A post during the first session at Montpelier initiated this series of inviting us to think about our role as teachers and officers of the U.S. Constitution. The task was to discuss each goal of the Constitution in our own terms and share how we support these goals in our work as teachers.
For this installment, we focus on the goal of forming a more perfect union. What does this mean to you as a teacher and how does your work make achieving this goal possible?
Please click on “comments” below and add your thoughts.
–Shellee
Ahhh, one of me favorite turns. There are three parts there: FORMING, MORE PERFECT, and UNION.
“Forming a more perfect union” can help students to understand the imperfections of the founders, for one. I acknowledge the past through history, then move into construction with civics. It helps them greatly with the oxymoron of the slave-owning liberators.
Knowing that James Madison and Alexander Hamilton were–in their hearts and through their pens–abolitionists, yet faced with a house divided gives context. (A MAJOR goal for teachers, this is, since our talk-show, cheap-news culture fails to offer depth.)
Once we explore that disconnect, we can come back to UNION again and again. Through that lens, we can view the slavery debates and compromises, and the Civil War.
We can then examine more critically the Jim Crow laws and segregation and round it all out with Dr. King’s words, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.” (MORE PERFECT)
I didn’t do it last year, but I’m going to get my students forward-looking and ask them, How could we be more perfect? What work is left to be done? I’ll have them search for an article explaining a current problem, then look for solutions. (FORMING)
Of course, I’m lucky enough to teach my kids for an average of a three-year cycle; this allows me to really tackle this stuff in earnest. However, I’m sure that it can be done in less time. The We the People text provides a nice enough complement of history side-by-side with civics. Sprinkle with some primary docs and voila!