Teaching History

Mr. Ed Hooper has once again graciously allowed me to post a recent article he has written. It is well worth your time. Mr. Hooper is an award winning journalist, author, and historian. He currently works as editor of the Civil War Courier and the Camp Chase Gazette-- two of the nation’s oldest and largest national publications on the American Civil War historical community.

Teaching History 101: The U.S. Constitution

I was talking to a school group on the Civil War last year when a question regarding the Constitution came into play in the conversation. To further engage them, I asked the students to name the Amendments they felt were relevant to the war. The silence was deafening and the teacher informed me that the students did not study the Constitution as part of the course work for their U.S. history class.

Standard Operating Procedure for a speaker in that situation is to hold your tongue and move forward. A year earlier as President of the local Society or Professional Journalists, I led the organization in battling the Anderson County School System over the seizure of the Oak Ridge High School Newspaper by Principal Becky Ervin for stories that had been published on teenage pregnancies and tattoo art. Student editor Brittany Thomas and writer Krystal Meyers had returned to school that fall to find three of their classmates pregnant and decided to address the issue in the primary story the principal personally deemed “too controversial” to publish.

The seizure of the paper trumped the original stories they had written, in terms of controversy, and picked up ink and airtime across the nation. During the course of actions that followed, three of four rights guaranteed by the First Amendment were exercised by the students in the controversy – freedom of the press, freedom to peaceably assemble, and the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. I did the talk radio circuit and was amazed at how, in the middle of this national story, a unique teaching opportunity blasted right by educators and school administrators, who were worried more about their public image than the lessons that could have been taught to the students about the Constitution. For me, that should have been the focus of the story or at least a good side bar to illustrate why it is important that all U.S. citizens, regardless of who or what they are, know it.

The National Constitution Center conducted a survey a few years ago that showed only 6% of the American people could name all four rights guaranteed by the First Amendment and it goes downhill from there. It is incredible given the fact that 56 percent of those surveyed attended universities, held a baccalaureate degree or were post college graduates. In fact, the lack of knowledge about the governing document of this nation has been called America’s greatest threat by NCC board members, senators, congressmen and other leaders across the U.S.

The document is the law of the land, but quick facts show the document itself is a story of this nation. Its 27 Amendments make it the shortest governing Constitution in the world. It marked the first time the phrase “United States of America” was used. The word “democracy” is never used. And Benjamin Franklin was its oldest signer at 81. He had to be carried in a sedan chair by four prisoners and helped up to pen his name. According to witnesses, it was the first time many had ever seen tears streaming down the elder statesman’s face. With this kind of material to work with, what grade school educator could not find it easy to teach? As of today, however, nothing has been done to address the issue in the classroom and questions regarding Amendments are not on skills tests required to graduate high school. It is imperative the Amendments of the U.S. Constitution be taught in grade school history classes.

One of the biggest myths in U.S. education is the idea that all public school students go on to graduate from a college, university or some other higher institute of learning. According to the last U.S. Census statistics, however, only a little more than 27 percent of Americans hold a baccalaureate degree. This means the only time most students would see Constitutional Amendments in action or learn about them are in grade school. Knowing the Constitution is an American life skill that every citizen within these borders needs to achieve before they are 18 years old. How many soldiers, sailors, and police cadets fresh from the halls of America’s educational system swear to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution from our enemies and scarcely know the document they are sworn to protect? At this moment and every day, hundreds, if not thousands, of newly naturalized citizens, however, are more knowledgeable about the Law of the Land than the average U.S. citizen. Any scholar who has studied history can’t help but draw correlations between the decline of ancient civilizations and modern-day America where the citizenry abandoned its founding principals.

This is the 220^th Anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia. There will be media attention focused on the anniversary at some point during the year and this can provide an opportunity to stress the need for it being a part of the U.S. grade school curriculum. We waged war and defeated an empire to create it, waged war against each other in the 1860s to define it and have fought to preserve it from foreign tyrants ever since. It has served as the basis of constitutions for other nations who wrote their own trying to recreate the U.S. successes within their own borders. Most failed because of the inherent human temptations to harbor power that our forefathers resisted on principle, which is primarily why the U.S. Constitution stands alone in the annals of world history as a governing tool that knows no equal.

I have talked at length with educators about this subject as a reporter, media representative and as a historian. Many are on the pro-Constitution side saying knowledge of the document is as important as the three “R’s, but a large vocal number of educators and activists, who we hear, see and read in the media, have likened the controversy of educating students about the Constitution with teaching the Ten Commandments. Many of these teachers are the very ones who find ways to teach the same students the doctrines of environmentalism, which is a subject plagued with controversy and political overtones. This is a priority that must be put back in proper perspective and teaching the U.S. Constitution has to be a mainstay in history classrooms, especially if civics classes are to be forever regarded by the public school systems as an elective. This is dangerous. If the citizenry of a nation do not know and understand the laws that govern their rights and responsibilities, it is susceptible to losing them. It would be nobler for a civilization to lose those rights against an enemy on the field of battle than through the apathy of its people or the incompetence of its educational bureaucracy.

Ed Hooper - © 2007, used by permission.