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Why we're asking for your help ,/'The time teachers can spend instilling the values of good citizenship is very limited. "Learning by doing" makes more of an impression on young people than lectures. 4'Your members, individually and as a group, can help more students have a positive, hands-on leaming experience in community participation. * With so much material in the ELP course and with civics such a small slice of that pie, the time teachers can spend instilling the values of good citizenship is very limited. · We know that "leaming by doing" makes more of an impression on young people than simply reading and listening to lectures. · We want more kids to have positive, hands-on learning experiences in community participation and we think local organizations like yours can help. Last year, a group often teachers from Saratov, Russia came to the Office of International Studies at UNC-Charlotte for five weeks to leam how civics and concepts of democracy are imparted to young Americans. During that time, they spent twelve days in a host school and seven days at UNC-Charlotte developing their own curriculum unit to take back home. But the rest of their time was spent covering the state--they drove 4,000 miles--taking part in a welcome by the mayor and chamber of commerce members from the town of Mooresville, a potluck dinner at a Church in Olin, a walking tour of Statesville, a Rotary Club meeting in Mooresville, an Iredell-Statesville school board meeting, and a meeting of the Civic Education Consortium in the North Carolina Legislative Building, among other stops. If we can devote this kind of effort to helping teachers in a new democracy to understand the concept of community involvement, why can't we do the same thing for our own students? I'm no expert, but surely a 15 year-old would get a better sense of civic involvement by taking part in a Red Cross blood-drive than by reading about the Red Cross and how it's funded.