Ex-Gov. Rendell announces ‘Citizenship Challenge’ for elementary school students
Former Gov. Ed Rendell announced a civics essay competition for Pittsburgh area elementary school students Friday.
Starting in the coming school year, the Rendell Centerfor Civics and Civics Engagement, which has been active in the Philadelphia area since 2014, will extend “The Citizenship Challenge,” a civics-themed essay competition for fourthand fifth-graders, to schools in the Greater Pittsburgh area.
“The Citizenship Challenge” is one of the center’s three core initiatives, along with a literature-based mock trial for elementary school students and a series of workshops for K-12 teachers.
“Young people, when they get involved in our programming, get excited, get enthused, more and more. They’re like sponges,” Mr. Rendell said during Friday’s news conference at the Heinz History Center in the Strip District.
Mr. Rendell said all schools — private, public and parochial — are invited to participate. The essay competition is a team effort, he said. Teachers will work with their classes throughout the research and writing processes.
Between 200 and 300 Philadelphia-area schools have participated in the challenge to date, said Beth Specker, executive director of the Rendell Center.
This year’s essay prompt is: Should the natural-born citizen clause in the Constitution remain or be removed? (It requires that the president and vice president benatural born citizens.)
Mr. Rendell said he believes civics engagement education needs to start at a young age.
“High school is too late,” he said.
Andrew Masich, president and CEO of the Heinz History Center, which is partnering with the Rendell Center on the initiative, said the essay competition is “right up our alley.”
“Our goal ... is to help young people understand the basics of American history and civics so that by 2026 — the 250th anniversary of the United States — we’d like most Americans to be able to pass the citizenship test” that is required of those seeking U.S. citizenship, Mr. Masich said.
While for now the challenge is the only one of the center’s three initiatives coming to the Pittsburgh area, Mr. Rendell said he hopes the rest of the programming eventually will make it to the western part of the state.
“Our goal was always to make this a statewide project,” Mr. Rendell said.
The essay submission deadline is Nov. 9. Finalists will be given the opportunity to make oral presentations during Bill of Rights week — Dec. 10-15 — in front of a panel of judges at the Heinz History Center.
A prize of $1,000 will be given to the winner; $500 will be given to the runnerup; and the top eight schools will win a free trip to the HeinzHistory Center.