The Political Compass

Candidates and Campaigns: Analyzing the 2012 Presidential Field Overview | Who will run for president in 2012? What strengths and weaknesses do potential candidates bring? How are the Republican and Democratic Parties likely to approach their presidential campaigns? In this lesson, students consider the field and the political climate and then create a class Wiki profiling the most prominent potential presidential candidates. They then take their analysis further by creating campaign strategies for the political party or specific candidate of their choice. Materials | Computers with Internet access, projector (optional) Warm-Up | Tell the class that President Obama has declared his intention to run for re-election, and, if desired, show the Obama campaign launch video (above). Then ask the class: Do you think President Obama will be re-elected? Next, gauge student knowledge of the presidential campaign as a whole by asking questions like these: When is the next presidential election? Split the class into two groups. Civics 1. Economics 6.

Multinational Monitor Naomi Klein Published at The Intercept Now that it seems virtually certain that Donald Trump will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, and the climate movement is quite rightly mobilizing in the face of this latest dystopian lurch, it’s time to get real about something: Pretty much everything that is weak, disappointing, and inadequate about that deal is the result of U.S. lobbying since 2009. The fact that the agreement only commits governments to keeping warming below an increase of 2 degrees, rather than a much safer firm target of 1.5 degrees, was lobbied for and won by the United States. The fact that the agreement left it to individual nations to determine how much they were willing to do to reach that temperature target, allowing them to come to Paris with commitments that collectively put us on a disastrous course toward more than 3 degrees of warming, was lobbied for and won by the United States.

Stop blaming technology for high unemployment! Jobs are returning with depressing slowness, and most of the new jobs pay less than the jobs that were lost in the Great Recession. Economic determinists — fatalists, really — assume that globalization and technological change must now condemn a large portion of the American workforce to under-unemployment and stagnant wages, while rewarding those with the best eductions and connections with ever higher wages and wealth. And therefore that the only way to get good jobs back and avoid widening inequality is to withdraw from the global economy and become neo-Luddites, destroying the new labor-saving technologies. That’s dead wrong. Other nations are doing it. Any why not? If we had a strategy designed to increase jobs and wages, what would it look like? It would also require greater accountability by all schools and universities for better outcomes — but not just better test results. Better education would just be a start.

What does the internet think Lesson Plan: The Electoral Process: Modern Political Parties and Elections Lesson Plan: US Civics and Government Unit: The Electoral Process: Modern Political Parties and Elections Materials: To save either file format, right-click on the link and select "save target as" Objectives: The students will... 1. Define key terms relating to political parties and describe their function in American politics. 2. Divide the class into teams of four students. Election and Campaign Reform Education Reform Defense Spending Controlling Health Care Costs/Prescription Drugs The Death Penalty Proving Energy for America Protecting America's and Global Environment Raise or Cut Taxes? Once students have completed their research, have them present to the class their findings. Distribute Chart: Comparing American Political Parties. Period 5: The Political Spectrum: Liberals and Conservatives -- An Investigation Share the following information with students. A person's views on the issues help determine where they fall on the political spectrum. A. Take a look at this chart:

Cold War Politics Social Attitudes As of July 1, 2013 ThinkQuest has been discontinued. We would like to thank everyone for being a part of the ThinkQuest global community: Students - For your limitless creativity and innovation, which inspires us all. Teachers - For your passion in guiding students on their quest. Partners - For your unwavering support and evangelism. Parents - For supporting the use of technology not only as an instrument of learning, but as a means of creating knowledge. We encourage everyone to continue to “Think, Create and Collaborate,” unleashing the power of technology to teach, share, and inspire. Best wishes, The Oracle Education Foundation Paul Krugman NYT 10 Mind-Blowing Theories That Will Change Your Perception of the World Reality is not as obvious and simple as we like to think. Some of the things that we accept as true at face value are notoriously wrong. Scientists and philosophers have made every effort to change our common perceptions of it. The 10 examples below will show you what I mean. 1. Great glaciation is the theory of the final state that our universe is heading toward. 2. Solipsism is a philosophical theory, which asserts that nothing exists but the individual’s consciousness. Don’t you believe me? As a result, which parts of existence can we not doubt? 3. George Berkeley, the father of Idealism, argued that everything exists as an idea in someone’s mind. The idea being that if the stone really only exists in his imagination, he could not have kicked it with his eyes closed. 4. Everybody has heard of Plato. In addition to this stunning statement, Plato, being a monist, said that everything is made of a single substance. 5. 6. Enternalism is the exact opposite of presentism. 7. 8. 9. 10.