No American Citizen Left Behind? - Social Studies classes disappearing

[ck4829]

Iain Macpherson cares so deeply about teaching civics that the 61-year-old Scottish immigrant turned himself into a show-and-tell project.

He arranged for a federal judge to perform his own citizenship ceremony in front of his fifth-graders, hoping to show what it means to be an American citizen. "I wanted them to know what the experience is like," Macpherson said.

Macpherson and other social studies teachers say they have to shoehorn civics lessons into their regular classes because Tennessee and most other states don't require civics to be taught separately.

Since the federal No Child Left Behind law was passed in 2002, schools have focused on reading and math, and that has squeezed out other subjects like arts, music and civics, educators say. So lawmakers in Tennessee and other states have proposed bills this year to save civics.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070326/ap_on_re_us/civics_education