2026-06-29T10:12:07-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
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卡拉·塔巴奇尼克 新闻编辑
卡拉·塔巴奇尼克是CBSNews.com的新闻编辑。她的职业生涯始于《新闻日报》的犯罪报道板块，曾为《嘉人》《华盛顿邮报》和《华尔街日报》撰稿，报道司法与人权议题。可通过cara.tabachnick@cbsinteractive.com联系她。
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2026年6月29日 / 美国东部时间上午10:12 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
杰西卡·卡尔弗用话题标签帮助学生理解历史。这位社会研究教师用这种创新方式，让她在奥扎克斯乡村地区教授的11和12年级学生，能围绕这一有着250年历史的主题——《独立宣言》——展开课堂学习。
拥有十余年公民教育教学经验的卡尔弗，要求学生以现代社交媒体视角思考革命时期。有学生写道：“《独立宣言》获批准！#新国家 #终获自由”，以此纪念建国文件获批后殖民地民众的激动心情。
“如果我们在社交媒体上发帖，会如何向人们传递这件事？如果你要拍一条关于波士顿倾茶事件的TikTok，你会说什么？”卡尔弗在阿肯色州奥扎克高中的课堂上，总会向学生提出这类问题，此时他们正在学习《独立宣言》签署前的相关事件。她表示，这种方式有助于建立与仍在影响当下生活的历史事件的联结。
![1776年7月由罗伯特·卢伊斯特·福勒印刷的《独立宣言》副本。乔·弗雷德里克 / 美联社]
在美国7月4日庆祝《独立宣言》签署250周年之际，教育工作者、公民组织、各界领袖和普通民众正想方设法让美国人关注这份保障了新国家自由的文件的签署历程。
这份宣言主要由托马斯·杰斐逊起草，共有56人签署，其中包括开国元勋约翰·亚当斯、塞缪尔·亚当斯、本杰明·富兰克林、约翰·汉考克和杰斐逊本人。开篇第一句“我们认为下述真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等”，奠定了美国政府及美国国民身份认同所依托的原则基石。
“我们国家的起源故事”
理解这份宣言的重要性对下一代而言至关重要，因为“它是我们国家的起源故事，是我们共同的精神遗产”，iCivics组织的首席教育官艾玛·汉弗莱斯说道。该无党派组织由最高法院法官桑德拉·戴·奥康纳创立，旨在推进公民教育。每年有超过14万名教师使用iCivics的教学材料，每年有超过900万名学生参与其开发的游戏活动。
该组织推出了两项旨在让这份建国文件“活起来”的举措：“公民之星挑战”，面向全美50个州的教师开放，可为其课堂申请教学补贴；以及“独立宣言调查”，一款可供学生游玩的互动游戏，帮助他们了解这份文件。
玩家会在游戏中卷入“一场史诗级的国际犯罪”，犯罪分子企图销毁与自由、民主和权利相关的文件。玩家需要通过一系列冒险任务拯救《独立宣言》免遭破坏。但汉弗莱斯解释道，游戏的核心意义在于向玩家展示，这些理念绝非只是印在纸上的文字，文件中蕴含的原则与承诺才是永恒流传的。
“它旨在将那些看似枯燥抽象的内容，变得略带趣味且意义非凡，让年轻人能产生共鸣，”汉弗莱斯说道。
费城国家宪法中心首席学习与内容官朱莉·西尔弗布鲁克，则专注于通过游戏、互动活动和媒体，让全家都能参与到《独立宣言》的学习中来。
该中心为美国建国250周年推出了特版“棋盘游戏版知识竞赛”，她表示这款游戏广受欢迎。她还提到了一个互动在线平台，提供完整的注释文本、音频旁白、原始文件影像和相关视频，供人们深入学习。此外还有一档播客，聚焦这份建国文件核心思想的探讨。
但西尔弗布鲁克最想传递的信息是，“7月4日不应是一个终点——而应是一个起点”，供有意了解美国建国文件与理念的家庭开启学习之旅。
政府的宗旨
民主党知识项目与马萨诸塞州各地的合作伙伴及学校合作，开发并试点围绕《独立宣言》重要性学习的课程与专业发展项目。
课程与实施主管阿德里安娜·比林厄姆·博克告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，“学生学习、阅读、探索、挖掘《独立宣言》具有深远价值，因为其中蕴含着极为深刻的公民理念”。
比林厄姆·博克表示，通过《独立宣言》的语言，学生可以思考政府的宗旨、政府应该做什么、能够做什么，以及“如果政府未能践行其价值观或未履行应尽职责时，可以做出哪些选择”。
阿肯色州的教师卡尔弗表示，她希望学生能设身处地体会美国开国者们的困境，从而理解推翻英国政府、建立新国家是何等艰难。
她说，他们会收听名人朗读《独立宣言》和美国宪法的音频，还会邀请校外嘉宾走进课堂。卡尔弗说，学生们会给参议员写信，学习如何以“公民之声”进行尊重的沟通，以及如何与领袖互动。他们还会探讨自身如何成为领导者。
![学生们写给议员的信件。奥扎克高中]
学生们在县 clerk办公室组织选民登记活动。“这就是《独立宣言》在他们社区的鲜活实践，”她说道。
年轻人需要投身公民事务，才能切身感受《独立宣言》曾经的意义——以及它在今日的意义，她表示。
“《独立宣言》是一份持续生效的文件，作为阿肯色州奥扎克地区的17岁青少年，他们正亲身践行着这份宣言的精神，”卡尔弗说道。
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Teaching the Declaration of Independence with hashtags 250 years later
2026-06-29T10:12:07-0400 / CBS News
By
Cara Tabachnick News Editor
Cara Tabachnick is a news editor at CBSNews.com. Cara began her career on the crime beat at Newsday. She has written for Marie Claire, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She reports on justice and human rights issues. Contact her at cara.tabachnick@cbsinteractive.com
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June 29, 2026 / 10:12 AM EDT / CBS News
Jessica Culver teaches her students to understand history with hashtags. It is one of the innovative ways the social studies teacher engages her classes of 11th and 12th grade students in rural Ozarks while studying a 250-year-old subject: the Declaration of Independence.
Culver, who has taught civic education for more than a decade, asks her students to think about the revolutionary period through the modern-day lens of social media. A student wrote the tweet, “The DOI has been approved! #newcountry #finallyfree” to mark the excitement felt in the colonies after the ratification of the founding document.
“How would we tell people about it if we were posting on social media? If you were making a TikTok about the Boston Tea Party, what would you say?” Culver said she would ask her students at Ozark High School in Arkansas as they learned about the events that led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. She said it helps create a connection to past events that still shape our lives today.
A copy of the Declaration of Independence, printed by Robert Luist Fowle in July 1776. Joe Frederick / AP
As the country celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July Fourth, educators, civic organizations, leaders and citizens are finding ways to engage Americans around the signing of the document, which guaranteed the new nation’s freedoms.
The declaration, primarily written by Thomas Jefferson and signed by 56 people, including founding figures John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and Jefferson. The opening line starts with “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” which cements the principles on which our government and our identity as Americans are based.
“Our nation’s origin story”
Understanding its importance is central for the next generation because “it’s our nation’s origin story, our shared inheritance,” said Emma Humphries, the chief education officer at iCivics, a nonpartisan organization founded by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to advance civic learning. More than 140,000 teachers use iCivics material annually, and more than 9 million students play its games each year.
The organization launched two initiatives to bring the founding document to life: Civic Star Challenge, which allows teachers from all 50 states to apply for stipends for their classrooms, and the Investigation Declaration, an interactive game students can play to learn about the document.
Users dive into a game featuring “an international crime of epic proportions” in which criminals aim to destroy documents related to freedom, democracy and rights. A series of adventures might save the Declaration of Independence from being harmed. But the point of the game, Humphries explained, is to show that these ideas aren’t just what’s printed on paper; it’s the principles and the promises embedded in the documents that endure forever.
“It’s meant to take what can feel really dry and abstract and make it a little goofy and meaningful and relevant for young people,” Humphries said.
Julie Silverbrook, chief learning and content officer at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, focuses on ways to bring the entire family together to learn about the Declaration through games, play and media.
The center issued a special edition of the Trivial Pursuit game for America’s 250th anniversary, which she said was popular. She pointed to an interactive online platform for full annotated text, audio narration, original document images and videos to learn more. There’s also a podcast about the ideas at the heart of the founding document.
But the message Silverbrook wanted to impart most was that “July Fourth should not be an endpoint — it should be a starting line” for families interested in learning about the founding documents and ideals of America.
The purpose of government
The Democratic Knowledge Project works with partners and schools across Massachusetts to develop and pilot curriculum and professional development around learning about the importance of the Declaration of Independence.
Adrianne Billingham Bock, director of curriculum and implementation, told CBS News there is “deep value in students learning, reading, exploring, uncovering the Declaration because of its really deep civic concepts within it.”
Through the language of the Declaration of Independence, Billingham Bock said, students can think about the purpose of government, what it is supposed to be doing, what it can be doing and what choices can be made “if the government isn’t living up to its values or isn’t doing what it’s supposed to be doing.”
Culver, the Arkansas teacher, said she wants her students to try to place themselves in the struggles of America’s founders, so they can understand how difficult it was to overthrow the British government and become a new nation.
She said they listen to celebrities reading the Declaration and Constitution, and she brings in outside speakers to the classroom. Students write letters to their senators, learning how to engage respectfully with a “civic voice” and how to interact with leaders, Culver said. They also look at ways they can be leaders themselves.
Students with letters they wrote to legislators. Ozark High School
Students organize a voter registration drive from the county clerk’s office. “That’s the Declaration in action in their community,” she said.
Young people need to get out and participate in civic duty to feel what the Declaration of Independence meant — and still means today, she said.
“The Declaration is a continuous document that they’re living as 17-year-olds in Ozark, Arkansas,” Culver said.
Join CBS for “The Great American Block Party 250,” a primetime special on Saturday, July 4, hosted by CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil and Entertainment Tonight’s Nischelle Turner, featuring live musical performances, celebrations around the country, and the largest fireworks show in history in the skies over the nation’s capital. Tune in July 4 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and stream it on Paramount+ and CBS News 24/7.