Speaking of Government credit..

[Heather in VA]

Am I the only one who lives in a county where Government is a full year in the public schools? It was that way when I went to school (I went to school in the same county I now live) but being on this board I am finding that US Government is a 1/2 credit for most others that I hear from. Is there anyone else out there whose public schools do Government for a year?

Heather

[MicheleinMN]

Govt. was only a one semester course when I was in high school, but Oak Meadow's Government course is a full year one.

HTH

[transientChris]

I am teaching Government as a one semester course since that was what it was in my high school, in Fl and in VA.

[amtmcm]

Texas Grad Requirements for History:

1 World Geography
1 World History
1 US History (post-1860)
1/2 Government
1/2 Economics

That's for public school and I'm not required to follow it, but since my kids are college bound I want them to be competitive with other students who are also applying to colleges in Texas. We'll be sure to cover these and then some.

[FloridaLisa]

Heather,

I've no idea what high schools around me are doing for US Government, but I taught it as a full-year, one credit course. It was actually an AP US Gov course and there was so much to fit in, especially given that our co-op only met once a week. There is no way that I could have done justice fitting it into a semester. Perhaps if I was just teaching it at home and had 5 full days of discussion/teaching it would have been different.

HTH,
Lisa

[Heather in VA]

Heather,

I've no idea what high schools around me are doing for US Government, but I taught it as a full-year, one credit course. It was actually an AP US Gov course and there was so much to fit in, especially given that our co-op only met once a week. There is no way that I could have done justice fitting it into a semester. Perhaps if I was just teaching it at home and had 5 full days of discussion/teaching it would have been different.

HTH,
Lisa

Oh I agree there is plenty of material. In fact our public schools do 1 year of Government for the standard history credit and then offer an AP government class beyond that. I am just surprised to find our county is such in the minority for doing it as a full year course. I will be following our county since those are the students we'll be competing against for college entrance. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't be a full year and here almost no one else does a full year (let alone the 2 years (regular and AP) that many kids here do)

Heather

[Ellie]

It was a full-year course for me, and it was so in the three states and four high schools I attended. Of course, that was back in the day; possibly public schools now think that one semester is enough. And perhaps that's why our government is on such a downward spiral.:glare:

[LizzyBee]

I graduated in 1981. Our civics course was listed as a one-year course, but we actually did US Govt for one semester and economics for one semester.

My tenth grader in ps is taking civics this year. But I am delighted that it's not just a US Govt course. It's more like a philosophy of Govt course. They started with Plato and worked forward from there.