PARKLAND, Fla. – The ongoing coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest are reminders of the role government plays in our daily lives.
With the election just weeks away, a new book has come out that explains how it all works, and the author is a teacher from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who became an inspiration to his students after the massacre in February of 2018.
The book is titled “For Which We Stand” and its 176 pages are all about how our government works and why it matters.
It is authored by Jeff Foster.
“I thought it’d be an amazing opportunity,” he told Local 10.
For 20 years Foster has been an advanced placement government teacher at Stoneman Douglas.
He was approached by Scholastic to write a civics book for young folks.
“It’s all about trying to get people inspired to realize that they can actually contribute,” he explained.
Foster is close to the MSD tragedy, which organically sparked the March For Our Lives movement that was led by several former students at the school, including Emma Gonzalez and others.
“David Hogg called me at 1 a.m. to ask me what he should say to Nancy Pelosi next morning,” Foster recalled.
Gonzalez, who has become the voice of a younger generation, said Foster helped her and other students “...by teaching us to understand how the government actually works, how we could work it and how we could become active citizens who stand up for what we care about.”
The book covers many things like the U.S. Constitution, our branches of government, the Electoral College and political parties.
“In my class, from day one to day 180, I say you can’t complain if you don’t participate,” Foster said.
The COVID-19 pandemic and recent social unrest, Foster believes reminds us that civics education matters.
“Even though we focus on the presidential race, we focus on the president how it’s all levels of government, how they work and how they impact your daily existence,” he said.