Brown University, Choices Program

The Choices for the 21st Century Education Program is a national education initiative based at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. The program develops printed and online teaching resources on historical and current international issues, provides professional development for classroom teachers, and sponsors the Capitol Forum on America's Future, a program that engages students beyond the classroom at their state capitols.

The Choices Program was established in 1988 to engage students at the secondary level in consideration of the historical roots and current realities of the most pressing international concerns of our day, to instill in them a commitment to understand these issues from a range of ideological and disciplinary perspectives, and to encourage them to participate in shaping the world in which they live. The Capitol Forum on America's Future is a civic education initiative that engages high school students in civic practice and consideration of current international issues.

The content of the Capitol Forum on America's Future grows out of the curriculum work of the Choices Program. The program involves students within their social studies classroom and beyond the classroom at their state capitol. The program encourages greater integration of international content into the curriculum at the secondary level and engages high school students in authentic deliberation on a range of international issues. The program provides an opportunity for students to become actively involved in studying and deliberating with their peers on important current international issues and then to have their voices heard beyond their own classroom or school. It also provides professional development opportunities for the teachers involved.