LAT: Mission to Mandate Teaching of Constitution Inserted Into Bill

[mountebank]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), promoting his lifelong passion for the U.S. Constitution, has inserted into a massive federal spending bill a requirement that schools devote at least part of a day each year to teaching about the document.

The provision would apply to all schools, elementary through college, that receive federal aid. Education groups worry that the provision could be the opening wedge in a campaign by Washington to influence what schools teach.

snip

Mary Kusler, senior legislative specialist for the American Assn. of School Administrators, said: "We think it's great that Congress really wants to make sure that every child understands the Constitution. But we hope that members of Congress will remember the Constitution itself when they make policy. And the 10th Amendment clearly states that education is a state's right."

snip

"The flag is a potent symbol of our nation, but this Constitution which I hold in my hand is the soul of the nation," he said. "Practically everything you do is made possible by or is guaranteed or is protected by this Constitution. It is the prism through which each act of our government should be examined and judged."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-constitution4dec04,1,7023145.story

(If you need user name and password go to www.bugmenot.com)

Why do measures like this bother me, even from beloved Sen. Byrd? I guess it's the notion that "everything I do is made possible by the Constitution." I prefer to believe that as a human I am endowed with certain inalienable rights, not just rights specifically granted to me by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, although those documents list some of the rights that are usually in danger of being taken away.

[acmavm]

1. What scares me is the teaching of Constitutional Law and Rights by

idiots.

[pocoloco]

3. You are right .....

better think this out!!!

[ScrewyRabbit]

2. I think it's a great idea

nt

[Ian David]

4. The Constitution is only a theory...

among many others, and students are encouraged to make up their own minds based upon all available evidence.

That is why we need to include the Intelligent Government theory, that postulates the scientific idea that God created America in seven days 5,000 years ago out of nothingness.

[wryter2000]

12. LMAO!

Good one.

But is Intelligent Government one of those oxymorons, like jumbo shrimp? Or is Bush the oxymoron?

[Melodybe]

6. I agree with #2, as long as they don't keep saying that the Constitution

was written by Christians for a Christian nation.

All one has to do is read Moliere and Cook or the other French philosophers to see where Franklin and Jefferson got all of their ideas. In many cases parts of the Constitution are totally lifted from their work.

They were diests, it makes me mad that they would argue anything differently.

But making children read the constitution can only be a good thing in my humble opinion.

[smiley_glad_hands]

19. Amen Brother.

Right on that is.

[Eloriel]

5. I sure wish this were your biggest worry

and I also wish you knew that it isn't -- in case you don't.

[mountebank]

7. Of course it's not my biggest worry.

The ten most talked about items on LBN are my biggest worries. But LBN's a bigger place than that.

[BayCityProgressive]

8. I really think this is great

I wish more young people would learn about the constitution and how our government functions. I am 21 and whenever I try to talk about anything liek this with others in my age group, their eyes glaze over.

[TahitiNut]

9. Nowhere does the 10th Amendment say that.

The Tenth Amendment says:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The entire thrust of the "Bill of Rights" (a phrase which, itself, does not occur in the Constitution) is to highlight some 'hard and fast' limits on government powers, based on certain oft-abused infringements of human rights perpetrated by other governments (particularly King George's) of the day. "States" don't have "rights"!!! All 'rights' belong (inalienably) to human beings! Absolutely no power to abridge or limit the exercise of those human rights can ever be so blithely assumed! The Tenth Amendment does not and can not assign any power to any State or all States! Any reading of the Tenth Amendment that presumes such an interpretation is illicit. What the Tenth Amendment does is clearly state that the first nine amendments are not ever to be interpreted as comprehensive limits on federal powers. Never.

The only question is whether, in acting in the manner it does, the federal government is exceeding its delegated power and infringing on human rights, not State's powers!


It's obvious to me that Mary Kusler needs to be educated - she's clearly proof herself of the need identified by Senator Byrd.

[depakid]

18. States have inherent police powers

which is what the 10th Amendment is referring to.

A fair explanation of these can be found in the classic case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts, where a guy challenged the state's authority to require mandatory smallpox vaccinations:

"The authority of the state to enact this statute is to be referred to what is commonly called the police power,-a power which the state did not surrender when becoming a member of the Union under the Constitution...

According to settled principles, the police power of a state must be held to embrace, at least, such reasonable regulations established directly by legislative enactment as will protect the public health and the public safety."

There is, of course more to it than that, but this gets at the gist of the concept.

[confrontationclaws]

10. Why do so few understand...

the Constitution GRANTS nothing. It limits the power and reach of a government that only exists because we want it to. The Bill of Rights forbids the taking of our rights. The Constitution is constructed in the "negative:" "Congress shall make no law..." The ONLY amendment to the Constitution that is directed at at non-governmental action is the thirteenth amendment (outlawing slavery).

The negative construct is the most basic reason that the amendments proposed by the right-wingers are inappropriate. They forbid the PEOPLE from doing things, instead of forbidding governemental action. They are thus statutory in nature, and, forgetting the issues of content, should simply not be cluttering the constitution.

Sen. Byrd's intentions are appreciated, but I see this somehow as being morphed into a religious affair...

Never forget that in our country sovereignty lies in "we the people", and not in the government, elected or otherwise.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. Should include the Declaration of Indepence

Along with a mandated discussion of Deism and an explanation of what was meant by "Nature's God".

I'm dreaming, of course.

[Cheswick2.0]

14. you think they should be teaching religion in schools?

Deism and Natures God.... I doubt you have any idea what that means in terms of the founding fathers.

[DavidDvorkin]

15. Gee, a gratuitous insult

F* you, too.

My whole point is that teaching what those meant at the time would counteract the current lie that the Founding Fathers meant the same thing as the fundies do when they talk about God.

[Lizzie Borden]

13. I'm behind it.

Kids today aren't taught much if anything about their government. I really don't think it could hurt.

[thedailyshow]

16. I'm all for it!

Kids need to know what their constitutional rights are!

[slaveplanet]

17. It used to be mandatory curriculum

at least in Ohio...and I'll quote directly from the course studies series 1923 vol#2.

This edition of the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Ohio has been prepared to meet the requirements of section 7645-1 of the General Code of Ohio enacted in 1923, as introduced into the House of Representatives by Mrs. Nettie M. Clapp, Representative from Cuyahoga County. The section reads as follows:

It shall be the duty of the board of education of each school district to provide for the study of the United States constitution and the constitution of Ohio, either in the seventh or eighth grades for a period of equivalent to one recitation period each week for the full school year. After September 1, 1924, no person shall be admitted without condition to any high school, graduated from any normal school, or certified to teach within the state whose credentials do not show that the provisions of this section have been complied with, or otherwise prove the possession of adequate knowledge of such subjects.

It shall be the duty of the director of education to compile, publish and distribute to the various school boards of the State prior to September 1 1923, a pamphlet containing the United States constitution and the Constitution of Ohio together with such explanatory matter as he may deem advisable.



So there you have it ...It used to be required ...why is now not?

These student learned amongst other things,

Article V section 2 of the Ohio Constitution:

ALL elections shall be by Ballot

or section 6 of the same Article :

No idiot or insane person shall be entitled to the privileges of an elector.

[VegasWolf]

20. The constitution was created 4000 years ago in the Grand

Canyon. Seriously, I'm all for teaching it. I can't
believe the appalling lack of history in the younger generation.