The Declaration of Independence. [Please read this as if you have never read it before--slowly, back and forth, sideways if possible. Try to make the text seem strange. Then read it as if you were its author, revising where you would. Read it again, as an editor. Change your roles with the text, thinking about what printed, published, archived texts allow you to do. But also, thinking about this text, as it permanently is, given what happens when you try to change it.]

The fourth of July provokes so many to share excerpts from this text. You may have heard a good deal of fuss about Twitter during the initial days of unrest in Iran. Today I’ve seen Twitter friends quote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” as they encourage friends to “be free today!” My feed has included promises of picnics, cold drinks and the best spot for watching fireworks downtown.

In fact, all of today’s celebrations and the Twitter story form Iran interesect in another interesting way. So many of my online friends were eager to support what they saw as a people’s movement for independence in Iran. This drove the stream of news from Iran to continue for days as people changed profile pics and avatars to bear the green hue of the opposition movement and retweeted every scrap of news as they found it. Americans love independence and find it difficult to resist a movement that seeks to achieve it.

Today I encourage you to make this assignment from the National Academy part of your celebration. Leave your thoughts in the comments below–what do you have to say as an author or an editor? What resonates more now after the work of the National Academy? What quotes would you like people to discuss more? And, let’s not forget your classroom incubators for American ideals…. did you use some version of this activity in your classroom? What did you do and what did your learn by doing it?

Lastly… if you’re not sharing a few big smiles and hardy laughs with friends and family today, you’re doing something wrong. Here’s some silly fun to mark the day:

Click here to view the embedded video.

From Morgan Freeman’s introduction, “The real glory has been our nation’s epic struggle throughout history to close the gap between the ideals of this remarkable document and the sometimes painful realities of American life.”

Two premises from the intro make this video especially necessary for your Fourth of July celebration:

• Thomas Jefferson called the document, “an expression of the American mind.”
• Scholars speculate Jefferson intended the document to be PERFORMED, publicly with words and rhythms written to be spoken in proud and defiant tones in grand public places.

Click here to view the embedded video.