Eighth Grade Mission Statements

Civics students have been studying the concept of "guiding principles" to help them understand the principles found in the Preamble to the U.S.Constitution. The Preamble lists the goals and values our founders wanted to lead our government's decisions. After considering what values and beliefs they want to help them shape their own future, students were challenged to write their own "preambles;" personal mission statements. If they choose to, they may want to ask Mrs. McQueen to add these to their autobiography projects.

Below are just some of their finished mission statements:

I want to be able to expresi myself, be a person that someone admires, someone that speaks up for other people, meet my goals, be someone who is successful, have confidence and have confidence in myself that I can be successful to my goals. I want to be caring, helpful, kind like I am now still when I get older.

To live each day with purpose and meaning while treating everyone fairly. Attempt to value everyone's learning and hard work and make an effort to do the same.

I want people to think that I am a good business person, who is nice, who cares about people and everything that I do. I want to be an inspiration to others. I want people to look at me and say "because of you, I did not give up."

To be a respectful and caring person that will have a family and let them have rights. I will always love my parents.

I want to be a loyal, trustworthy, and caring person that people can count on.

I want to us my knowledge to express myself in my work and excel in life.

I will bring kindness, positivity & inspiration to everyone throughout the world no matter their race.

CIVICS; Core Principles

We are going to be studying the Constitution in Chapter 3.

http://bv-civics.wikispaces.com/Chapt.+03+Constitution

Last quarter we memorized the Preamble to the Constitution. The Preamble contains 6 principles which we
use to help us make decisions about how our government should work and what it should do.

Principles are goals or values you believe are so important that you base your behaviors and choices on them. They can give us purpose and direction.

Of course, you might also think of a principle as a concept or idea that seems to be so universal that its considered "natural law," like the law of gravity or other laws of physics. Many Social Scientists including most of the founding fathers thought that people tended to follow certain patterns, have certain needs and drives so much that they talked about them as "natural rights," because they believed these weren't just random patterns, but universal concepts (AKA principles).

To better understand the 6 principles in the Preamble to the Constitution, Civics students will spend some time considering what their own personal principles are. Once they have, they'll summarize them into a personal mission statement in our "Personal Preamble Project" due Friday, January 17.

The conceptual filter I'd like students to keep in mind both while their considering their own principles and while studying the 6 principles in the Preamble are the 3 Core Democratic Principles which we studied in the Declaration of Independence:

• EQUALITY- "...that all men are created equal..."
• HUMAN RIGHTS- "...and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights..."
• THE SOCIAL CONTRACT- "...that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

These thee principles would also be good filters when considering the concepts and principles contained in the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, including the Bill of Rights. Which we will be studying in Chapter 4.

Both our Rights and our Responsibilities (Social Contract) are essentially principles. Therefore, principles are what Civics is all about!