Welcome
The Center’s flagship civic education program, We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, is a comprehensive curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school students covering the history and principles of constitutional democracy in the United States.
We the People culminates with simulated congressional hearings where students testify before a panel of judges acting as members of Congress. In addition to state competitions across the country, every spring, the Center hosts the We the People National Finals and National Invitational for high school and middle school students in the Washington, D.C., area.
Curriculum & Textbooks
Beyond the Textbook: Simulated Congressional Hearings
The entire class, working in cooperative teams, prepares and presents statements before a panel of community representatives acting as a congressional committee. Students then answer follow-up questions posed by the committee members and get to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles.
The Center has offered high-quality educator professional development for decades. Today, we offer such opportunities through our partners in a number of states in addition to organized Center events, online self-paced courses, and online webinars.
Supplemental Resources
Free lesson plans? A daily civics podcast? An exhaustive archive of democracy quotes? Video explainers? We have all of that and more to help you engage students in every classroom.
We apologize for any inconvenience. Due to technical issues related to the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area, the resource centers aligned to each textbook are being rebuilt. We appreciate your patience as we complete this.
Access resources organized to match the units and lessons in each grade level’s textbook.
Supplemental Lesson Plans and Topical Resources
Other Supplemental Resources
American Legacy: The United States Constitution and Other Essential Documents of American Democracy
American Legacy: The United States Constitution and Other Essential Documents of American Democracy is much more than a pocket Constitution. This portable resource for any student of American government contains a selection of documents important for understanding the core and evolving principles of American democracy that undergird the United States of America.
The documents illuminate who we are, what we believe, what rights we have, and how we govern ourselves. New to this edition is “I Have a Story” by Maya Angelou, an essay written by the author especially for the Center for Civic Education.
