🌎 9th grade Social Studies: how to help at home

What each unit covers

1. 📜Foundations of Democracy

   Greek, Roman, English and Enlightenment roots of American government, Tocqueville's view of American democracy, republican and liberal ideas, the Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights as a limit on government.

2. 🌐Forms of Government

   Democracies, monarchies, oligarchies and authoritarian states, federal, confederal and unitary systems, and the roots of American ideas about limited government.

3. 📣Taking Part

   Ways to take part before and after 18, volunteering and civil society, petitions and peaceful protest, deliberating about tensions in our democracy, and checking news for reliability.

4. 📰Media & Democracy

   Why a free and responsible press matters, broadcast, print and online media, how officials use media to shape opinion, and how to spot misinformation, bias and spin.

5. 🏛️Three Branches

   How Articles I, II and III set up Congress, the presidency and the courts, terms and numbers, independent agencies such as NASA, checks and balances, and how the Constitution is amended.

6. ⚖️Rights & Responsibilities

   Unalienable rights, the freedoms in the Bill of Rights and later amendments, religious freedom, due process, the 14th Amendment, civil rights laws, and citizens' duties such as jury service and paying taxes.

7. 👩‍⚖️Landmark Supreme Court Cases

   Landmark decisions such as Marbury v. Madison, Engel v. Vitale, Schenck, Brandenburg, Texas v. Johnson, Miranda, Gideon and Mapp, cases about Texas such as Hernandez v. Texas and Sweatt v. Painter, and judicial activism and restraint, presented factually and from more than one side.

8. 🗳️Elections & Voting

   How Texans register and vote, open primaries and runoffs, political parties and third parties, the Electoral College, the 17th Amendment, campaigns, and redistricting after the census.

9. 📑How Laws Are Made

   How a bill becomes law in Congress and in the Texas Legislature, committees, vetoes and overrides, the governor's line-item veto and special sessions, regulations, and how citizens and interest groups influence lawmaking.

10. 💵Government & the Economy

    How governments raise and spend money, Texas's taxes and Rainy Day Fund, deficits and debt, fiscal and monetary policy, regulation, the free enterprise system, and trade policy.

11. ⭐Federalism & Texas Government

    Why the Founders chose federalism, national, reserved and shared powers, the supremacy clause and limits on the states, conflicts between state and national government, and how Texas is governed: the Constitution of 1876, the Legislature, the plural executive, the two high courts, counties, cities and school districts.