Purpose

The purpose of the American Government Experience is to deliver the best education a high school student can receive regarding American Government, American political institutions, and current events. In addition, the American Government Experience is designed to develop critical thinking skills, practical experience in pursuit of a political cause, all within a Christian Worldview.

The Experience

The American Government Experience is a 12 month long government workshop combining practical political involvement and activism with intense academic study of our political structure and issues. The Experience will involve eight full day sessions, held approximately once every six weeks.

Each session will involve both a review and discussion of the current election cycle, as well as a time of classroom seminar on a particular facet of American Government and Politics. In addition, as opportunities present themselves throughout the year, students will attend current events forums as a group, and then discuss them with the group. Students will follow the Presidential and Congressional election process and Presidential transition very closely through the 12-month course. Students will learn to think critically, with a Christian worldview, about issues presented in the American Political system in the current information age.

Students will participate as members of a public policy forum, Campaign for America, throughout the experience. Assignments in the class will consist of book studies, as well as opinion editorials to be posted on the Campaign For America website and submitted to publications for review. The course will conclude with a 4-day trip to Washington, DC and a close-up look of many of the institutions of government the students will have been studying.

Assignments and Projects

Participation in the American Government Experience will include a significant amount of classroom and independent learning about our political system and process. Students will be given the opportunity to pursue an “Honors” project, with individual coaching by the instructor. The “Honors” project will be a real political client project, which may take the form of a paper, an experience, a speech, a video, or some other accomplishment agreed upon by the student and the instructor.