do textbooks paint a realistic picture of the american federal gov't? why or why not include specific examples
485275
wever see a school book tell you about bad sh*t pres.did?
232891
If you have ONLY taken the U.S. History class, you may have a hard time passing the Comparative Government Exam.  You need to have a stong understanding of the different types of government systems and specific examples of each.  You may even need to know some current even information on elections or election processes.  Also, parties and party systems.
273346
While bobweb's suggestions are interesting and provide food for thought, they don't really address the reality that exists in most schools, nor are they very helpful in addressing your question.\n\nI have attached a number of websites that I hope will be helpful to you.  8th grade was my favorite one to teach.  Good luck with it.
894197
You could always use the War currently going on as an example of the immoratily. It seems like the simplest example and yet the greatest if you ask my personal opinion. I'd suggest this since it is such a hot topic, and should be pretty easy.\nMortality... serving the country, the way the government has worked before where it was very patriotic and "rightfully" serving. Et cetera, et cetera.
927602
No, but here is the teacher's guide to the book.\nhttp://www.homerhickam.com/educators/rbguide.shtml\n\nFOUND IT!!! Here is Chapt. 1, short too!\n\nhttp://www.homerhickam.com/cgi-bin/included/books_chapter.cgi?id=2
340381
A lot of people are just not really well educated when it comes to politics. Many people get their entire knowledge of politics from TV and "the grapevine" and never take the time to really learn things.  Many people figure the American History and Government classes they took in high school are all they will ever need--- if they can even remember them.  I think it is a little bit sad.
104978
Here's a detailed review of Imposter discussing what it means to be conservative and where Bush and the Republican party fit in. It mostly focuses on economics because that's what Bartlett focuses on. The book makes an important distinction between being pro-business (Bush) and pro-free-market (actual conservatives):\n\nhttp://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0603.drum.html
400330
As a former educator with 40 years of experience as a teacher and high school principal, my guess is that most teachers are graduates of colleges and universities that are the hot beds of liberalism. Be bolstered, however, by the possibility that many more conservatives are entering the profession. At least that was the trend when I retired five years ago. Some see the flaws of the liberal bible.
892044
When I was in college, I spent a semester interning for my Senator.  As an intern, a big part of my job was opening and reading mail.  While most of his mail was intelligible, there was a small but significant portion that was composed entirely of crazed, semi-coherent, train of though diatribes about the government; these were often written entirely in capital letters.\n\nI'm not sure why I thought of that just now - something must have sparked my memory.
643287
Go buy the book. Do you really expect somebody to reprint the government regulations here?
1102013
Another textbook question...
475979
Actual, a lot of American law is based on theories and philosophies from John Locke. It is good background material for the serious, inquisitive student.  Also consider getting your reading lists for fall and digging into your fall semester reading lists.
9818
Yes. \n\nFor an incredibly in-depth analysis of pictures, facts and commentary please see the source link.
324120
will someone just tell it like it is.  True, there's not enough time, and a good bit of ALL history is omitted from the curriculum.  However, if researched, eventually you'll discover the whole truth from all aspects or points of view. Some information is deliberately left out of textbooks to control or manipulate the minds of certain people or cultures.  Yeah, I know it sounds farfetched, but it's the truth. And if the real truth were told, we would have either chaos or peace. Seem like we've had all the chaos we can handle for a while...
524131
Yes, and in your bibliography try to include from "where" you got this person's silly alibi (do you mean 'alias?').\n\nJane E. Aaron's THE LITTLE BROWN COMPACT (4th or later edition) is probably a good place to start; it has MLA, APA, Chicago, and CBE reference guidelines. I use it for all my reference work questions, and it comes in handy for my 16-year-old daughter too.\n\nOTBPOC
1159593
Absolutely not.  My favorite, if not the best, example would be the thousands of gun control laws on the books.  These are clearly in violation of the 2nd Amendment which states quite clearly (in easy-to-understand, one- and two-syllable English words) that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.\n\nAnother example is the way the "necessary and proper" clause has come to mean "convenient."  When the Supreme Court can re-define words in the Constitution to mean whatever they want, then what's the point of having a Constitution in the first place?\n\nThe interstate commerce clause has been stretched to absurd proportions so that Congress can now regulate anything that it wants based on the fact that somebody, somewhere might have once traded with someone in another state.\n\nDoes anyone remember the 9th and 10th Amendments, which tell us that the federal government is only allowed to do those few things which are specifically stated in the Constitution?  And yet there are volumes upon volumes of federal statutes that micromanage our lives.\n\nThe American people, through ignorance and apathy, have allowed their government to get by with this.  I know of no solution.  If the people have more faith in legal interpretations and judges' rulings than in their own ability to understand the simple words written down where all can see, then they deserve the tyrannical, authoritarian state that they are destined to get.\n\nFinally, I want to add that I once took a college course called "Constitutional Rights and Liberties."  But the curriculum was focused not around what those rights and liberties are, but on what judges have said about them.  It was a study in case law.  When people are taught that case law is more important than what the Constitution actually says, the outcome is predictable.  We come to depend on the government to interpret for us the document that is supposed to limit its scope of power.  Isn't this like signing a lease with a landlord that says the landlord gets to decide at any point on any question what the lease says?  Isn't re-defining "necessary" to mean "convenient" analogous to re-defining "$400 per month" to mean "$600 per month?"
169270
A really good book about Washington is "George Washington, a picture book Biography" \n\nI love this book and have taught from it.  The reading level is 1-3 grade, but, with beautiful illustrations the interest factor is very high and an average 4th grader or class would learn quite a lot from it.