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Current Issues Blog

Discover new resources and teaching techniques to help you discuss current issues in the classroom!

COVID-19 Economic Issues Equality Executive Branch Health Care Teaching the News

Public Health, Public Policy & Personal Responsibility: Coronavirus and the Common Good

March 04, 2020

Public health officials first encountered COVID-19, popularly called the coronavirus, in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Thus far, the virus has infected over 89,000 people, killing more than 3,000.1 In the United States, there have been more than 100 cases in 15 states; at least six people have died, all of them in Washington state.2 […]

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Government & Elections Partisanship & Polarization Teaching the News

Understanding Ideological Labels

February 20, 2020

During campaigns and elections, candidates use political labels, such as liberal, moderate, progressive, conservative, and libertarian, to position themselves in relation to each other and as a shorthand for their worldviews and policy preferences. This presidential election cycle features candidates from across a wider political spectrum than most elections in recent years. In the United […]

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Education Teaching the News

Using the Harkness Method to Teach the News

October 24, 2019

A Brief Introduction to The Harkness Method1 The Harkness method is a type of student discussion created at the Phillips Exeter Academy in 1930. At the time, most methods of education involved teacher-led lectures and rote memorization. But a wealthy philanthropist, Edward Harkness, promised a financial contribution of over $5 million (or almost $90 million […]

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Teaching the News

About the Blog

September 30, 2018

Teaching the news is time consuming and complicated; by the time you are able to find and process important issues and identify how to teach them, they are old news. This site will be updated frequently with links to classroom-ready news items, relevant context, and suggested teaching activities and discussion questions. Teaching Controversial Issues We […]

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