President's Message

The teaching of civics is a hot education topic in the 2019 Legislative Session. You will not hear educators arguing that teaching more on the subject is a bad thing. We believe students should have every opportunity to learn more about all levels of government and U.S. History. It is good that state leaders want to foster a better citizenry. Many of the concerns expressed by legislators are already addressed in South Dakota’s Content Standards for Social Science, but as educators, we always welcome opportunities for constructive dialog on how we can all do better for students. However, we do not want our leaders to lose sight of the other pressing needs we see in our schools and classrooms, and we also want lawmakers to keep in mind that how we work to meet these challenges can be a civics lesson in and of itself.