Having seen how the use of “Decisions, Decisions” (Tom Snyder software) and several interactive web sites in middle school classrooms leads to student interest, teachers of government, civics and social studies classes would do well to reexamine their methods. As Marx Prensky says, engagement may be as, if not more, important than the content itself.
http://www.practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/753-Engaged-and-Enraged-Thinking-about-Marc-Prenskys-Ideas.html

We need everyone to know the process. The best way to do that would actually be to get as many people involved as possible in every step of the process. (With appropriate coaching and a decent amount of time to really get their hands on it.) This is a situation that just screams for a sim.

Otherwise Jeff is right. Students will think this is one more thing for just a few people to do. So why bother?

While Senator Culver’s concerns are valid and should alarm all of us. Previous government solutions to like problems have led to less freedoms and more ineffective schools.

This is not a new concern…

“Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.” – Plato

“To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject.” – Albert Einstein

We have a difficult time seeing the big picture. Special interests create new mandates to fix some problem in their narrow field of vision, without seeing the broader picture or extrapolating the unintended consequences of their mandates. In the end, these mandates often end up undermining their original intent simply because they are mandates.