News & Events

The Civic Circle’s new video about news literacy, “Whisper Down the Lane,” had its debut at the Maryland Civic Education and Engagement Leadership Summit. The song, performed here by the wonderful Lea Morris, was the curtain raiser for a summit round-table on media literacy in an era of “Truth Decay.” Put on by the emerging Maryland Civic Education Coalition (The Civic Circle is a member), the summit also featured round-tables on service-learning and civil discourse,

At The Civic Circle, performance-based learning tends to center on the humanities. Students sing songs, read poems, do “blended” poetry- and song-writing, and write their own original songs. But technology creates an opening that is more accessible to some students, and that can also support creative performance, thanks to digital back-beats and other cutting-edge music tools. Enter Jason Mullinax, a one-of-a-kind performer and instrument maker recently described by one blogger as “one of the most

Shutterstock One of Donald Trump’s very last acts as president was to release a report by his “1776 Commission” that trumpeted “patriotic education,” defended the Founding Fathers’ ownership of slaves, likened progressives to Mussolini, and was roundly denounced by historians. Four days later, one of President Joe Biden’s first acts as Commander in Chief was to toss out that report via executive order. Biden’s action came on the heels of an inaugural speech that invoked

The nation’s democracy crisis seemed to reach its nadir Wednesday, as riotous mobs took over the Capitol in a horrific attack that ended with five people dead. Yet as with so many of the crises our nation has faced in recent months­–the pandemic, the racial justice reckoning–a seed of hope was hidden in the wreckage. After the Capitol was finally cleared, lawmakers resumed deliberation with bipartisan calls for unity and condemnations of violence. For Civic Circle students,

The year 2020 brought many challenges to our community, our nation and our world, but a bright spot for The Civic Circle came the week of July 4th. That’s when Congressman Jamie Raskin interviewed Eliza Newlin Carney, The Civic Circle’s founder and president, for his “Local Heroes” series. Here’s how Congressman Raskin summed it up in a recent blog post: Episode 14: Eliza Newlin Carney Star-spangled journalist and songwriter Eliza Newlin Carney, President and Founder