Teaching the Declaration of Independence
By John
J.
Patrick
January 2003
The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of the United
States of America. It is part of the social studies core
curriculum in schools throughout the United
States. Students, by the time they graduate from high
school, are expected to know the main ideas in the Declaration of
Independence and their significance in the American
heritage. This Digest discusses (1) the origins of the
Declaration of Independence, (2) the structure and key ideas of the
document, (3) how to teach the document, and (4) World Wide Web sites
on the document for teachers and learners.
ORIGINS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
During June and July of 1776, the main question facing the Second
Continental Congress at Philadelphia revolved around independence:
should the American colonies represented at this Congress declare their
separation and freedom from the United Kingdom of Great
Britain? After intense debate, the delegates voted on July
2, 1776 in favor of Richard Henry Lee's resolution for
independence. On July 4, the Congress discussed and
approved, with a few changes, the formal Declaration of
Independence written by Thomas Jefferson on behalf of a five-person
committee appointed by Congress (Maier 1997; McClellan 1989).
During July and August 1776, the Declaration of Independence was
printed and distributed throughout the newly proclaimed United States
of America. Americans recognized immediately that this
document expressed widely held ideas about the proper purposes of
government and the rights of individuals. George Mason
expressed the same ideas about government and rights in similar words
in Articles I-III of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was
drafted
and approved a few weeks before the Declaration of
Independence. Many
years later Jefferson acknowledged that the Declaration of Independence
was
"intended to be an expression of the American mind" and not an original
or
innovative statement (Schechter 1990, 138-145; Spalding 2002,
79).
STRUCTURE AND KEY IDEAS
The Declaration of Independence can be divided into four main parts.
The first part is an introduction that states the purpose of the
document, which was to explain why the American people were declaring
independence from the government of Great Britain.
The second part is a theory of good government and individual rights
generally accepted by Americans from the 1770s until
today. In this theory, all individuals are equal in their
possession of certain immutable rights. These rights are not
granted by the government. Rather, they are inherent to
human nature. Therefore, the first purpose of a good
government is to secure or protect these rights. Further, a
good government is based on the consent of the governed -- the people
-- who are the sole
source of the government's authority. If their government
persistently
violates this theory of good government, then the people have the right
to
overthrow it.
The third part of the document is a list of grievances against King
George III, who was singled out to represent the actions of the British
government. These grievances are examples of actions that
violated the criteria for good government stated in the second part of
the Declaration of Independence. These grievances,
therefore, justify separation from the King's bad government and
establishment of a good government to replace it.
The fourth and final part of the document is an unqualified assertion
of sovereignty by the United States of America. It proclaims
the determination
of Americans to defend and maintain their independence and
rights.
TEACHING STRATEGIES
The main ideas of the Declaration of Independence are essential to a
good education for citizenship in the United States. These
ideas are common cords of civic identity by which unity is forged and
maintained among the diverse ethnic, religious, and racial groups
within the United States. Following are five strategies for
teaching the Declaration of Independence through the
social studies curriculum in schools.
1. Introduce core ideas of the Declaration of Independence
to students in grades four and five; at these grades they typically
study state history and United States history. Return to the
core ideas of the document in cycles of increasing complexity and depth
in middle school and high school courses in United States history and
world history.
2. Teach the document in the context of the American War of
Independence and the founding of the United States of America (Berns
1985).
3. Connect ideas in the document to events and issues in
different periods of United States history from the founding era to the
present. For example, relate the idea of "unalienable rights" to the
abolitionist movement of the 1830s and 1840s, to the Lincoln-Douglas
debates of 1858, and to the causes and consequences of the Civil War
(Jaffa 2000). Connect
ideas in the Declaration of Independence to struggles for equal justice
under
law of the civil rights movement of African Americans and to the
women's rights
movement (Pyne and Sesso 1995).
4. Connect ideas in the document to events and issues in
modern world history that pertain to the advancement of democracy and
human rights in different parts of the world. For example,
examine the influence of the Declaration of Independence on the
democratic revolutions in various countries during the 19th and 20th
centuries. Show the influence of the Declaration of
Independence on the Preamble of the 1948 "Universal Declaration of
Human Rights" of the United Nations. Finally,
examine with the students the impact of ideas in the Declaration of
Independence on the worldwide human rights movement, which began in the
latter half of the 20th century (Adler 1987).
5. Discuss with students the global prospects for democracy
and individual rights predicted by Thomas Jefferson in 1826, the year
of the 50th
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. On June 24,
1826,
Jefferson wrote, "May it be to the world what I believe it will be, to
some
parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all, the signal . . . to
assume
the blessings and security of self-government . . . All eyes
are opened or opening to the rights of man" (Schechter 1990, 448).
Investigate with students events in the global history of democracy and
human rights that
exemplify Jefferson's prediction. Speculate with
students about the prospects for democracy and human rights in the 21st
century. Finally, emphasize that the Declaration of
Independence has global significance because it set a standard for
liberty and justice under law to which all people in the world may
aspire.
WORLD WIDE WEB SITES
Resources for teaching and learning about the Declaration of
Independence and events and documents related to it are available at
the following Web sites:
* U.S. Founding Documents. This site, a project
of the law school of Emory University, includes copies of the
Declaration of Independence and related documents of the founding
era.
www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/
* National Archives and Records Administration: Digital
Classroom, Teaching with Documents. This site contains
reproducible copies of primary documents and teaching activities based
on documents pertaining to periods of U.S. history from the American
Revolution to the present.
www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/teaching_with_documents.html
* The Founders' Almanac: Primary Documents of the
Founding. This site, established by the Heritage Foundation
in Washington, DC, introduces and explains the Declaration of
Independence and other great documents of
the American founding era.
www.heritage.org/research/features/almanac/documents.html
* The American Revolution and Its Era,
1750-1789. This site from the Library of Congress American
Memory collections contains documents about the founding of the United
States.
lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/collections/revolt/index.html
John J. Patrick is Director of the Social Studies Development Center,
and Professor of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington.