What’s Inside?
Article — Teaching Students to Love the Founding Documents By Teaching Magna Charta
How to Teach the Magna Charta
Poetry
Teaching Students to Love the Founding Documents by Teaching Magna Charta
Teaching Logic and Rhetoric age students the fundamental principles of government found in America’s founding documents begins with a study of Magna Charta (yes, I know I am “misspelling” it, but I like the old spellings of documents:). An article, written by Daniel Hannan titled “Eight Centuries of Liberty,” printed in the Wall Street Journal May 30-31, 2015, celebrating the 800th anniversary of Magna Charta stated, “Magna Carta has always been a bigger deal in the U.S. than in Britain.” In order to teach young students the profundity of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, it is fundamental that they develop an abiding appreciation for Magna Charta.
In the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C., a copy of the Magna Charta from 1297 is on permanent display. It is not housed in the same room as the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, but it is housed in the room next door signifying its foundational importance to the development of the American political system.
Hannon claimed that after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, a lawyer named Edward Coke was responsible for the revival of the principles embodied in Magna Charta in English politics in the early 17th century. Coke argued that the monarchy had become too powerful and was overriding the restraints of Magna Charta. According to Hannon, folks in England developed a renewed interest in Magna Charta and they began using it to empower Parliament against the king.
Coke wrote the First Virginia Charter in 1606. The original English charters for the American colonies stated clearly that the colonists were English citizens governed by Parliament, in particular regarding overseas trade, and that they were to be self-governing in terms of making their own laws, taxing themselves, defending themselves, etc. Thus, when Parliament, with the king’s approval, in the 1750s and 1760s began violating the terms of the charters, the colonists claimed that their rights as English citizens were being violated. Reading the Declaration of Independence, particularly the grievances, it becomes clear that the violation of some guaranteed rights went all the way back to 1215.
Because Magna Charta created an historic break from the systems of monarchy that had developed in Europe during the Middle Ages by establishing a document that created a rule of law that held even the king accountable, students can witness how seeds of truth and liberty have been planted throughout Western Civilization. When they study English history, they can learn how the seeds of 1215 were watered and how the ideas eventually grew and flourished – how liberty for a few eventually became liberty for all. In the process, students learn that liberty is not a given – it must be watered and cultivated so that it can thrive and spread.
As one attempts to teach the Magna Charta, it is vital to tell the magnificent story where the king had a knife held to his throat in order to force him to give up much of his political power to the country’s barons. Point out the irony that a document intended to establish justice and the rule of law became the law of the land through a threat of violence. Correspondingly, prior to the American Revolution, the colonists insisted that the king and parliament follow the rule of law, and when they refused to do so, a war was fought to guarantee the colonists’ right to be governed by their own rule of law. Throughout history, liberty is something that has had to be fought for and high prices have been paid for it. If this is true, then how are each of us valuing, protecting, and promoting liberty in America?
When teaching Magna Charta, require the students to think through the ideas of justice and private property and how they are the foundations of liberty in a political system. Systematically teach the principles of government found in Magna Charta: private property, due process, voluntary consent, federalism, republicanism, citizenship, and the first inklings of religious liberty. Define these terms and help students think through what they mean individually using examples from everyday life so that they can begin to ponder why such principles are important for establishing the way we live as a society. Make clear to the students that the points made in Magna Charta were a direct response to rampant injustice and theft of private property, both of which denied liberty for everyone, save the king.
Magna Charta has something to teach us that is being lost in today's culture due to sheer ignorance of basic political philosophy. The barons in 1215 understood that the more freedom people had in handling their own private property then the more political and economic liberty the people enjoyed. What an idea to share with today's youth who bandy about the words socialism and communism as though they were some sort of rallying cry of oppressed people, when really they are the very words that promote the theft of private property and directly result in the loss of individual liberty.
Understanding the governmental principles embedded in the charter will provide students the opportunity to consider and ponder lofty ideas while also reading about their practical applications. Thus, when students go on to read the Declaration of Independence, they will be practiced in identifying principles of government and their practical application, thus enabling the students to develop a profound appreciation and even love for the Declaration of Independence.
Studying Magna Charta shows students that America’s origins come from different peoples and nations throughout Western Civilization who were practicing politics just like we are. Americans owe much of our freedom to the seeds planted in England, but also those planted in Jerusalem, Rome, and Athens. When you read the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, it becomes evident that the Founding Fathers were reacting to injustice that still existed in England that prevented the people there from flourishing in liberty. In America, they were trying to set things right. In years to come, England would be influenced by America and her people would experience more liberty than ever before in their history. Students can come to understand that the liberty our Founding Fathers established was not meant just for the American people, but for people around the world.
Final note, when students spend enough time with a document, pondering, considering, analyzing and writing about it, they develop a love for it. (The Bible is a case in point.) The exercise of the collective study, reading, analyzing, correlating, etc. develops a deep appreciation and understanding for such documents. Students’ lives are changed for the better and not just their minds, but their hearts and souls as well, after studying documents that promote ideas such as liberty and justice. When you see a group of 8th graders flock en masse to the 1297 Magna Charta in the National Archives and try to read it and then realize that they cannot, but they stare at it pondering what it represents, you know that lives have been changed for the better. When students talk about Magna Charta years after studying it and link its principles to other events/stories in their studies, you know its principles found their way into the students’ hearts. It takes time to study profound documents in a classroom setting, but remember, you are not merely studying — you engendering change in the hearts, souls, and minds of your students.
**Read the next section of the newsletter where I provide a lesson on how to teach Magna Charta to young people so that they will understand it, analyze it, and apply the principles to everyday life in England and today.**
How to Teach Magna Charta as a Primary Source Document
When teaching Magna Charta to young people, teaching the truth of the history of the document is imperative. It is important to note that the points laid out in Magna Charta are clearly a reaction to perceived wrongdoings that existed in England at the time. The Barons were trying to correct the injustice and the theft that was occurring. Their motives may have been more for themselves than anybody else, but the consequences were the recognition that a government has to be held in check or it will steal and defraud the people of justice and private property. We learn from Magna Charta that government is not basically good, that people are basically corrupt, and checks have to be put into place to keep people who serve in government in check.
It is important to take the next step slowly and carefully. Provide the students the principles of government found in Magna Charta. The definitions are not law school, scholarly type definitions; they are fairly simple because you are dealing with young people who likely do not have an understanding of governmental principles. Reviewing the principles requires a conversation. You want to write down the different principles, a simplified definition, and then discuss how this principle is working in our society today. Find positive and negative examples so that the students can understand them when they are at work and when they are not. In addition, discuss what the principles looked like applied and not applied in other times throughout history. Encourage the students to come up with their own examples that they have studied or experienced. The students need to have as deep and grounded an understanding of the principles as possible if they are to find them in Magna Charta. Discussing examples of principles of government at work or not at work are the key to the successful completion of this exercise. Students need to understand that the folks who wrote Magna Charta were trying to correct injustice and to create justice by implementing the principles in its tenets, so that they become invested in searching out the truths in the document.
Study the document teaching students to paraphrase, analyze, and correlate corresponding ideas.
Limit the number of tenets of Magna Charta to read, analyze, and correlate for 8th and 11th grades. Have the 11th grade read the entire document and analyze each tenet, but write out correlations for a limited number of tenets.
Read through Magna Charta with the students and help them understand the meaning of each tenet by asking them what different phrases mean, and then piecing the meaning together to get a comprehensive explanation. Make the students do the heavy lifting. Do not ever give them the meaning of the text (unless after repeated attempts they just cannot get it).
Teach them to paraphrase the text accurately. Have the students write their own paraphrases and then offer answers in class. Write the best answers, usually they will be pieced together by different students, on the board as examples. Modeling acceptable paraphrases is important for the exercise to be successful. (You can limit the modeling for 11th grade if they seem to understand how to paraphrase accurately.)
For 8th grade only, after writing the paraphrases, let the students figure out which principle(s) works for each tenet in class. Have them explain their reasons verbally.
Next the students have to take language from the paraphrased version of each assigned Magna Charta tenet and phrases from the definitions of the governmental principles and write down specifically how they correlate. *This is a difficult exercise for 8th graders to do initially, which is the reason I limit the number of points that they read and have to analyze.
Each grade needs to understand the correlation that the people in England held between justice and the use of private property and their causation to political and economic liberty.
Definitions of the Principles of Government
Religious Liberty: no laws limiting the type of religion people can follow or how a church conducts its business
Private Property: whatever a person buys with their own money, makes with their own hands, or learns with their mind is their private property; each person has a God-given right to do with it as they please as long as it harms no one else
Due Process: fair treatment in the judicial system which includes a right to have witnesses, who can be compelled to testify, and a right to have a jury of your peers
(I encapsulate these ideas under the principle of due process because I distinguished due process from fair trial)
Voluntary Consent: people voluntarily agree to follow the laws that are made by their own representatives in a legislative body
Federalism: government exists in separate levels over the people
(There is the federal level and the local level in Medieval England)
Republicanism: the people hold the power in the government by pointing representatives to make laws for them
Fixed Place of the Courts: courts will not move around so that people know exactly where they can petition for justice
(This could go under due process but Magna Charta makes a big deal out of it so I put it as a principal of government on its own teaching students that have the reason we have fixed courts in the United States fix places of the courts so that people can can pursue justice equitably)
Fair Trial: a person is tried in the area the crime was committed; the trial is public speedy and the person knows the cause for which they're being brought to trial
(This could go under due process, but it is an easier concept for students to understand and also it is easier to relate to the Bill of Rights later on)
Citizenship: the legal right to live in a particular place; the legal right to leave the country of your residence and to be able to come back and live there without any question
I also teach the students that Magna Charta helped establish English Common Law, which was derived from the custom and judicial precedent, not the laws created by Parliament. English Common Law are the legal principles that have been commonly followed for a very long time in England. (I do not expect 8th grade students to understand English Common Law, but I do want to introduce it to them because they will learn it when they study English History, and I want them to already have knowledge of the idea.)
Selected tenets:
Feel free to select the the points of Magna Charta that you prefer, but the following cover all of the principles and some tenets have two principles at work:
1, 2, 3, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 23, 38, 39, 40, 42, 61, and 63.
Examples of a completed exercises:
9) (Paraphrase) Neither the Barons nor the police force will take any land or rent for payment of a debt when the debtor has movable goods that can be used to pay off the debt.
Principal: Private Property -- private property is whatever a person buys with his own money, makes with his own hands, or learns with his own mind
Correlation: The principle of private property applies to the 9th tenet of Magna Charta because it is protecting a person's property of land. A person who owns land either bought it with his own money or developed it by working it with his own hands. To take a man's property for payment of a debt is reasonable, but because his property is his own, the owner can decide how the debt is discharged. It seems that this principle was written down because people in debt were losing their land instead of being able to pay the debt off by selling the things they used for farming. By taking a person’s land that they were working, all the other movable goods that they had were of no use to them any longer: they had no place to store them and no place to use them without their land, so the person who took the land might well have taken all of the movable good on it as well. In essence, if a person lost his land, then he lost most of what he owned. Paying a debt is important and necessary, but taking more than what is owed is theft. (8th grade students do not need to write all of this, but do expect them to explain the correlation thoroughly. 11th graders should be writing this in depth.)
14) (Paraphrase) To obtain the general agreement of the country to assess a tax, the church and societal leaders will receive a letter summoning them. The land holders in the area will receive a general summons with the name of a fixed place and a fixed time to meet 40 days ahead of time. The reason for the meeting will be stated in the summons. The business of the meeting will be conducted whether or not everyone is present and the decision will be reached.
Principle: Voluntary Consent -- people voluntarily agree to the laws that will govern them
Principal: Republicanism -- the people hold the power in the government through representatives whom they agreed to allow to make laws for them
Correlation: Magna Charta #14 says that voluntary agreement to assess taxes will be made by church and societal leaders of the area in which they all live. Because the principal of voluntary consent says that people voluntarily agree to the laws that will govern them, number 14 creates a system in which local leaders will meet to decide how much tax will be assessed on everyone in the area. The laws regarding taxation are being voluntarily agreed to by the people through the re[presentatives who attend the meeting on their behalf.
Correlation: Republicanism says that the people hold the power in the government through representatives who agree to make laws on their behalf. Number 14 allows the people of the realm to decide what laws they will make for themselves through representatives. Thus, the people hold the power in the government.
23) (Paraphrase) No town or person will be compelled to build bridges over rivers except if they have a long-standing obligation to do so.
Principal: Private Property -- whatever a person buys with his money, makes with his hands, and learns with his mind is his property, and he can do with it as he wishes.
Correlation: Because a person's labor is his property, number 23 matches the principle of private property. A person can use his labor, what he makes with his hands, according as he wishes, so he cannot be forced to give his labor to build a bridge if he has no obligation to do so and/or has made no promise to do so.
38) (Paraphrase) From now on, no official will be able to put a person on trial based on his accusations alone. The official has to produce witnesses to confirm the truth of his accusations.
Principle: Due Process -- fair treatment in a judicial system means the right to a fair trial, which requires the right to have witnesses.
Correlation: To be placed on trial by the accusation of one person who holds authority would not be fair, because one person's word, even an official, should not count more than another's. The official could be mistaken, and not want to admit his mistake after the accusation has been made due to embarrassment, or even lie about what he saw or heard, because he had ulterior motives and possibly sought to harm the person being accused. Only when more than one person can corroborate the official's accusation, was it deemed that a person could be tried fairly, because it would be more difficult to get additional witnesses to lie about the same circumstances. Different witnesses would have different accounts, so their accounts would have to agree in order for the person to be convicted. The burden of proof of the accusation fell in the accuser, not the accused. The accuser’s authority was not considered more important than justice being served.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Excerpt of The Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia, July 4,1776
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Preamble to the United States Constitution, Philadelphia, September 17, 1787