Back to School you go ...

Chicago IL

Description

When Thomas Jefferson asserted that a constitution should change every 19 to 20 years, he was expressing a deep-rooted conviction that governments need to adapt to survive. Although he did not personally participate in drafting the U.S. Constitution, he had strong opinions about what political leaders had to do in order to make it work. Thomas Jefferson did. In fact, he believed that the Constitution should be updated every 20 years. He expressed this belief in a 1789 letter to James Madison. “No society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law,” he wrote. “The earth belongs always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct. They are masters too of their own persons, and consequently may govern them as they please. But persons and property make the sum of the objects of government. The constitution and the laws of their predecessors extinguished then in their natural course with those who gave them being. This could preserve that being till it ceased to be itself, and no longer. Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.” That one of the Founding Fathers considered a Constitution older than 20 years “an act of force” could come as a shock to some “strict Constitutionalists.” That is why Americans call the Constitution a living document. The Fifth Amendment provides two ways the Constitution can be changed. One of them has never been used. Really go back to school, here is what you need: Theme: Creating the Nation: The Revolution & Constitutional Development Grade Level: 4th Grade Duration: Three 55-minute class periods Content Standard: Government: Rules & Laws 19.) The U.S. Constitution establishes a system of limited government and protects citizen’s rights; five of these rights are addressed in the First Amendment History: Historical Thinking and Skills 2.) Primary and secondary sources can be used to create historical narratives. Primary Resources: Articles of Confederation U.S. Constitution Lesson Summary: Students will be introduced to the primary documents of the Articles of Confederation and US Constitution. They will figure out the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and compare it to the US Constitution. Students will be able to explain four improvements made in the US Constitution and write an essay.