Teaching America's Founding Documents
By John J. Patrick
November 2002
Great ideas about law,
government,
and the rights of individuals marked the founding of the United States
of
America during the last
quarter of the 18th century. These ideas, embedded in America's
founding
documents, are the connective cords by which national unity and civic identity have been maintained in
the United States from the 1770s until
today. To be an American is to understand and to have a reasonable commitment to the ideas in
America's founding documents. This Digest (1)
identifies four founding documents and the great ideas in them; (2) discusses inclusion of the
founding documents and great ideas in the core
curriculum of schools, and (3) provides an annotated list of World Wide
Web sites for teachers and learners on the founding documents and the
great
ideas in these primary sources.
FOUR
FOUNDING
DOCUMENTS AND THE GREAT IDEAS IN THEM
Four key
documents
of the founding era in United States history are: (1) the Declaration
of
Independence (1776), (2) the Constitution of the United States
(1787),
(3) the Federalist Papers (1787-88), and (4) the Bill of Rights (1791).
The
Declaration
of Independence, approved by the Second Continental Congress on July 4,
1776,
proclaimed and justified the separation of 13 American colonies
from
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the establishment of a new
nation,
the United States of America. This founding document includes the
criteria
by which to determine whether or
not a government is good and thereby worthy of support by people living
under
its authority. The first criterion is that governments are created
by the
people
for the primary purpose of guaranteeing or protecting their God-given
rights
to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The second criterion is that a
government derives its authority from the consent
of the governed, the people. A good government satisfies these two criteria or at least
recognizes and addresses them, even if it does
so imperfectly. A bad government either willfully disregards these two
criteria or addresses them ineptly. If a bad government is impervious
to
improvement in terms of the two criteria, then the people have a right
to
revolution to change it, which is what Americans did through their War
of
Independence, 1775-1783.
The
Constitution
-- written during the Federal Convention at Philadelphia in 1787,
ratified
in 1788, and implemented in 1789 -- is a frame of
government for the United States that has continued in effect until
today. This founding document includes several ideas on government compatible with the Declaration
of Independence. The Constitution, for
example, provides the rule of law and limited government by consent of
the governed to
"secure the blessings of liberty" and other natural rights of
individuals. Constitutional principles such as separation of powers,
checks and balances, and federalism are means to constitutional or
limited
government by which despotism is prevented and the rights of individuals are protected.
The
Federalist
Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
to
advocate ratification of the 1787 Constitution. Thomas Jefferson proclaimed this
work "the best commentary on the principles
of government which was ever written." From 1789 until today, lawyers, judges, politicians,
and scholars have used the Federalist Papers
to inform their thinking about the great ideas on government in the U.S. Constitution.
The Bill of
Rights,
Amendments 1-10 of the Constitution, was proposed by Congress in 1789
and
ratified by the states in 1791. The great ideas of civil
liberties
and due process of law are the core of the Bill of Rights. In concert
with
the main body of the Constitution, Amendments 1-10 exemplify the
criteria
for good government proclaimed in the second paragraph of the
Declaration
of Independence. The 1787 Constitution and 1791 Bill of Rights provide a
framework for government based on popular
consent, which is limited by the rule of law in order to guarantee the
rights of everyone in the polity.
INCLUDING
THE
FOUNDING DOCUMENTS IN THE CORE CURRICULUM
The great
ideas
in America's founding documents are essential to education for
citizenship
in the United States. Without knowledge of the great ideas in these documents
one cannot understand, analyze, and appraise
the great issues and events of United States history. So the
teaching
and learning of American history in schools should be anchored in
analysis
and discussion of the founding documents and ideas.
From the
founding
era to the present, the founding ideas and documents have been at the
center
of the major debates about public issues that have shaped the
development
of constitutional democracy in the United States. They were, for
example,
prominent parts of the conflicts that led to the Civil War. The
post-war
issues of Reconstruction were rooted in the founding documents and
ideas
and brought about the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the
Constitution. Further, landmark issues and decisions of the U.S.
Supreme Court cannot
be understood without knowledge of the ideas in America's founding
documents. Finally, the great 20th-century movements in U.S. history
for civil rights
and liberties of women and ethnic/racial minorities were conducted in
terms
of the great ideas in America's founding documents. So the pivotal
issues
and decisions
in U.S.
history
which are associated with the founding documents and ideas should be
focal
points of student inquiry and classroom discussion.
Despite the
great
power and positive utility of the founding ideas and documents in U.S.
history,
the civic and political tradition they
represent is always at risk. It will wither and die unless it is
cultivated
by teachers and students of each generation. So these ideas
and documents belong in the core curriculum of elementary and secondary
schools.
Although the founding documents and ideas appear to be established in
the curriculum of schools in the United States, their place may not be
as
prominent or secure as it should be. The educational agenda has been
crowded
and priorities often have been unclear, which has produced c
urricular fragmentation and incoherence.
In many schools, studying
the
founding documents and ideas may be no more important than a vast array
of competing goals of education. So there is a need for
revitalization of education on America's founding documents and
the great ideas in them. In recognition of this need, President
George W. Bush announced on September 17, 2002 a new program in history and civic education that
will emphasize core ideas and documents in the American heritage
of constitutional democracy and civil liberty.
Information
about
this educational initiative and resources for teachers to address it can be found at
the following World Wide Web site created
by the National Archives and Records Administration and the National
History
Day project:
<www.ourdocuments.gov>.
USING INTERNET RESOURCES
The Internet is a
rich
source of primary documents in United States history. The
following
Web sites include documents from the founding era and subsequent
periods
that can be used to teach about the core ideas of A
merican constitutional democracy and issues related to their development
from the 1770s until the present.
U.S. FOUNDING DOCUMENTS: A
PROJECT
OF THE LAW SCHOOL OF EMORY UNIVERSITY
This site includes copies of
the
U.S. Constitution of 1787, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill
of
Rights of 1791:
www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/
TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY: A
PROJECT
OF THE ASHBROOK CENTER FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Search this site for select documents on American political thought from the founding era through
the post-World War II era:
teachingamericanhistory.org/library/
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND
RECORDS
ADMINISTRATION: DIGITAL CLASSROOM,
TEACHING WITH DOCUMENTS
This site contains reproducible copies of primary documents and
teaching
activities based on those documents pertaining to periods of U.S. history from the American
Revolution to the present:
www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/teaching_with_documents.html
AMDOCS: UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
This site provides documents in American history from the 15th-century
era
of exploration until the present. The late 18th-century era of the
American
Revolution and founding of the United States is amply treated with a
wide
variety of sources including those on political thought,
constitutionalism,
and individual rights. The site also features copies of the original 13
states' constitutions, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the U.S.
Constitution
of 1787, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights of 1791:
www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/amdocs_index.html
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: COLLECTION CONNECTIONS
This section of the American Memory Collection contains documents from
the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, and the state
ratifying
conventions, 1774-1788:
lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/collections/revolt/index.htm
U.S. HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, COLLEGE OF LAW
Constitutional documents in the Anglo-American heritage are included
in this collection, which extends from the Magna Carta of 1215 through
the
present:
www.law.ou.edu/hist/
John J.
Patrick
is Director of the Social Studies Development Center and Professor of
Education
at Indiana University.