Speaking of Government credit..

[Heather in VA]

Am I the only one who lives in a county where Government is a full year in the public schools? It was that way when I went to school (I went to school in the same county I now live) but being on this board I am finding that US Government is a 1/2 credit for most others that I hear from. Is there anyone else out there whose public schools do Government for a year?

 

Heather

[MicheleinMN]

Govt. was only a one semester course when I was in high school, but Oak Meadow's Government course is a full year one.

 

HTH

[TravelingChris]

I am teaching Government as a one semester course since that was what it was in my high school, in Fl and in VA.

[amtmcm]

Texas Grad Requirements for History:

 

1 World Geography

1 World History

1 US History (post-1860)

1/2 Government

1/2 Economics

 

That's for public school and I'm not required to follow it, but since my kids are college bound I want them to be competitive with other students who are also applying to colleges in Texas. We'll be sure to cover these and then some.

Edited January 4, 2010 by amtmcm

[FloridaLisa]

Heather,

 

I've no idea what high schools around me are doing for US Government, but I taught it as a full-year, one credit course. It was actually an AP US Gov course and there was so much to fit in, especially given that our co-op only met once a week. There is no way that I could have done justice fitting it into a semester. Perhaps if I was just teaching it at home and had 5 full days of discussion/teaching it would have been different.

 

HTH,

Lisa

[Heather in VA]

Heather,

 

I've no idea what high schools around me are doing for US Government, but I taught it as a full-year, one credit course. It was actually an AP US Gov course and there was so much to fit in, especially given that our co-op only met once a week. There is no way that I could have done justice fitting it into a semester. Perhaps if I was just teaching it at home and had 5 full days of discussion/teaching it would have been different.

 

HTH,

Lisa

 

Oh I agree there is plenty of material. In fact our public schools do 1 year of Government for the standard history credit and then offer an AP government class beyond that. I am just surprised to find our county is such in the minority for doing it as a full year course. I will be following our county since those are the students we'll be competing against for college entrance. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't be a full year and here almost no one else does a full year (let alone the 2 years (regular and AP) that many kids here do)

 

Heather

[Ellie]

It was a full-year course for me, and it was so in the three states and four high schools I attended. Of course, that was back in the day; possibly public schools now think that one semester is enough. And perhaps that's why our government is on such a downward spiral.:glare:

[LizzyBee]

I graduated in 1981. Our civics course was listed as a one-year course, but we actually did US Govt for one semester and economics for one semester.

 

My tenth grader in ps is taking civics this year. But I am delighted that it's not just a US Govt course. It's more like a philosophy of Govt course. They started with Plato and worked forward from there.