We received an email from our local school last week telling us that our kids would be participating in the “I Signed The Constitution” program which is sponsored by the National Constitution Center. The explained that it will take place on Wednesday, September 17 (Constitution Day) and “encourages citizens of all ages to deepen their understanding of our nation’s founding document. This program has provided millions of Americans with the chance to publicly acknowledge their dedication to the ideals of our Constitution by signing their names alongside the signatures of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington” . . .
Does your local school participate in this program? If so, are they acknowledging all of the ideals of our Constitution? I know you know what I’m talking about.
I plan to ask my kids about their participation at dinner on Wednesday night. It will be interesting to see what they say.
Thanks for the heads up! My seventh grader keeps a pocket Constitution in his backpack.
When I was in high school in Botetourt, I’m not sure my government teacher could even spell constitution. She definitely couldn’t count to ten without omitting 2.
that is a sad thing. my government teacher couldn’t give 2 enough praise and i suspect she carried on school grounds daily (this was in CA)
LB or JR?
I lived north of Fincastle on the line, so went to LB. Kids from there go to JR now.
The logo for the National Constitution Center looks eerily like the Everytown mark.
follow the $$$$$. . . . who sponsors the sponsor?
Go to their website. The CEO of the Constitution center is Jeffrey Rosen. He has a weekly radio show about the Constitution.
“On September 16, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Constitution Heritage Act of 1988 which established the National Constitution Center. The act called for a national center “within or in close proximity to the Independence National Historical Park” that “shall disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis in order to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.”
It is non-profit. They make most of the money from visitor fees and tickets to debates. Both Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton have talked/debated at the center. They are non-partisan and teach the history of the constitution. No reason to be paranoid all the time.
What happens at the local level when some school administrators or teachers want to change history, is another story and parents should be vigilant of those who wish to change the constitutions meaning by fiat.
Having visited the center myself, if you like Constitutional history and you can go to one of their debates, it is worth going.
What’s the Constitution?
Oh wait, I remember, it’s some sort of outdated, quaint old piece of parchment that used to have meaning.
It’s the only contract that I have that seems to be “living and breathing” according to the left.
That and the various debenture and bond issues to GM that the same people abrogated a few years back.
On Constitution Day about 5 years ago, my beautiful bride of now close to a generation and I purchased pocket U.S. Constitutions and handed them out in a senior class assembly commemorating the day. At which time, the seniors read the Constitution out loud in sequence. We had additional pamphlet U.S. Constitutions remaining so we gave them out to the School Board members and few other community leaders.
My children and grandchildren would have no penchant against signed the U.S. Constitution alongside Charles Pinckney and Abraham Baldwin, along with the other signers, but they would check the document over and compare it to their pocket U.S. Constitutions before signing.
The Constitution is already void due to breach of contract on the part of U.S. Government. Why would I or my children agree to the terms a voided contract?
Maybe we should have children read “The Constitution of No Authority” by Lysander Spooner, instead.
I can’t imagine they would get much out of it the way its written. Maybe make it into a children’s book.
My daughter’s elementary school is too busy putting on its semiannual pageant celebrating Mexican holidays. It seems something happened in Mexico on September 16 so that’s more important than the Constitution, I guess.
The drug cartels had record shipments.
There is at least one historical date in Mexican history that is very much worth celebrating. March 2, 1836.
Six days before that (Feb 25) Samuel Colt patented his first revolver.
This once-great country used to be ruled by a Constitution. No longer. When it was ruled by the Constitution, it WAS a great Country. Funny, how that worked.
When was that exactly?
+1, seems like EVERY time the Republic feels threatened the first thing it does is throw off the very distinctives that (ought to) make it unique in history.
The NCC isn’t run by a guy named Lyle dennison is it? Because he runs a left wing think tank with a very similar name.
Although I don’t think they would put on a sign the constitution day. More like learn how to ignore the constitution day.
Yup same people. The 2a is explained by the annenburg foundation, right up there with Joyce and Bloomberg.
Just saying
Why, when it was that very piece of paper that secured the Tyranny we now face and our children and children’s children will face the full brunt of?
“But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.” – Lysander Spooner
No Treason 1867
No cantract can enforce itself. It is up the the parties of the contract. It is the responsibility of “We, The People” that the terms of the contract have been violated, because they have given their tacit approval
+1 – And I recommended y’all read this book: http://www.javelinpress.com/hologram_of_liberty.html
(It’s by the same Boston T. Party who wrote “Boston’s Gun Bible”.)
most schools in the u.s are anti John an anti Constitution.it has everything the Jew with how the school system in this country was originally set up and what system we copied.the system is based on a socialist type of fascism, and completely undermines everything the Constitution and the Bill of Rights provides for each and every US citizen!I guess that’s why I went to private elementary high school and college I had the benefit of a better education then the one provided for us by our tax dollar. If that’s not an oxymoron I don’t know what it is lol!
Do you speak English? Please have a first grader correct your writing before posting.
Cut him some slack. He capitalized Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
I have to challenge your assertion that you received a superior education at whatever school you went to, unless you have suffered serious head trauma since graduation.
Or your post is a sarcastic one, in which case: excellent work.
Call me a cynic… but is the the same ‘constitution’ as spelled out in a lot of the new ‘Common Core’ text books? The one where it says that people are ALLOWED to own certain weapons only as long as their registered with the government?
sorry about that my voice text messed up that was supposed to say it has everything to do with the school system we copied to put into place in this country
This post is no better than your last. So much for your “better” education. Please have a first grader correct your writing before posting.
I could be wrong, but if memory serves, David uses voice text software because of an injury or illness that prevents him from typing. At least I think it was David. Maybe he’ll chime in and let us know. If it wasn’t him, I apologize.
If that is the case, I sincerely apologize.
Let me get this straight….We live in a country that asks its children to voluntarily sign the Constitution before they are of legal age, and yet have volunteered them without their knowledge or consent for Social Security, and in the case of males, mandate they register for selective service when they do reach legal age? Got it.
Besides, Constitution Day will get overshadowed by Talk Like a Pirate Day (19th) anyways.
Arrrgh Matey! That be a day ta remember!
From their website………..
INTERPRETATION
Annenberg Classroom
AnnenbergClassroom.org
Right to Bear Arms: The principal debate surrounding the Second Amendment concerns whether the right to use and buy guns belongs to individuals or only to a militia. Although the courts generally have held that the right applies to individuals, they have permitted the government to limit some rights of gun manufacturers, owners and sellers. Today, questions about the Second Amendment center on bans on assault weapons, mandatory background checks, waiting periods, and other restrictions on gun sales or use.
With the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and subsequent Supreme Court rulings, states were prohibited from making or enforcing laws that infringe on most of the rights set out in the Bill of Rights.
However, this prohibition does not extend to the Second Amendment. This means that the Second Amendment applies only to actions by the federal government. It does not protect people from state actions that interfere with their right to bear arms. As a result, gun control legislation varies widely among the fifty states
^^^WOW^^^^. Voided contracts. Caused all our current problems. Not much love for the document that we wave to claim our rights.
If you need a document to “claim” your rights you have bigger problems than you know…
I’m sure any kid would sign the constitution, IF they realized that eventually they would be able to just ignore it, and vote for more and more candy every year.
I won’t have my school-aged child sign a copy of the constitution any sooner than I encourage her to take the pledge of allegiance. This all smacks of ultra-nationalism which is something to be examined with a healthy amount of cynicism and scorn, not pride…
Our constitution and flag are symbols of our freedom, not magical talismans that contain it within.
Here, here. But my, oh, my I fear that you and I are in the very small minority – even here on a site like this…
I suspect the minority isn’t as small as you might think. That said, some aren’t as vocal as others.
DING! —-> Cigar, Sir.
I could be wrong here, but shouldn’t the government be signing it instead of us? It is the restrictions on them, yes?
The government couldn’t sign the Constitution. Ignoring this silly, hollow symbolism for the actual event…
The US government did not exist before the ratification of the Constitution. The Constitution brought the US government into existence, when 13 sovereign states created a federal system to handle foreign relations and settle disputes between its still sovereign members. There was a confederation before that, but that was a different government, which also didn’t exist before its members ratified its establishing document.
Also, the Constitution doesn’t restrict the government. It created the government and granted it a small number of explicitly listed powers (I believe it was Madison who described them as “few and finite” in the Federalist Papers). The Bill of Rights places further restrictions on government, in case there were people dumb enough to read, “the government may only do A, B, and C,” and think it could do X, because nothing explicitly forbids X.
Sadly, there seem to be a bunch of people like that. But they probably all went to government schools that had them wave flags and pretend to sign the Constitution, rather than teaching them to read the document and the critical thinking skills to understand it.
“But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or it has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.”
-Lysander Spooner 1867
Given that the Constitution is a document that enumerates limited powers from the people and from the sovereign States to the federal government, and not a document that in any way addresses individuals, wouldn’t it be far more appropriate and symbolic to have one’s children sign the Declaration of Independence?
Even better, have them sign a true declaration of independence with all the rebellious implications, not just symbolically sign a copy of the original, with the nationalistic implications.
Since signatures validate contracts and all, does that mean that those of us that did not sign the constitution can not pay taxes? Or disobey laws that create crimes that have no victim?
I’ve never signed a social contract and I have no intention of ever doing so.
Amen to that.
Am I the only one to notice that George Washington was not a signee of the Constitution?
I don’t believe George held any elected capacity in government til after the war. If my memory is correct he would not have had any right or reason to sign.
In story above, in the end of the first paragraph, the teacher seems to think he was.
He wouldn’t haven’t been able to pull off what prompted the whisky rebellion so easily.
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