DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 273 547 SO 017 499

AUTHOR Burroughs, Wynell G.; Mueller, Jean WestTITLE Using Documents To Teach the Constitution. Our

Heritage in Documents.INSTITUTION National Archives and Records Service (GSA),

Washington, D.C.PUB DATE 85NOTE llp.PUB TYPE Guides - Classroom Use - Guides (For Teachers) (052)

-- Journal Articles (080)JOURNAL CIT Prologue; v17 p172-180 Fall 1985

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 P1as Postage.DESCRIPTORS *Constitutional History; Curriculum Guides; High

Schools; Instructional Materials; Junior HighSchools; Learning Modules; Resource Units; *SocialStudies; Teaching Guides; Two Year Colleges; UnitedStates History

IDENTIFIERS *Document Analysis; *United States Constitution

ABSTRACTIn response to the concern for the spreading

constitutional and historical ignorance of students, the essayoutlines the development of an instructional unit on the Constitutionbased on selected and personal documents. Covering a developmentperiod of approximately 1.5 years, the assay traces the step-by-stepefforts of the National Archives to develop a supplemental teachingunit on the Constitution. The process included examining existingmaterial packets; reviewing the professional literature; surveyingcurrent textbooks' handling of the Constitution; consultingarchivists; selecting key documents; tracing the development of asingle constitutional issue; and overcoming the problems ofresearching and writing the unit. Realizing few teachers will use the35-document unit in its entirety, the aim of the ConstitutionalPacket as conceived by the National Archives is to enable students tobetter understand and appreciate the Constitution, to enliven the keyfigures in its history, to demonstrate its impact upon their lives,and to realize that the Constitution is a living document. (TRS)

************************************************************************ Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made *

* from the original dtcument. *

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USING DOCUMENTS TO TEACH THE CONSTITUTION

BY

WYNELL G. BURROUGHS AND JEAL WEST MUELLER

PALL 1985

2

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THISMATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

,4:745/ Aw-A11913

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONOffice of Educational Research and Improvement

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)43. document has been reproduced as

received lrom the person or organizationoriginating it.

0 Minor changes have been made to improvereproduction quality.

Points of vie* or opinions stated in this docu-ment do not necesaarily represent officialOERI position or policy.

OurfieritaOur Heritage in Documents has beetz developed tobroaden the appreciation of the federal documentaryheritage by both researchers and the general public.In each issue that it appears, Our Heritage in Doc-uments will focus on a single document or a smallnumber of related documents that elucidate an im-portant chapter in our nation's past. Each essay will

Using Documentsto Teach theConstitution

By Wynell Burroughs andJean West Mueller

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Evolutionof aGovernment

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discuss the origin and nature of the docunzents, theirimportance to ozir understanding of American history,and how they can be used today. Copies of the doc-utnents discussed in this feature are available for usein the National Archives building in Washington,D.C., in some instances at its eleven regional branches,or may be purchased.

n the Star Trek episode "The Omega Glory,"Capt. James T. Kirk astonishes the savageAnks by declaiming the holy words whichthey had debasnd over centuries of rote

repetition to the point of gibberish. Their mysticphrase was "We the people of the United States,in order to form a more perfect union, establishjustice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide forthe common defense, promote the general wel-fare, and secute the blessings of liberty to our-selves and our posterity, do ordain and establishthis Constitution for the United States of Amer-ica." As the Constitution approaches the cele-bration of its second century, more must be donelest the words and ideas in this great documentbecome as meaningless to the American peopleas they were to the Anks.

In fact, ignorance of this nation's constitu-tional principles is altogether too common atpresent. High school students, for example, havea poor understanding of the Constitution, as ev-idenced by several projec!s and studies now inprogress. In 1980 the American Historical As-sociation and the American Political Science As-sociation held a conference on "Teaching theConstitution in American Schools" for the pur-pose of assessing the status of teaching aboutthe Constitution and to offer recommendationsfor needed programs. In one forceful paper pre-sented at the conference, Karen S. Dawson ofWashington University in St. Louis reviewedstandardized test scores of secondary school stu-dents on constitutional and citizenship issuesand concluded that there were significant defi-ciencies in American adolescents' knowledge ofdemocracy, knowledge of the structure andfunction of government, and recognition of gov-ernment offidals. We concur with Dr. Dawson'sassessment. Based on our own teaching expe-riences in public school classrooms in Tusca-loosa, Alabama and Fairfax County, Virginia, weknow that many students are convinced that the

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One of the documents chosen for inclusion in the National Archives teaching unit was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787which organized the Northwest Territory and established procedures for admitting new states into the Union.

4TEACHING TI-IE CONSTITUTION 173

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Another document in the Archives teaching unit is the formal record of the oath of office taken by President GeorgeWashington on April 30, 1789. Inset is a painting commemorating the event.

PROLOGUE

Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rightsrepresent all that they need to know about theirgovernment. In response, we expended extratime and effort by running simulated constitu-tional conventions or assigning analyses of theConstitution as a utopian blueprint in an attemptto bring our students to a more complete un-derstanding and appreciation of this docu-mentthe very foundation of our government.

Why are students blind to the Constitution?One major reason is that the document farespoorly in civics and government textbooks forboth the ninth and eleventh grade levels. Rich-ard Remy of Ohio State University analyzed tenleading textbooks used in secondary schoolsacross the United States for content and devel-opment of the Constitution, the constitutionalperiod, and constitutional issues. He concludedthat the Constitution's significance is over-looked, constitutional content is treated in a bor-ing manner, ti.e principle of judicial review istreated superficially, and the Constitution gen-erally is treated in an isolated, irrelevant man-ner. Remy's findings are reinforced by those ofJohn J. Patrick of Indiana University, who ex-amined the treatment of the Constitution in tentextbooks used extensively in secondary levelAmerican history classes. Since teachers tend touse a single approved text as the core of infor-mation and instruction, these textbook deficien-cies contribute significantly to the poorperformance of American pupils.

The National Archives has been concerned forthe past several years about this spreading con-stitutional and historical ignorance. In response,the Archives developed supplemental instruc-tional packets on various topics in American his-tory. Typically, the units consist of thirty to fortyreproductions of documents and a teacher's guidewith lesson plans and other instructional aids.These kits have the objectives of teaching stu-dents Ihe skills of identifying factual evidenceand points of view; evaluating the significanceof evidence; developing defensible inferences,conclusions, and generalizations from factual in-formation; comparing and contrasting evidencedrawn from documents; and preparing oral and/or written statements based on evidence withinthe documents. Because teachers have had littleexperience in using primary sources in the class-room, this program to make primary source ma-terials available to secondary school classroomshas also included teacher training providedthrough workshops and inservice programs atthe National Archives and at teachers' profes-sional associations across the nation.

Over the past several years the education spe-cialists at the Archives have developed units on

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James Wilson of Pennsylvania was one of the most influ-ential delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

TEACHING THE CONSTITUTION 175

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In 1879 the Supreme Court ruled that the Mormon conceptof plural marriages was in conflict with federal law.

a variety of historical topics such as the CivilWar, the Progressive Years, and World War I.As the units were put into classroom use andwe heard from history and government teach-ers, it became clear that a constitutional unit wasa critical need. Accordingly, we focused our at-tention on educational materials that would ex-amine the constitutional era, the developmentof the Constitution, changes in the Constitutionthrough both formal (through amendment andjudicial review) and informal (through customand usage) means, and the evolution of one con-stitutional issue. Using the holdings of the Na-tional Archives, our objective was to develop asupplemental unit that would enable secondaryschool and junior college students to better un-derstand and appreciate the Constitution and itsimpact upon their lives. We wanted to enliventhe key figures in the history of the Constitutionand to demonstrate the impact of the Consti-tution on the lives of students. We wanted stu-

176 FALL 1985

MISEINIINIIMIMMINIIIMM.11.111111

dents to realize that the Constitution is a livingdocument, not merely four faded pages encasedin inert gas, a curiosity kept in the rotunda ofthe National Archives.

With those lofty goals in mind, we set out inthe fall of 1983 to find suitable documents. Ourfirst step was to examine existing materials pack-ets, to review the professional literature, and tosurvey current textbooks' handling of the Con-stitution. We also reviewed evaluations of pre-vious units and talked to teachers about whatthey needed in a learning package and how theytaught constitutional issues. in our research, welearned that teaching from primary sources per-sonalizes history and that it requires the use ofhigher level cognitive skills; that comment wasrepeated many times in these conversations. Withthat validation of our purpose we proceeded torefresh ourselves about the history of the era byreading selected books on the Constitution andthe great document itself.

The next step was to consult as many archi-vists and other Archives staff as possible to iden-tify outstanding issues embodied in thedocuments in the National Archives holdings.The unit was tentatively titled and structured.Originally, it was to consist of two parts, andattention was initially focused on the first sec-tion, the politics of developing the Constitutionitself. We looked for ten key documents thatwould illut _ate the evolution from British co-lonial rule to a national American government,from the Articles of Confederation to the Con-stitution and the Bill of Rights, and throughamendment over the past two hundred years.Beyond the historical content, we were inter-ested in finding materials that were high in hu-man interest, which would make the period alivefor students. The Formation of the Union, an ex-hibition in the rotunda in the Archives building,included a number of significant materials of thatperiod and description, so we examined it closely;nearly a dozen of the documents from that dis-play were selected for the unit. Among themwere the Articles of Association, the NorthwestOrdinance, Washington's copy of the Consti-tution, and the seventeen original articles pro-posed for the Bill of Rights. With a clearer ideaof where we had gaps and what we needed tofill them, we went to archivists for suggestions,then were directed either to the stacks or micro-film reading room. When we were content withour first ten documents, we sat down to writethe notes to the teacher and the lesson planswhich are included in the teacher's guide.

At the end of the summer of 1984, as we re-viewed what we had done, we realized that thefirst section included the landmark documents

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The presidential candidacy of John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, caused many Americans to question his ability to servebotlz church and state. Kennedy stated that he would resign if Izis religious beliefs conflicted with his duties as president.Above is a document from Pope John XXIII included in the Archives teaching unit.

PROLOGUE

we were looking for, but lacked a personal touch.A. dearth of eyewitness accounts on the makingot the Constitution forced us to broaden our ap-proach. Thus a second segment, the beginningof the government, began to take shape in ourminds. We examined Revolutionary War lotteryjournals listing ticket numbers and prizes in hopesof humanizing the critical problem of the earlynation's debt, but found the material insufficientfor classroom use. We reviewed plat after platof survey maps made in 1786 by one AbsalomMartin of New Jersey, spiritually following himas he blazed his survey marks through the wil-derness of Ohio, but found them wanting forour purpose. Perhaps the most unsettling eventwas transcribing a letter written about the Whis-key Rebellion into a word processor. It was eerieto us to see twentieth century technology seizethat eighteenth century document. Words whichhad been applied ink to paper were now ap-pearing through the movement of electrons ona word processor screen and were being re-corded on a magnetic disk!

In December 1984 we moved to the th:rd part,tracing the evolution of a single constitutionalissue. Although the topics of federalism, free-dom of speech, and civil rights were interesting,we decided that freedom of religion was a timelysubject, well documented, and, most important,an issue that was real and compelling to youngpeople. The issue of religious freedom cuts acrossage and ability levels and would enable us tomeet the needs of our diverse audience. Thatchoice brought us to another problem, however.How does one avoid partisanship in framing de-scriptions of and writing lessons for a consti-tutional issue? We walked a tightrope, trying toavoid the twin evils of bias and apathy. Contin-ually asking outside readers for their reactionshelped us to maintain an impartial stance, andwe frequently reminded ourselves to considerthe diverse environments of our audience. Wementally placed ourselves in classrooms both asteachers and pupils and asked if the presenta-tion was offensive or boring. Respect for theintegrity of our audie ce became our most re-liable guide in surmounting our problems. Thematerials were fascinating, and another big chal-lenge was to decide which documents to select.In the end we chose eight documents, from de-bate over the First Amendment to a petition of22,626 women of Utah in support of polygamy,which showed the personal side of the issue offreedom of religion and which were teachable.By mid-January 1985 documents had been se-lected (thirty-five in all), lessons written, andsupport materials readied.

At first glance, the process of researching and

178 FALL 1985

9

writing this unit appears comparable to the pro-cess for previous units, but the Constitution unitpresented a number of unprecedented chal-lenges. The first problem we encountered washow to make the history of the constitutionalperiod more interesting to contemporary highschool ctudents. Because the critical documentsin the first part (such as the Articles of Associ-ation, Declaration of Independence, and theNorthwest Ordinance) are not really personal,it was extremely important to select documentsin the second and third parts that would bringconstitutional issues into the realm of the av-erage individual. Ma:y Buchanan's loan certifi-cate helped to bring the Hamiltonian programfor the public debt to a human level, as WalterGobitus' note with his grocery store's letterheadhelped to bring the issue of state establishedreligion into a neighborhood setting.

Another problem was the fact that the Na-tional Archives has a relatively small amount ofarchival material from the constitutional period.This is due, in part, to the time period. Theeighteenth century was an age in which all writ-ing was done by human hand; paper did notproliferate as it has with the advent of type-writers and photocopiers. Also, the agreementto secrecy by delegates to the ConstitutionalConvention meant that few papers were gen-erated. Many of the documents that were cre-ated were personal papers now in private hands.Finally, time has taken its share in attrition ofthese delicate, venerable documents. There arephysical problems with many of the documentswhich have survived. Some documents are badlyfaded. Others, on which both sides of the paperwere written, are illegible due to ink stainingthrough the paper. Some of the documents' au-thors had terrible handwriting and others spelledand used grammar whimsically at best. We triedto avoid using such documents, but a few weretoo important to omit. We decided that when adocument that was marginally legible was se-lected, a transcription would be made for inclu-sion in the teacher's guide.

Another major problem was that, in a sense,every item in the National Archives is a productof the Constitution. What were the most im-portant things for students to learn about? TheConstitution packet was aimed for a wider au-dience than any previous unit. Students fromeighth grade through junior college studyingsubjects ranging from U.S. history to economicswere targeted. We took great care in selectingsignificant, high interest materials and in writinglessons with a wide variety of exercises for theanticipated broad range of ability and interestgroups.

PROLOGUE

We hope that teachers will use the unit toenhance their students' understanding of flleConstitution, but we are aware that very fewwill use it in its entirety. We anticipate thatteachers will use selected lessons or will simplypull documents of interest to them and generatetheir own lesson plans. This expected fragmen-tation of the unit is not disturbing to us. Weworked very hard to structure and organize thematerials and filled the unit with internal crossreferencing so that the entire package would beintegrated. Yet, ultimately, it is the individualstudent who we hope will be reached by thispacket. Whatever strategies the teacher can usemost effectively and comfortably to teach theConstitution are the ones that he or she mustuse if American adolescents are to get in touchwith their heritage.

As we look back over the unit and our expe-riences in developing it, one fact supercedes allothers. The Constitution is a miracle. Even afterteaching, researching, and living closely withthis document for over a year, it continues tofascinate us. We know how it came to be, but itstill amazes us that such a disparate group ofeighteenth century men could create a lastingcompromise of such subtlety and flexibility. Our

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studies revealed to us how the Constitution hasevolved and how it touches on our daily lives,yet it is still surprising tc reflect upon. Our es-teem for the Constitution has increased as wehave studied it. It is our sincerest hope that oursense of wonderment and respect are conveyedin this package and that these feelings will betransmitted in the classroom. An ignorant citi-zenry surely represents the greatest crisis theConstitution will ever face. Thomas Jeffersonforesaw this threat when, in a letter to GeorgeWythe in 1786, he wrote, "I think by far the mostimportant bill in our whole code is that for thediffusion of learning among the people. No othersure foundation can be devised for the preser-vation of freedom, and happiness . . . Preach,my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; estab-lish and improve the law for educating the com-mon people. Let our countrymen know that thepeople alone can protect us against theseevils. . . ." El

Wynell G. Burroughs and Jean West Mueller are on thestaff of the National Archives and Records Administration.Their documentary teaching unit, The Constitution: Evolutionof a Government, is available from Social Issues ResourcesSeries, Inc., P.O. Box 2507, Boca Raton, FL 33427.

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Exhibits are yet another way of educating students about the value of documents. Each year hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren visit the National Archives to view the great documents of the nation's past.

10 TEACHING THE CONSTITUTION 179

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