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Public Schools and the Constitution

What documents did you learn about in your experience in a US Public School?

  • Federalist Papers

    Votes: 13 37.1%

  • Declaration of Independance

    Votes: 31 88.6%

  • Bill of Rights

    Votes: 35 100.0%

  • Remainder of the Constitution

    Votes: 29 82.9%

  • Articles of Confederation

    Votes: 18 51.4%
  • Total voters
    35
BulletWounD

BulletWounD

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I'd like to know how much you learned about the founding documents of the USA. This poll is for US citizens who went through the public school system only. Specifically, I'd like to know what documents you dedicated a significant amount of time and effort to learn about.
 
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I assume you are talking about reading the actual text of each document? I learned about all of them in summary, but only was required to read and analyze the full text of the constitution and the declaration of independence.
 
rathi said:
I assume you are talking about reading the actual text of each document? I learned about all of them in summary, but only was required to read and analyze the full text of the constitution and the declaration of independence.
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Well, the Federalist Papers are an extremely long read. I think the summary will do for that one.
 
BulletWounD said:
Well, the Federalist Papers are an extremely long read. I think the summary will do for that one.
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They are also not easy for younger people to read.
 
all of them, east texas, high school in the 60's....and in college in the 70's....
 
Ok I went to a Catholic grade school where I learned about the constitution but I just have to mention - Schoolhouse rock Now that was a way to teach kids. Now whenever I hear school and the constitution I can't help but start to sing "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union....."

And for your own benefit :mrgreen::

YouTube - Constitution Preamble - Schoolhouse Rock
 
americanwoman said:
Ok I went to a Catholic grade school where I learned about the constitution but I just have to mention - Schoolhouse rock Now that was a way to teach kids. Now whenever I hear school and the constitution I can't help but start to sing "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union....."

And for your own benefit :mrgreen::

YouTube - Constitution Preamble - Schoolhouse Rock
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We watched this a few weeks ago in my legislation class. It's as awesome as it was when we were kids.
 
Goobieman said:
They are also not easy for younger people to read.
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I disagree. The Federalist Papers are quite within the reading ability of high school students.
 
celticlord said:
I disagree. The Federalist Papers are quite within the reading ability of high school students.
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To settle this argument, we need a consensus of high school students.
Celticlord, your high school days are far behind you, as are your college days(6 to 8 years)...You write as an highly educated man....this takes time...How can you remember your school days with accuracy ??..

As to my recollections as to what I was taught in Chatham High School....it was too long ago, and I think we were too young to appreciate the importance of the Constitution and related papers..
 
earthworm said:
To settle this argument, we need a consensus of high school students.
Celticlord, your high school days are far behind you, as are your college days(6 to 8 years)...You write as an highly educated man....this takes time...How can you remember your school days with accuracy ??..

As to my recollections as to what I was taught in Chatham High School....it was too long ago, and I think we were too young to appreciate the importance of the Constitution and related papers..
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I currently attend public school. Last year, as a freshman, I learned in Civics class about evey document mentioned. The teacher also had the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights on his wall. He ran an after-school debate club that handled many issues related to the 1st and 2nd amendments, among others. I'm in a gifted program, but I'd say that most of the students I know can handle our founding documents. It should be mandatory to know at least the Constitution fairly well to graduate.
 
In high school, the only ones which we studied the text in depth were the Bill of Rights and the rest of the US Constitution. We learned the historical context of the other three, but we never really delved too deeply into the actual texts.

They couldn't make room in the curriculum for silly things like the Declaration of Independence, when they had to have time to discuss more important things, like the history of pre-Columbian Native American tribes in Ohio. :roll:
 
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We learned about them all in at least a passing summary, but I'd say we only really spent significant time on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Of course it depends on what you mean by significant or in depth. What I consider significant could easily vary from what others consider significant. Civics was only a semester long class for us and I think the teachers properly decided to focus a bulk of their efforts on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I went to a public high school in the suburbs of Chicago in the early 90's.
 
Kandahar said:
They couldn't make room in the curriculum for silly things like the Declaration of Independence, when they had to have time to discuss more important things, like the history of pre-Columbian Native American tribes in Ohio. :roll:
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This is hilariously true. By 9th grade, I knew more about the Iroquois than I did about "American" history.
 
I can't really respond since I never went to public school, but in the private school I did attend, I learned about all of them.
 
After reading these posts, I realize that my experience in public schools was even more different than I thought. As for the poll, the only part that I learned to a large degree was the Bill of Rights, but in elementary school more so than in high school. We had to memorize the amendments and recite them in front of class in 5th grade. As for high school, my school district cut Civics class the same year I entered 9th grade so never took it. This is at least one major difference I've noticed between my school and others. In government class, in 12th grade, it mostly focused on "checks and balances" and small parts of the Constitution.
 
The only one we never really took a look at is the Articles of Confederation.

Of course, I haven't exactly finished public schooling yet so for all I know they have that in store for us next year (doubt it, but it's possible)
 
BulletWounD said:
I'd like to know how much you learned about the founding documents of the USA. This poll is for US citizens who went through the public school system only. Specifically, I'd like to know what documents you dedicated a significant amount of time and effort to learn about.
Click to expand...

I went to a high school in Georgia, we did briefly go over the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Most of our time was focused on the slave trade, The New Deal and some other general parts of American History.

In college Poly Sci I'm going over it but I learned most about government and its role from Debate Politics a couple years ago.
 
Like the argument of prayer in schools, the solution to this problem is very simple:

A SEPARATION OF SCHOOL AND STATE

Abolish government-run education. Remove all restrictions and mandates on alternative education, including private and home schooling. Guarantee all choices in education.

Problem solved.
 
Dav said:
The only one we never really took a look at is the Articles of Confederation.

Of course, I haven't exactly finished public schooling yet so for all I know they have that in store for us next year (doubt it, but it's possible)
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I see you live the Peoples Republic of NOVA. :lol:
 
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