserting moral obligations, particularly if they’re disabled,” said King. “They are not powerless. They may use supplicatory language every now and again – ‘I’m your humble servant and I’m very sorry for writing’ – but what they mean is: ‘Give me the cash.’” The letters will be published by the British Academy on Christmas Eve in a new book, Navigating the Old English Poor Law, by King and Dr Peter Jones, research associate at the University of Leicester. In total, the two academics analysed 599 pieces of correspondence relating to just 20 poor families from Kirkby Lonsdale. This enabled them to understand not only the rhetorical strategies the paupers employed to convincingly negotiate on their own behalf, but also how they often managed to get friends, advocates and doctors to argue their case and emphasise the moral legitimacy of their claim for support. One man, who got a splinter in one eye while working in a lime kiln and had a cataract in the other, “pulls every moral lever to get as much welfare as he can”, says King. “You see the way in which he uses his own words, official words and the words of advocates to make a case. And, of course, they give in – they pay his rent and give him an allowance, because he has a moral case. What can you do if a man is blind? You can’t let him starve to death.” Jones said the letters have made him consider how moral rights are framed within today’s bureaucratised, nationalised welfare system and pity the benefit assessors who, unlike the parish overseers of the past, have no discretion and little power. “It’s become more and more difficult now for the agents of welfare – the workers who are on the frontline, dealing with the poor – to treat the people in front of them as moral individuals whose needs must be interpreted and responded to. That’s something we’ve lost.”

14 Award season is upon us and the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies is now accepting applications for the following awards:

Excellence in Social Studies Education (Two Awards: Grades K-8 & Grades 9-12) - Nomination Form Bruce Fraser Friend of Social Studies Award - Nomination Form CCSS Service Award - Nomination Form Pre-Service Teacher Award (Two Awards: Grades 4-8 & Grades 9-12) - May 1 Deadline - Nomination Form Louis Addazio Award (Selection by previous Addazio award recipients) John Stedman Passion Award - May 1 Deadline - APPLICATION Pamela Bellmore Gardner Social Studies Leadership Award - Nomination Form (You must email two letters of support to complete the nomination process to [email protected]) Special Projects Award - Nomination Form

Read More about each award... See the CCSS website - CTSocialStudies.org - for nomination forms For furtherFor inquiriesinformation email: contact [email protected] Kate McGrath at [email protected] For inquiries about the John Stedman Passion Award please email Yesenia Karas at [email protected]

15 th Professional Opportunities , Special Notice on NERC Registration Membership Dues and Membership Dues and conference, conference, please be sure to renew your membership soon as possible. Dues may be as sent to CCSS, PO Box 06460. Milford, CT 5031, Membership in CCSS from runs July each 1 year. Members who are to current on June their dues for the 30 2020-2021 year will be sent a discount code for registration for NERC. To be eligible for reduced rates for the NERC TeachItCT.org Humanities has staff Humanities has staff 16 for inspiration or ready-to-

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