US Government & Civics

Civics done well is one of the most useful subjects an American kid can study, and it’s usually taught badly — as a stack of vocabulary words to memorize for a quiz on Friday. This nine-week program tries to be the opposite of that. Your seventh grader will read about the actual humans behind the social contract (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau) and what they argued about, sit in on the Constitutional Convention as Madison and the others wrestled with how to split power without paralyzing the government, watch a real bill move through Congress, and read the actual reasoning of Supreme Court justices in cases that have shaped what Americans can do, say, and protest.

Week 1 starts with the foundational question — why does government exist at all? The social contract thinkers give your child three different answers to weigh. Week 2 traces what happened next on this continent: the Articles of Confederation tried to run a country on goodwill and didn’t work, so a roomful of delegates in Philadelphia spent the summer of 1787 negotiating compromises that still structure American life. Week 3 lays out the three branches and how checks and balances actually function — not as a textbook diagram, but as a series of real moments when one branch slowed another down.

How the Branches Work (Weeks 4-6)

Week 4 goes inside Congress. Bicameral structure, enumerated powers, committee work that does most of the real lawmaking, and a case study of the Affordable Care Act’s path to passage so your child sees the full process — not the schoolhouse-rock version. Week 5 examines the presidency. The Constitution gives the office a relatively small list of explicit powers; the modern presidency has built layers of executive orders, agency authority, and Cabinet structure on top. Where are the limits? Week 6 turns to the federal courts. The structure from district to circuit to Supreme Court, the doctrine of judicial review established in Marbury, and a handful of landmark cases — Brown, Tinker, Gideon, Miranda — that show how court decisions reshape the country.

Rights, Citizenship, Synthesis (Weeks 7-9)

Week 7 is rights. The Bill of Rights amendment by amendment, the five freedoms of the First Amendment, and the harder question — when may government legitimately limit a right? Your child reads cases where the answer was yes and cases where it was no, and learns to make the argument both ways.

Week 8 widens to citizenship. The long, slow expansion of voting rights from property-owning white men in 1789 to nearly every adult citizen today — and the gaps that still exist. Civic duties versus civic responsibilities. How a person actually participates in their community and government beyond casting a ballot every couple of years.

Week 9 is a capstone. “A Community Fights Back Against Contaminated Water” and “Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to Sixteen?” pull every topic together and ask your child to evaluate real civic problems, analyze how institutions interact, and design a civic action plan of their own.

Every week includes primary-source readings, structured analysis questions, scenario-based application, and full answer keys with teaching notes.