Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesLaird Monahan walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial past a giant banner printed with the Preamble to the United States Constitution during a demonstration against the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling on Oct. 20, 2010.Go to related 2010 blog post »
Sept. 17 is Constitution Day, the day when the writers at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the United States Constitution in 1787.
Dust is far from gathering on this 225-year-old document, however (not least because it is preserved in the highly protected, temperature-regulated National Archives case): The Constitution influences our lives, schools and government every single day.
Each school day is an opportunity to make the Constitution relevant in your classroom by empowering students to research big questions, think critically, defend their arguments with evidence and speak their opinions with the protections that the Constitution entitles us. And each news day offers new opportunities to have them do this by wrestling with real-life issues.
For instance, witness last week’s biggest news story — the protests in the Middle East against an American-made online video mocking the Prophet Muhammad — and think about the constitutional questions involved.
That the most powerful government on Earth does not have the authority to shut down a 14-minute video made by an obscure or unknown producer confounds many people around the world. But for students who have studied American government, the reason is simple: the Constitution.
We have an extensive, and ever-growing, page of Resources for Teaching the Constitution where we gather our best lessons, Student Opinion questions and guest posts, along with the latest relevant New York Times articles and Room for Debate forums.
Using the resources from that page, here are five ways to bring the Constitution into your classroom today, or any day:
1. Ask your students to write about their opinions on hot-button topics using our Student Opinion feature.
For instance, we’ve recently asked:
- Should Stores Sell Violent Video Games to Minors?
- Should a Gay Teenager Be Allowed to Take a Date to the Prom?
- Where Do You Stand on Unconcealed Handguns?
- Are Children of Illegal Immigrants Entitled to a Public Education?
2. Page through any day’s Times to find issues related to the Constitution.
For example:
- Freedom of speech issues, such as the question of YouTube’s handling of hate videos
- Gun rights, as related, for instance, to the recent mass shootings inColorado and Michigan
- The role of the Electoral College during this election year
- Personal freedoms, like New York City’s ban on large-size sugary drinks
- Checks and balances, as shown through the ongoing struggle between Congress, the Supreme Court and the Obama administration (and discussed in this Opinion piece)
- Voting rights, with the issue of voter ID laws in the news. (See this Op-Docas well as today’s article, “Looking, Very Closely, for Voter Fraud.”)
3. Consider freedom of the press with the front page of any day’s New York Times.
Imagine we lived in a country without Constitutional protections in which the government could censor newspapers. What would the front page of today’s edition — or any day’s edition — of The Times look like?
Using a red marker, put an X over any story that wouldn’t be published if the government controlled our press. Use our graphic organizer (PDF) to help.
4. Read Room for Debate, a regular Times feature that provides a forum for multiple voices on a particular topic — a very celebration of first amendment freedoms and how they serve the public.
Here are some Room for Debate topics that touch on constitutional issues:
- If the United States Constitution were being written today, what wo...
- Is segregation back in United States public schools?
- Should candidates have to pass a civics test?
5. Explore important Supreme Court cases with our lesson plans.
