The 1998 survey of 18- to 24-year-olds was conducted by nonpartisan polling organizations for the National Association of Secretaries of State, whose members oversee the election process in most U.S. states.

The findings were issued in a report titled The New Millennium Project, which examines ways to reverse a trend of decreasing political participation by young Americans. Among the report's findings was that only 32 percent of those aged 18-24 voted in the 1996 presidential election, compared with 50 percent in 1972--the year the voting age was first lowered to 18. In the off-year 1998 elections, fewer than one in five young people voted.

The Democracy Project, a summer program created by the College of Human Resources, Education and Public Policy's Institute for Public Administration, hopes to change the trend. The project, also sponsored by Delaware's Office of the Secretary of State and the First State Constitutional Scholarship Foundation, was developed to help teachers of social studies, civics and related subjects see the political process in new ways. If the teachers gain fresh insights and enthusiasm about politics by participating in the professional development program and then take those attitudes back to their classrooms, their students' interest and involvement in the political process also will grow, Democracy Project supporters believe.

"I started with the premise that one of the most important goals of education is to produce good citizens," says Fran O'Malley, a veteran Delaware social studies teacher and curriculum specialist for the Democracy Project. "We're hoping the teachers who take part in this program will meet public officials, get more interested in the political process and convey that interest to their students."

According to feedback from the initial group of participants, the Democracy Project clearly achieved that goal. Eighteen teachers and other educators--from elementary through high school grades, in public and private schools, with a variety of backgrounds and job descriptions--took part in the inaugural session in summer 1999. The residential program met for a week in late June and then reconvened for three days in August. After discussing issues with public officials and staff members from all levels of government, sitting in on the final day of the Delaware legislature's 1999 session, speaking with successful political candidates about their campaigns, touring congressional offices in Washington and hearing from lobbyists and academics, participants gave the Democracy Project rave reviews.

"I got a tremendous amount of benefit--new insights into government, especially the importance of local government, and new ideas on how to present these insights to my students," says Michael Kijowski, who teaches at Allen Frear Elementary School in Camden, Del. "To me, a highlight of the program was not only meeting so many public officials, but also having a dialog with them. After that experience, I would definitely invite a town council member or a mayor to come visit my class and talk to the children."

Jerome Lewis, director of the Institute for Public Administration,
says that kind of interaction with public officials, which is relatively easy to come by in a small state such as Delaware, is a key component of the program. Lewis--with the encouragement and support of Delaware Secretary of State Ed Freel, AS '74M, CHEP '76M--developed the Democracy Project, basing it on the national Robert A. Taft Seminar for Teachers, which was offered at UD and elsewhere in the early 1990s. "Delaware's Taft program was recognized as one of the most successful in the country, because we have such good access to our public officials and political leaders, so that gave us a good model as a starting point," Lewis says. "The goal for the Democracy Project was to rekindle that spirit and that approach in a revamped program."

One aspect of the new program, organizers say, is developing practical teaching ideas and specific lesson plans participants can use directly in their work. A special emphasis is on tailoring those plans and ideas to fit Delaware's new instruction standards for social studies and civics.

"We wanted this to be a professional development program that gives teachers something concrete to take back to their classrooms," says Democracy Project coordinator Lisa Moreland of the Institute for Public Administration. "That's why the final project was to develop lesson plans and curriculum materials, and the teachers came up with some interesting and dynamic ones."

Those lessons, which participants presented to the group during their final meetings, incorporated various aspects of politics and were designed for a variety of age groups. Kijowski, for example, developed a lesson plan in which a class of middle-school students is divided into three groups, representing state senators, state representatives and the governor's office. The groups are given identical lists of 10 budget items and instructions to reach a consensus--first within their group and then among the three groups--on which two items must be cut. In another creative lesson plan, elementary students use cardboard and construction paper to make a miniature city. They then form a zoning board and make decisions about how their residential and business areas will grow.

"This was one of the best and most practical seminars I've ever attended," says Sharon Weaver, CHEP '97M, who teaches U.S. history to high school students at Padua Academy in Wilmington. "We were treated as complete professionals, and the entire focus was on how to help us do our jobs better."

Registration for the summer 2000 program is complete, but plans are to continue offering the seminar in subsequent summers. Lewis says it may be expanded at some point, with the possibility of adding advanced or specialized sessions. For a brochure or more information about the three-credit, graduate seminar, call the Institute for Public Administration at (302) 831-8971.