What’s Inside:
Article — Studying the Document Law Schools Don’t Read: The U. S. Constitution
Having the Conversation: How to Teach the U. S. Constitution to Logic and Rhetoric Age Students
Poetry — “The Village Blacksmith” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Studying the Document Law Schools Don’t Read: The U. S. Constitution
One day it dawned on me, while teaching an AP American History class for the second year, that my students had not read the U. S. Constitution. So, I made copies of it, and we read it. The students all took turns reading and the entire class turned the pages together. I was shocked that they all stayed on task the hour it took us to read it. They were curious and they wanted to know what this document of freedom said. One could argue that they were nerds and inclined towards that kind of reading, but their response was anything but nerdy. Having studied the Magna Charta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution in class, a longing in their hearts had developed to know the document that created their country and guaranteed their liberty. A deep love for America had seeped into their hearts and reading the Constitution filled them with joy. When we finished, everyone was quiet for a time and I noticed my students were smiling and happy, and then they began thanking me for allowing them to read it. I had nothing prepared in terms of teaching the Constitution, but my students’ response taught me a valuable lesson as a Classical Christian teacher just starting out — students want to engage in the deep conversations of life. They can handle lofty ideas, and they will allow themselves to be enveloped by them. They want to be a part of something larger than themselves.
Ask a lawyer if he/she actually read the Constitution in his/her Constitutional law class, he/she will likely tell you, “No.” Studying American History and government in college and graduate school, I never received an assignment to read the Constitution. In their classes, most history and government teachers talk about the ideas in the Constitution, but they do not require their students to read it and most of these teachers cannot readily remember if they ever read the entire document themselves. So, if the guardians of American History and the American legal system have not read the Constitution, who is reading it?
I wondered why, previous to my second year as an American History teacher, I had not read the Constitution. Honestly, it appeared too long, cumbersome, and difficult for my students to comprehend. After reading the different arguments over certain clauses in the Constitution from Supreme Court rulings, I wondered if I could even understand it! “For heaven’s sake,” I reasoned with myself, “I have read some really difficult books in graduate school, how is it possible that I could not understand the U. S. Constitution?” When I did read it, I told no one just in case I found it too difficult to comprehend.
I was surprised at its organization, clarity, and succinctness. The first three articles detail the structure and enumerated powers of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The political philosophy of limited government that spread power around so that no one branch of government could corrupt the system was plain to see. The plan to elect the President through the Electoral College was laid out clearly corresponded with the plan to spread out power in government. Even the vague phrases often argued over in Supreme Court cases seemed reasonable. The Bill of Rights were specific and unambiguous.
We get told in our history and government classes how the U. S. government was designed to be a limited constitutional republic, how the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances works, how the judicial system and the Supreme Court works, and about some of the basic rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, and we tell ourselves that we know and understand the Constitution. Even if we take a government class and learn about some basic philosophical principles, we do not usually ask ourselves, ”Where is that in the Constitution exactly? From where did these ideas come?” We just accept what we are told, and we believe ourselves knowledgeable about our government system. And we are knowledgeable in our minds, but we are not knowledgeable in our hearts, because we have not engaged in conversation with the Founding Fathers.
Reading original writings ourselves creates a conversation between us and the people of the past. The nuances of their language, even seen through translations, reveals real people speaking truth and wisdom, and sometimes, not necessarily truth and wisdom. The conversation may seem one-sided, but it is not if the teacher engages in class discussions where the ideas are considered as they were originally written, as though the person were in the room with you, which, in fact, they actually are! Discussions with wise and thoughtful people always lift us up as human beings. They teach us to consider ideas we never thought of previously. Reading primary sources challenges us to figure out why the folks of the past wrote what they wrote. What was their view of the world and how did they come to their conclusions? Sometimes, these voices from the past promote ideas that we come to believe are harmful to man and society and we disagree with them, but again, they challenge us to consider their viewpoint, how they arrived at their conclusions, and whether or not their ideas have any merit. Reading primary sources teaches students to learn to distinguish truth from falsehood, wisdom from folly, and a true understanding of human nature versus the false understanding that underpins most flawed ideologies.
In addition, students learn to measure truth not against others’ ideas, but against the ultimate Truth, God’s Word. We are challenged none the less when we engage in these conversations to either adopt new ideas or to add to and confirm the beliefs we already hold. Agree or disagree, we learn to consider others’ viewpoints, while holding on to truth, which is also a form of spiritual training. Students cannot engage the world for Christ if they verbally condemn people who hold opposing viewpoints.
With so many students throughout America being told that America’s founding and our government was created by white male oppressors who only sought to enrich their own lives, how do we, as Classical Christian educators, address this untrue and harmful ideology? By providing our students with the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood by reading the primary sources that govern our nation’s founding and the Constitution’s development. By having open and honest discussions where all questions can be asked and debated cordially. The ideas of the founding have stood the test of time. They can afford to be, and should be, challenged in an eighth or eleventh grade classroom.
Studying primary sources takes time and it is a process that cannot be rushed if we want our students to believe what is true and not just to “know” what they have been told is true. It takes six weeks out of every year to teach the founding documents to 8th graders, but the life-changing experiences I witness every year assure me that the time is well spent. At the end of “The Great Constitution Exam” that I give every year in my American History classes, I ask my students to write down something they have learned from their study. Without fail, they write one of two things and sometimes both, “I understand the rights/liberty that I have as an American” and “I have to protect the rights/liberty that I have as an American.” Reading the Constitution elicits a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves that needs to be protected.
Students need their teachers to aid them in participating in conversation with the Founding Fathers and others in history. For the future of our students’ hearts and souls, for the future of our nation, we owe them this opportunity. We must engage ourselves with the Founding Fathers, because there is no level in a Classical Christian school where their ideas are not expressed.
How to Teach the U. S. Constitution
When studying the U. S. Constitution with 8th graders:
(I make things more challenging with 11th graders)
First read the preamble and discuss each phrase and its meaning. The purpose of government is to protect the rights of those who are doing right and the laws made are to benefit the whole, not a specific group.
Have the students read one Article at a time for the first three, and they can read 4-7 as a group.
For each Article, I then go back and read each one with the students so that they may take annotated notes.
I provide a detailed homework assignment made up of very specific questions which cover ALL of the basics in terms of organization, procedures, requirements for passing measures through voting, specific powers provided for each branch, age requirements, and any other miscellaneous items specific to each branch.
**Do NOT hold back on your questions. It is important for the students to understand the workings of the government.
We then discuss the underlying philosophy of the structure, the enumerated powers, and limits of each branch of government. Ideas such as federalism, checks and balances, popular sovereignty, separation of powers, etc., come out of these discussions, and students learn to identify specific examples in the Constitution itself.
For Articles IV-VII, we discuss the reasons these ideas were included in the Constitution and the homework assignments are still specific long answer questions.
We also discuss slavery and the end to the Atlantic slave trade and the 3/5 Compromise and the moral issues that are included in the clauses regarding slavery and how they relate to the Declaration of Independence.
After completing homework for each Article(s), students take a quiz that covers all of the specific aspects of the Article(s).
Once the quizzes are over, the students take a test over each Article(s).
All of the quizzes and tests are long answer — no multiple choice or matching — because students need to be challenged to master the structure of the U.S. government. Also included in each exam are basic philosophical ideas and the specific ways they are implemented in the Constitution.
**If they cannot write it out and explain it, then they do not really know it.
“The Great Constitution Exam” is a comprehensive exam covering all of the items in the individual Article(s) exams.
Bill of Rights — get ready for a lot of questions and discussions remembering that you are dealing with youth looking for liberty in their lives.
Quiz and test the students on the Bill of Rights amendments through long-answer assessments. (I save the other amendments for when they occur in history.
With 11th graders, I go on to introduce Federalist Papers 17, 10, 30 and 51. (8th graders struggle to understand them.) We read, discuss and hold a Federalist-Anti-federalist debate where students prepare arguments for both sides.
The Village Blacksmith
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.
His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate’er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.
Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.
And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.
He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter’s voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.
It sounds to him like her mother’s voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.
Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night’s repose.
Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought.