The Constitution of the United States of America
September 17th is Constitution Day, commemorating the day in 1787 when the Founding Fathers signed one of America’s most important documents. The United States Constitution is the oldest written national constitution still in operation, and many of the nations that have established themselves in the decades since that day in 1787 have turned to this document as a model for their own constitutions. As a document which defines the structure of our Federal government and delineates the rights of the states within the union, and individual citizens within the nation, the Constitution has become a symbol to Americans and to the world of the American government and way of life. What better way to celebrate this important document, its place within our society, and within our history, than to investigate its words up close. Teachers, parents, caregivers, and students, jump on board for a tour of the United States Constitution!
Sign on the Dotted Line
The Constitution opens with the Preamble, which reads:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
You can learn more about the Preamble of the Constitution from the EDSITEment lesson plan The Preamble to the Constitution: How Do You Make a More Perfect Union?
Who were the men who represented “We the People of the United States” when they signed the Constitution? Howard Christy captured his vision of the signing in his painting commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the signing for the U.S. Capitol. How many of the Founding Fathers can you name? You can explore biographies of the signers by clicking on each figure to see biographical information. The National Archives also displays a mural painted in 1937 by Barry Faulkner depicting the signers. You might want to further investigate the man who is often most closely associated with the Constitution, James Madison. You can learn more about Madison and his role in creating the Constitution in the EDSITEment lesson plan James Madison: Madison Was There. Most Americans of all ages have heard of James Madison, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin, but have they heard of Oliver Ellsworth? You and your students can learn about a few of the signatories of the Constitution with whom they may not yet be familiar in the EDSITEment lesson plan The Constitutional Convention: Four Founding Fathers You May Never Have Met. A number of the men who signed the Constitution went on to become president of the country. You and your students can delve into the biographies of these men who made history by visiting the EDSITEment-reviewed website American President.
Three Branches, Checked and Balanced
One of the most important aspects of the Constitution is that it delineates the structure of the Federal government into three branches, thereby dividing the power of the government amongst three bodies. The first three Articles of the Constitution establish this three part division, which can be read, both in a facsimile of the original text and in a transcript, by visiting the Charters of Freedom , available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Digital Classroom.
The Founders believed that King George had abused his powers in his dealings with the American colonies, many of the Founding Fathers were deeply wary of placing too much power into a single seat of government. This concern underlies the separation of power into the three branches of government, and also gave rise to the institution of checks and balances that each of the three branches have over each other. You and your students can learn more about this important system of checks and balances from the EDSITEment lesson plan Balancing the Three Branches at Once: Our System of Checks and Balances.
Article One established two bodies—the House of Representatives and the Senate—which together constitute the Congress, or the Legislative branch of government. This is the body that creates the laws that govern the country at the federal level. In order to be sure that the laws that were being created by the Legislative branch of the government were springing from the will of the country’s citizens, citizens in each of the fifty states elect the men and women to these two chambers to represent them at the federal level of government. You and your students can gain a more in-depth view of the Congress by investigating EDSITEment-reviewed websites CongressLink and THOMAS, linked from the EDSITEment resource American Memory Project (Library of Congress).
Article Two created the Executive branch of government, which is charged with implementing the laws established by Congress. In order to carry out this responsibility, Article Two provides for the office of President of the United States and the Vice President. Several EDSITEment lesson plans further explore the President’s role in the Federal Government, including The President's Roles and Responsibilities: Understanding the President's Job and The President's Roles and Responsibilities: Communicating with the President. Another EDSITEment lesson plan, Before and Beyond the Constitution: What Should a President Do?, helps students analyze how George Washington, the first President of the United States under the Constitution, set an example of how to interpret the Constitution’s allocation of Presidential responsibilities.
Article Three establishes the third branch of the Federal government, the Judicial Branch, which consists of one Supreme Court and a number of lower courts. Its main function is to apply the laws made by the Legislative Branch. The EDSITEment lesson plan The Supreme Court: The Judicial Power of the United States considers the Federal Judiciary’s superior court by looking at a Supreme Court case. Judicial Branch: Overview, a link from EDSITEment-reviewed website Digital Classroom, also provides a valuable resource for a more in-depth investigation of the Federal Judiciary. As students learn more about the Judicial Branch of the federal government they should keep in mind that this branch, and the Supreme Court in particular, is responsible for the constitutional analysis of the laws created by Congress. The process of interpretation is not always a simple one, and you and your students can learn more about the way in which the high court makes and records these difficult decisions by reviewing the EDSITement lesson plan Regulating Freedom of Speech.
The Remaining Articles and Making Amendments
The Constitution contains an additional four articles which include a number of additional powers.
Article Four outlines the position and role of state governments under the Federal government and their responsibilities to other state governments.
Article Five lays out the conditions for making Amendments, which are changes, corrections, or additions, to the Constitution.
Article Six establishes the Constitution as the “supreme Law of the Land.”
Article Seven contains the procedure for ratification, the date of signature, and the signatures of the representatives to the Constitutional Convention who approved the drafted Constitution.
Bill of Rights
Of course, it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time, so it is not surprising that not everyone approved the newly-drafted Constitution. Debates over individual and states’ rights led to the drafting and adoption of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, collectively called the Bill of Rights, the text of which is available through the EDSITEment resource Digital Classroom. You will also find a summary of EDSITEment resources specifically relating to the Bill of Rights in EDSITEment’s This Month's Feature for June 2005. The Feature includes an EDSITEment LaunchPad for K-5 students, and another EDSITEment LaunchPad for students in upper grades providing scenarios that illustrate how the Constitution is applied in real-life situations. You and your students can take an in-depth look at the first of these amendments through the EDSITEment lesson The First Amendment: What's Fair in a Free Country. Finally, since the ratification of the Constitution in 1789, seventeen more amendments have been added to it, making the current number of amendments total twenty-seven. You can view Amendments 11-27 through a link on Digital Classroom.
The system of checks and balances, the general language in which it is written, and the provision for making amendments all allow the Constitution to adapt and be re-interpreted in all situations that are presented by innovation and change. This flexibility, seen throughout the Constitution, has preserved it as the “supreme Law of the Land” for over 200 years.
Launchpads
This feature includes an EDSITEment LaunchPad for K-5, and one for 6-12, to help reinforce the students' knowledge of the Constitution.
NEH Constitution Day Celebration
NEH, led by the staff of EDSITEment and the We the People program, has assembled documents, background essays, and a bibliography to help celebrate this day (September 17) and deepen our understanding of the United States Constitution.
Extending the Lesson
- Although we vote for the president and vice-president every four years, the office is actually filled through the votes of the Electoral College. While this is an important process to understand, many Americans are unaware of how this process works. You can learn more about this process through the EDSITEment resource The U.S. Electoral College, which gives a detailed account of the Electoral College and its role in electing the President.
- Exactly how does the Supreme Court interpret the law? You can find many Supreme Court decisions on EDSITEment-reviewed Oyez Project: A Supreme Court Multimedia Database. For advanced readers, you may enjoy reading through the Constitution and a few Supreme Court decisions and then considering, based on the text of the Constitution, if you would interpret these issues in the same way as the Supreme Court Justices. In a classroom setting, this activity could be made into a lively, informative debate in which students could be grouped together to argue for or against the constitutionality of a specific law. This could be followed up with a reading of the actual decision handed down by the court.
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