Civics is important because it's about thing that affect our everyday lives.

So what is civics?

By now you've probably guessed what this show is all about.

That's right, it's civics.

But the more I thought about it, the more questions I had.

I sat down with Michigan Teacher of the Year Corey Rosser to learn more.

So what is civics?

A lot of people, when they think of civics, they think of it as a synonym for U.S.

government.

And obviously that's part of it.

But civics is really abou how we participate and interact with our government.

And so it's about our rights, our duties and our responsibilities, and it's about how ordinary citizens use their power and their voice to help mak their community a better place.

How is learning about civics different than other subject like history or social studies?

Well, all the disciplines of social studies overlap to create a clear picture.

And so when you think about history, we're thinking about events that have happened and we study why those events happen.

But with civics it's really more about how we participate with our government.

For example, if we think about our rights to vote, we can't really fully understand our right to vote unless we have that historical perspective of different movements that have happened in our society.

How has the right to vote changed in the United States?

Here's a few examples.

Abolitionist movements led to the 15th Amendment being ratified in 1870.

Constitutionally protecting black men's right to vote.

Suffragist movements culminated in 1920, when the 19th Amendment was ratified, protecting women's right to vote.

During World War Two the draft age was lowered to 18, but the voting age was still 21.

Civil rights movements, anti-Vietnam War sentiments and youth movements combined led to the 26th amendment being ratified in 1971.

This amendment lowered the voting age to 18.

So now we know how historica events impact our lives today.

But what else is important about civics?

Why is it important to learn about civics specifically?

So civics is important because government affects nearly every aspect of our everyday lives.

When you think about the education you're getting at school you think about transportation, you think about health care.

Public policy is made around those.

And so civics is about how we participate in that to make positive change for our community.

Oh interesting.

So it's very important that in everyday life?

Yeah, absolutely.

Most of the positive changes that have happened in our society are due to civics people coming together, participating, making their needs known.

Why it important to be involved in your community?

To share ideas, to have your voice heard.

To come up with the best collective decision that benefits the most people in society.

That really is what civics is about.

It's about forming your community and having a positive influence on your community.

So in the present, communities deal with things like zoning transportation and health care.

But how did civics and representative government become what it is today?

I think when people think of the origins of representative government, they think of ancient Greece.

And that's one of the oldest indirect democracies that we're aware of.

If you look back through medieval times and you see more of a shif to the idea that the government derives its powe from the consent of the people.

And so you have really important political theorists like John Locke, who essentially say that we have certain rights and the government is there to serve our needs.

But how does it do that?

There's direct democracy.

That's when people vote directly on an issue.

But there's also representative democracy.

That's when people vote to decide which person will fill a role in the government.

Elected officials represent the larger group.

Those are broad categories.

The details that make each government unique can be quite different.

Take the US and the UK for example.

So there are some similarities, but the main difference is, is that the United States has a presidential system.

And so we elect our leader, our president, separately from our Congress.

And so sometimes they oppose each other.

Sometimes they work in unison.

In the UK parliamentary system.

They elect people from political parties.

And the majority political party then selects a prime minister who works more closely with Parliament.

They're working together.

Civics covers a pretty wide range of topics between types of government, ways to engage and how it impacts our daily lives.

It got me thinking what's the most important thing to remember?

So what's the most important part So when you think of civics and the three components, we think of our rights and, you know, those are well documented.

If you're on social medi at all, you see videos of people talking about their rights, what they're allowed to do.

You think of duties, you think of things that we have to do, like pay taxes or serve on a jury of our peers.

But I think the most important part and the most overlooked one is our responsibility towards the society we live in.

And, you know, the responsibility stay informed, the responsibility to participate and our responsibility to try to make our community the best possible one that we can make it.

So lets review.

Civics is about how we interact with our government.

Studying civics together with other social studies topics can help us understand the full historical picture.

This helps communitie come together and make positive change.

The concept of representative government has a long history and with the consent of the governed, it's been modified over time.

Finally, civics can b thought of in three main parts.

Rights, duties and responsibility.

Thanks for watching this episode of Curious About Civics.