As we prepare our children to accept the responsibility of citizenship in this great country, we need to give them the practical tools and experiences that will empower them. Now is the time to go beyond reading about government and take those facts which are floating around in their heads and cement them into practice.
Each year as the legislative session begins, the General Assembly prepares to pass new laws. New legislation must pass through many stages of committees, discussions, votes, rewriting and more voting between January and May, ending with the signature of the Governor, before it finally becomes a Missouri law. The process is fierce and exhilarating. Most legislation does not make it to the governor's desk. The men who designed our legislative process were wise to make it cumbersome so that the people of the state could participate as the new legislation passes through the process.
You can learn all about Missouri government and the legislative process by visiting the Missouri web page at
www.state.mo.us. This tool is the most helpful one you can use to study government. For example, you can read the Governor's State of the State Address to look for his/her goals for the legislative session, then begin to track the bills that are written to accomplish them. You can even do a search to find any bills that are being introduced in areas of your particular interest. Did you know that the hearings where the bills are discussed are open to the public? You can go in and listen and if you came prepared with an opinion, you may give your opinion favoring or opposing the bill.
Citizenship Practicum 101 should include a trip to the state capital in Jefferson City. The home schooled student's experience of a visit to the capital is richer than his or her public school counterpart. Instead of being one face in a sea of many getting off a school bus, the home schooling family enjoys personal attention in their legislator's office. Those families who make a trip or two to the capital every year find that their legislators learn to know them and look forward to their visits.
FHE offers a packet of information about visiting the capital when you volunteer to be an Ambassador Family. Surely everyone knows about this great program, but for those who don't, listen up. The Ambassador Family Program attempts to schedule at least one family to visit every active day of the legislative session. FHE will provide helpful information to make your visit a success, i.e. how to contact your legislator, what to say, where to go, suggestions for dress, and what to see in the capitol.
The Ambassador Family Program accomplishes two important goals. First, your day in the capitol will be the best field trip of the year. It will make government a reality to your family in a way that no textbook can. Second, homeschooling families who are visible in the building and are being introduced as guests on the floor of the House and Senate, day in and day out, have a profound positive effect on the legislators. Your presence in the capital is as significant in its effect to maintain our freedom as the FHE lobbyist; in some cases even more.
Make Citizenship Practicum 101 part of your core curriculum.
