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This article appeared in the Mobile Register on May 25, 2005. I think the subject certainly deserves much more than the time allotted.
Schools Must Teach Constitution
The Constitution long has ensured that Congress can't tell schools what to teach. But that's no longer the case for at least one topic --the Constitution itself.
The Education Department outlined Tuesday how it plans to enforce a little-known provision that Congress passed in 2004: Every school and college that receives federal money must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.
Schools can determine what kind of educational program they want, but they must hold one every year on the now-named "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day". And if Sept. 17 falls on a weekend or holiday, schools must schedule a program immediately before or after that date.
Historically, the federal government has avoided dictating what or when anything must be taught because those powers rest with the states under the 10th Amendment. The Education Department's Web site even underlines that point, saying matters such as the development of curricula and the setting of course requirements fall outside federal authority.
But Congress stepped in when it came to the nation's foundational document, thanks to Sen. Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat who kepps a copy of the Constitution in his pocket. Byrd inserted the Constitution lesson mandate into a massive spending bill in 2004, frustrated by what he called a huge ignorance on the part of many Americans about history.
__________________ Thea
No one has permission to use any material from any of my posts on any CWT forum, the archives, or any other forum without my express written permission.
The whole thing sounds like a bad idea to me. Yet another feel good measure that no one can say no to. I'm all for learning more American history, but the subject is not something you take care of one day a year with a James Madison coloring sheet and a Constitution cake.
My wife is a school teacher, and she works her butt off........but I wouldn't want her to try to explain the Constitution. Its not exactly exciting, and what it includes and doesn't is meaningless without some good background knowledge.
I hate to say it, but I'd rather see a C-Span or maybe History Channel special on it. A 10 part miniseries would be a good start.
Has anyone ever questioned why this primary piece of history isn't a semester's worth of study for any teenager? Are we so involved with diversity, black history, sex ed, driver's ed, English as a second language, gym, PE, PC, et alii, that we can't devote a half of one year to study the constitution?
Cedarstripper, your wife is a teacher. Does she ever get frustrated about teaching froo-froo instead of basics? Where is geography these days? European history? American history?
I should apologize for kvetching, but I won't. It seems that our children are studying, not things that will enable them to cope, but things that will make them more sensitive.
Learn to read, spell, and calculate. Then discover where you came from and how the country runs. From that base, you can go anywhere.
As an educator I welcome it, with open arms. I will now be able to take and entire five hour class and teach something that matters and the administration can not stop me.
The bill of rights, the history of the document itself, the amendment process, what it actually says, not just what people are told it says.
Come Monday I will be informing the administration of my college about this law, and requesting handouts, there are little booklets, I used to have them in my scoutmaster days, which have the entire constitution, I will be requesting enough for the entire college.
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Question! What are you going to teach and what? There isn't a hand full on this board that agree with each other. How do you know your point of view is right? I'm not trying to make you mad but that's where a lot of this PC is coming from now, from the schools and college.
Martin
__________________ "I want to bury myself in a den of books. I want to saturate myself with the elements of which they are made and breathe their atmosphere until I am of it."
--Lew Wallace, 1885
Come Monday I will be informing the administration of my college about this law, and requesting handouts, there are little booklets, I used to have them in my scoutmaster days, which have the entire constitution, I will be requesting enough for the entire college.
I love it….
I keep handy my little booklet which has the DOI and the Constitution in their entirety along with a very nice preface. The Cato Institute sent them out every year. Would be lost without it.
Although, the point I suspect Thea was really trying to make was that the imposition of this Constitution Day by the federal DOE was stepping on the toes of state education departments.
Last edited by cedarstripper; 06-11-2005 at 07:53 AM.
while i agree with Thea about the DOE stepping on toes, that does not mean I will not take advantage of it
as to the PC question, I am about as Un PC as one can be, so I intend on teaching the simple truth.
a right is a right, there are ten specified
read the document and learn that is the most intelligent thing ever writtin by man. fits all circumstances, covers all bases.
amendments are something we have to live with, while we may not agree with some (I do not, that whole income tax thing for instance) but they are the law
Political correctness is about abridgeing the fist amendment. as to the second, what part of "Shall not infringe" dont people understand. etc...
no I will not be very PC, the most important thing I want my students to understand is this
the constitution is NOT about the rights the government gives us. It is about the rights we keep FROM the government. The power of the American People, a right to say no and limits on our government.
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