Teaching Federalism

A Tough Topic in both the Classroom and American Political Life
Every year as I begin to think about teaching the concept of federalism I cringe. Do you? This is just a tough topic to get the point through to the students. I can't think of any topic in American history or American current events that has had a greater impact. Yet the concept of federalism is just hard to get across. Later in the year as we start to look at important Court cases, federalism creeps into many of them. Obviously Brown v. BOE was central to the federalism problem...can the Court order states to desegregate schools? Wasn't education a state power neither given to the national government nor denied to the states. Yet the Fourteenth Amendment clearly forbade the states from denying the civil rights of its people. Again, in the Gideon v. Wainwright case Florida's case was simply that it did not have to appoint lawyers in non-capital cases. It came down to the issue of federalism in the end.

In the newspapers today we see federalism challenged by states that wish to ignore the full faith and credit clause in the case of gay marriage. And last week in Kentucky a federal census worker was brutally murdered and "fed" inked on his body. There seems to be a renewed call to state's rights in every corner of the nation. So in short, federalism matters. This isn't an irrelevant issue of philosophy to be bantered about. This is a topic the students need to understand and understand well. But how do we do that?

This year I am taking a strong vocabulary approach to the subject. Hippocampus and my textbook do a good job covering the topic, so I am hammering on the vocabulary of the topic and making sure that the understanding is not superficial. To that end, here is the list of words I have generated to focus on during class time. I started this exercise by having the kids list on the board every term they could think of that had to do with federalism. I then linked those terms together and helped them clarify their definitions.

• Supremacy Clause
• Elastic Clause
• implied powers
• enumerated powers
• shared powers
• concurrent powers
• delegated powers
• Commerce Clause
• 10th Amendment
• 14th Amendment
• full faith and credit clause
• privileges and immunities clause
• dual federalism
• layer cake federalism
• Federalist Papers #16, 17
• cooperative federalism
• fiscal federalism
• marble cake federalism
• carrot and stick policies
• grants in aid
• block grants
• categorical grants
• revenue sharing
• formula grants
• mandates
• unfunded mandates
• nullification
• McCulloch v. Maryland
• Gibbons v. Ogden

What makes the teaching of federalism so difficult is that all of these terms are quite vital. The above list is not just a scattered group of sort of connected thoughts...they are are totally relevant to understanding the concept. I really believe that if the list is not mastered by the students, then they will be missing huge chunks of the concept in their minds.

The trick is to drill these terms and concepts into the students without totally losing them in the process. In today's world, not an easy job. Yet I am convinced that it is the job at hand.

I may have missed something on the list, I did it from my memory which at my age is a dangerous thing to do. Let me know if I need to add something. In the mean time, start hammering away at these. It seems to me it has been a while since we have had a pure federalism question in the free response section of the AP test....is this the year????

Discussion Questions that Engage Students

Three Big Questions

& The Dilemma

Sometimes teaching an Advanced Placement curriculum such as Hippocampus AP Government and Politics can drive us nuts! We get so caught up in the minute details that seem so critical that we forget to look at the Big Picture. The result is we have unloaded tons of great facts on the kids, but we really haven’t connected dots. And if we haven’t connected dots, we can be darn sure the kids haven’t. It’s a tough act. We need to push the details (after all, the multiple choice section of THE TEST is pretty detailed), but what AP really demands is for the kids to understand the Big Picture. It all becomes a matter of focus.

Focus

So how do we focus? Is the balancing act of teaching details while keeping our eye on the entire scope of government possible? Over the years as I have led various in-services with new AP teachers their number one question is, “What are the main things I need to focus on?”

Let me throw out an idea to you. I like to initiate each new unit with a couple of Big Picture Questions. These questions need to meet the criteria of being a) real world, b) relevant, and c) somewhat controversial. Let’s face it, the opening curriculum for AP Government and Politics can be a bit dry (but totally necessary) stuff. Documents and Underpinnings make up about 15% of the AP Exam, so the kids better get it. On the other hand, some of the issues that underline this Unit are the issues that are dividing government and parties today. We all need to get it.

The Questions

Here are the three questions I am opening Unit One with this year. These questions will drive this unit and engage students as I attempt to tie all assignments, discussions, and essays to them.

1. Do checks and balances and separation of power work as planned by our Founders, or has the current Executive Branch usurped too much power?
2. Is our government today a government of the people, by the people, and for the people as Abraham Lincoln speculated, or is it a government controlled by special interests such as oil and big (Wall Street) money?
3. Has federalism fulfilled the promises of the Founders, or has fiscal federalism perverted the balance of power leaving states impotent?

Perfect questions? Probably not (give me some feed back on these), however, these become my focus for the unit. Question #1 gets the kids thinking about who should run the nation in times of crisis and the time of peace. When does leadership cross the line and impose the policies of one person on the entire nation? These were subjects of concern addressed in 1973 in Arthur Schlesinger’s’ “Imperial Presidency” and are recycled today as hot issues! I have the kid’s watch a short segment from the film “V for Vendetta” and base a discussion from this.

Question #2 delves into the controversy of theories of democracy pitting traditional democracy against elitism (government by big business). A couple of quotes from Greg Palast’s “The Best Democracy Money can Buy” can get the kids fired up. No one likes to think of themselves as irrelevant in a democracy, especially kids getting ready to vote and join the political fray for the first time. I like to have the kids ponder whether hyper-pluralism opens the door for elitism.

Question #3 can drift into issues such as education, national energy policies, and even full faith and privileges. Federalism is a pretty dry issue, but I have found that current topics such as gay marriage and No Child Left Behind get the kids looking at state’s rights and the 10^th Amendment in a new light. Mention a return to a national 55 mph speed limit based on federal highway funding and suddenly federalism can spawn fairly hot debates.

I post these questions at the beginning of the unit. They become points of bulletin board discussions and debates, and they eventually become essays to be answered. These questions drive the Unit and more importantly, keep our focus on the Big Picture while encouraging fact mastery. With a little prodding and playing the devil’s advocate, these can become questions that evoke a little passion in the discussions…yes, even documents and underpinnings can be fun.

What Do You Think?

What questions do you use to drive your instruction? How can we utilize these questions? Give us the benefit of your wisdom this week. As most of us are gearing up for the new 2008-2009 year it is a great time to start collaborating and sharing our wisdom. I can’t wait to hear from you. RV

Next Week: The Election…Rat Race or Horse Race?