The 74 Million – Sandra Stein
“Motivated by the potential consequences of the vote on my son’s life, I explained basic civics to several friends and relatives. I started to wonder about how civics was taught in our schools. How could so many people with so much schooling know so little about the way American government works? Would better civic understanding motivate people to become more politically engaged? In what ways could schools do a better job at building interest in lawmaking and governance? I remembered I didn’t really learn English grammar, though I loved reading and writing, until I studied Spanish. A second language helped me realize that certain ways of thinking I always assumed to be universal were actually not. For example, if I said in English, “I left my homework at home,” the responsibility was all mine. But Spanish let me blame the homework itself: la tarea se me quedó en casa (the homework stayed home on me).”(more)