At the beginning of every school year at Park Forest Elementary School (PFE), it is customary for teachers to invite their students to participate in establishing guidelines for behavior and citizenship in their respective classrooms. Teacher Lorraine McGarry and principal Donnan Stoicovy began the 2012-13 school year, however, by taking this…

To celebrate the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, this curriculum illustrates the concepts of the Constitution and Bill of Rights through events and issues of the Pacific Northwest. The eight units of the curriculum include constitutional visions, the trial of Hershel C. Lyon: an environmental dilemma, comparison of rights around…

This paper proposes that U.S. teachers are mostly uninformed and misinformed about the appropriate place of religion on the school campus and in the classroom. Four critical questions are addressed; (1) What does the U.S. Constitution say about education and/or religion? (2) What are the current court decisions regarding specific religious…