I've added some government links in the sidebar

US Capitol - Washington, DC via sierragt2k/flickr

When I was an 8th grader at Bennett School years and years and years ago I took Public Law 194 which is basically a requirement before passing beyond elementary school. What's required is a passing grade on an examination on both the US and Illinois Constitutions.

When I went to Harold Washington College & Morehouse College years ago it was taught that a constitutions is a written framework as to how a government is expected to operate.

In the 7th grade under a teacher - Mr. Albrecht - he gave us a little taste of what we'd learn when we pass into the 8th grade. However, I must admit that it didn't click until it was time to take this test and our 8th grade teacher drilled us on what we should know so that we passed the test.

In a way, I'm glad he did although he shall remain nameless for the moment. Still if it wasn't for that period of time perhaps politics would never have been my interest!

As a result lately one task for this blog was to compile some government links to the sidebar here. Hopefully a young person in school right now can use these links to gain an understanding of our system of government. I try to keep them basic because over at my other blog - The Sixth Ward - there are more links than you shall know what to do with.

All the same, yeah the links are to the many governments which are critical and under whom we live. Yeah we live in the City of Chicago and the city operates many departments that will directly affect many of us - especially the Chicago Public Schools for example. In addition to that we do live in the United States of America and the State of Illinois.

In addition to that, if you haven't taken a test yet on not only the US Constitution or Illinois Constitution there are links to those documents to be provided here. What this means is that you won't have to merely depend on the materials that your respective teachers will give you. Hopefully they will appreciate the effort you're taking to understand the material you might find yourself tested on.

Here's hoping that you will find yourself as interested in politics as I was at 14-years-old. Hopefully many of you will become our future leaders!

BTW, an example of the test 8th Graders took back in the 1950s posted here in January 2011 . Do you think you could've passed that test?

ALSO, you may be interested in who represents you both in Washington as a Representative or Senator or in Springfield as your state legislators.