Well.... Here we are almost done with the 'Our American Government' storybook. The purpose of the project of course is not to test your ability write a children's non-fiction book, as much as it is to see what you understand about how government 'works' for you - a citizen. One thing that always strikes me is that we as average citizens always seem so distint from what happens daily in our nation's capital, as well as in our state's own in downtown Albany. Either way, it can seem a very tangential experince from our own daily perspective.
So - my question here is simple: What did you learn doing this project? In a much broader sense, what did you learn about how it (government) works, how you interact with it, and how you can change it? To perhaps broaden the topic even a bit more - how shoud the government respond to your needs? Is it easy to connect with elected officials? How? Could you propose anything that might make the interaction between your needs and elected officials easier? How?
While doing this project I learned a lot more about our local government than I previously did. I never really considered our local government as very importance but from the project I saw that our local government affects us more directly. Through other projects outside from this class, it is very difficult to contact bigger officials such as the ones working for the Federal government but as expected it is much easier to get into contact with our local officials. Contacting officials is hard enough but it is hard to convince them to actually listen to our needs as they already have their own opinions. I feel like the only way to have your ideas implemented in our government is to vote for the people who share your same ideas and visions.
ReplyDeleteThroughout this project I really started thinking a lot more about the idea of informed citizenry. Thomas Jefferson was the man who brought it up. Say that for us to keep our freedom we needed this "informed citizenry". And that really makes sense to me. If we want to keep away from our downfall, we need to stay smart, creating learning, and being able to problem solve. To be able to analysis, interoperate and understand a problem and how to fix it. That is the only way for our government (with the way it is set up) for it to successfully work out in the peoples favor. That being said it is the "peoples" government.
ReplyDeleteA lot of what I learned was review, but then going into the sections about how we have responsibilities as citizens of the United States, I began to get more interested in what we were going over. Contacting government officials can be done in a variety of ways. Email, letters, petitions, even protests are ways of communicating ideas with either an individual or the government as a whole. Some are more effective than others depending on the issue, but learning about how people express their ideas especially as we are starting to come of age (to vote at least) is extremly important.
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot about the government during this project. People have a lot of influence on the government through who they vote for. Voting has a huge impact on how our government is run. By voting for one political party over the other can control what bills get passed and made into laws.I never really understood how important it is to vote until I did this project. On the local level it is easy to contact elected officials. They don't have as much communication coming across their desk as the president does so it is easier to get a response form our town mayor than the president of the United States.By writing letters to elected officials you can interact with them and hopefully make an impact in government.
ReplyDeleteThis project taught me quite a bit about local government. Before, I hadn't realized how complex the town government was with the town supervisor, the town assembly members, and the town clerk. I now understand that those members take care of everything in Niskayuna, and the assembly is broken into sub committees that are put in other organizations to ensure that our town government has a s much power and reach as possible. These sub committees range from disabilities committees to construction committees to oil drilling committees. This system ultimately works in our favor as it allows projects in our town to be finished sooner because of the extended power in the community. To summarize, our town government is a complex system that has an immense amount of power due to its main assembly and sub committees.
ReplyDeleteAfter finishing the project i realized that there is a lot of stuff about government and the ins and outs of governing bodies from the senate all the way to our local town government. One thing that i personally believe would make it easier for us citizens to get in touch with our elected political figures and public officials would be to have more public meetings where people can voice their opinions and have their questions answered.
ReplyDeleteBefore we started this project I knew very little about the government. This project was a great way to learn everything there is to know about the government. The one thing that interested me the most was the origin of the political parties. I never knew that they started as one party and then eventually split up. Each party had their own values and each party believed in different things, because of this they broke up into two separate parties as opposed to be being one big party. Another thing that interested me was our local government. In my mind I used to think that our country ran because of the 3 main branches of government, I never took into account the importance of our local government. The local government makes our town of Niskayuna a better place overall. Our local government makes it easy to contact officials such as the town clerk or the town council or the torn supervisor if there was a problem that needed their attention. Everyone in the world interacts with the government daily. We are given rights that citizens must obey everyday. We are given the opportunity to vote, which is interacting with the government first hand. Every aspect of our government is important and plays a big role in how we live our lives.
ReplyDeleteWhile completing this project I learned about various aspects of the government all the way from the Federal level to the municipal level. Being a citizen and a registered voter allows you to have an impact, although very small compared to the big picture, but an impact still. I think the government follows the same forms and tactics that any business would, in the end it's about the quality of output and results, revenue and opportunity costs. Citizens are the customers of the government and they adjust to our needs, and the only way we can get the government to do so is by expressing our needs.
ReplyDeleteElected officials supplying their general contact info (office address or number) does make it easy to make an attempt to contact an official, but doesn't guarantee you actually making significant contact. In the end I think how well you make contact with whoever the official is just depends on how badly you need to where some people will write a letter and others will start rallies involving hundreds of people. Either way, it's always possible. I doubt there's much ways better than the existing to contact officials other than various tactics such as letters, phone calls, or petitions.
What I got out of this project is that I learned more about the New York's government and our local town government. I learned about key members of the New York State government, like what the Comptroller and Attorney General do. I also found out who represents us and how they represent us on the state and national level. I knew the names of people like Paul Tonko, Phil Steck and Hugh Farley but, didn't know what their jobs were. On the local side I found out what parts like Town Clerk and Town Supervisor do. Lastly I was refreshed on the history of both the Republican and Democratic party.
ReplyDeleteDuring this project, I learned a lot about local government. I was already well informed about our government at the federal level, but I learned a lot about our state and town governments. For instance, I did not know how many representatives New York had in the house of representatives, or how the districts were separated. I also did not know who our Town Supervisor was, who our Town Clerk was, or who was on the Town Council. I also did not know that the phone numbers of the offices of government officials were available to the public. It seems as though it is easier than I thought to contact government representative and get involved in one's government.
ReplyDeleteThis project has taught me more about the local government. Since i moved out of New York going into 9th grade, i didn't learn much about the NYS government as well as the local government. I also took a US history class but since it was a while ago i didn't really remember much, therefore this project refreshed my memory. Each state has different laws and since doing this project, i can see the difference between Georgia and New York. Before this project i didn't know how many people it took to run a government. Trying to find the contact information for each showed me how many there actually are and how many districts are in New York alone. What interested me the most was seeing the difference between the two states I've lived in.
ReplyDeleteSomething I learned from this project is how the local government of Niskayuna works, something I don't think I've ever thought about. I've often been told to contact my local congressman to voice my concerns for the country, but as it turns out, that also applies to local concerns that are under the control of the Town Council and Town Board. The government is tailored to the setting it is meant to operate in, with the federal government focusing on larger-scale, national and international issues, and local government focusing on state- or town-specific issues such as regulations and town budget. Contacting officials, I imagine, is difficult due to how much the government needs to keep track of and how many people likely contact them daily. Even so, the government should find the time to take our concerns into account, as the country needs to work in the favor if its people, just as it was designed.
ReplyDeleteDuring this project, I learned a lot about the New York State Government. I learned about the 5 key parts, The governor, Legislature, State Court of Appeals, Attorney General and Comptroller and what there responsibilities are for the state. I was surprised to find out that there are 150 members in the New York State Assembly alone. The New York State government does a lot more than I realized and is very important.
ReplyDeleteI learned a good deal from doing this project. Specifically, the thing I found most interesting was there are three other main political parties - though still not that big - besides the Republican and Democratic Party. The Green Party, the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party have a lot to offer, despite not being the most popular.
ReplyDeleteI also learned a lot about the local government. It seems like the Schenectady County officials have more of an impact than federal officials in our area. As for contacting them, it's going to be hard to call or email them. The best way to get an official's attention would be with numbers: either a petition or rally. However for competitive students they can get involved much easier with various non-paid programs or internships that the government has to offer. Overall I can say I was refreshed and enlightened by the information that I have come across.
Well first things first, I learned we have a very complex system. I would have never guessed we have THAT many governments in our whole country! I always knew what checks and balances are, but I didn't know the system too well. This project taught me quite a bit on the details of our nations way to check itself. I also learned a lot about the election process! There are so many different types of people that get elected into our government that I didn't even know existed. Now I even know the correct pronunciation of comptroller!
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