They examine major population trends, such as the growth of suburbs, the shrinking of cities, and the explosion of the sun belt states. The lessons are great in the classroom. The 24-page Teaching Guide at all three levels contains six lessons. Where We Live lesson that enables students to read special-purpose maps and analyze population density and population shifts. The 9-12 guide features a lesson called District Decisions in which students use a timeline to learn about reapportionment and redistricting.
Students also debate redistricting based on municipal boundaries versus population counts.
We plan to increase that through our outreach. It is important to create the census as a civic ceremony. We've got to think of the census like the Pledge of Allegiance, as a moment when we can connect with our country in a serious way. In 2000, we want to see that no children are shortchanged. Many families in the past have failed to count children for many reasons, ranging from the assumption that children shouldn't be counted at all to confusion over which census form they should be included on, that of their parents or other caregivers.