Did you remember to celebrate last Friday? It was Constitution Day and in schools across America from Lexington, Kentucky to Concord, California the Constitution was the star of the day.
I bet it would make our founding fathers proud to know that the document they signed on September 17, 1787 is still alive and kicking. Several notable dads were present that day, including, George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison, the only future presidents who penned their names. Thomas Jefferson was off in France, probably laying the necessary ground work for swindling the French out of the Louisiana territory.
Ben Franklin was in very poor health, and he signed with tears streaming down his face. Madison is known as the Father of the Constitution and he is the only convention member to attend all 100 sessions. It must have been arduous work, forming a country, until I read that the delegates only worked from 10:00 – 3:00. Got to love that five-hour work day. No wonder it took 100 days. But to their credit, they did have meetings on Saturdays.
The constitution was “penned” by a man named Jacob Shallus for $30.00. It was printed by John Dunlap and David Claypoole in Philadelphia. There appear to be quite a few spelling errors in our grand document. Apparently, Noah Webster wasn’t there to proofread. And Dunlap and Claypoole were probably running Window’s Vista on their printing press.
The most obvious is Pennsylvania written with only one “N” in the list of signatories. Actually, it was a common spelling at the time, for example, the Liberty Bell is etched with the one-N spelling. However, the constitution also uses the two-N spelling in other locations.
Other spelling issues are the words “choose” and “choosing” spelled as “chuse” and chusing”. But this too was a common alternate spelling at the time. Additionally, several words were inked using their British spelling counterparts: defence, controul, and labour.
To celebrate Constitution Day, I decided to write a constitution for my classroom. I began with a preamble: “We the students of room 32, in order to form a more perfect classroom, establish learning, insure a caring classroom environment, provide for the common understanding, promote the general friendship, and secure the blessings of education to ourselves and our teacher, do ordain and establish this constitution for the 2010-11 school year.”
My constitution mirrors our national document in several areas:
The right to bear arms (and clean hands) – (1) Every student has the ability to raise his or her hand instead of blurting out questions or calling my name over and over. (2) All students are capable of washing their hands after using the restroom, eating, or playing on the yard.
Free speech – (1) Every student is permitted to quietly ask questions to their neighbors before asking me. Especially if it’s about something I’ve already explained. (2) All students are expected to write and speak in complete sentences. This includes the written response section on the daily math homework. (3) All students are mature enough to read quietly in the library, pay attention in the auditorium, and save conversations to the lunch benches and playground.
Assembly – (1) See article 3 above. (2) Each student is expected to line up silently and walk swiftly to the destination in a quiet, timely manner. This does not mean lollygagging, hopping, twirling, and meandering in serious conversation on the way to lunch.
A classroom constitution needs to differ from one designed to oversee a country. Therefore, I had to establish a few other “rights.” Such as:
Freedom to organize: (1) Every student is expected to take excellent care of their materials and belongings, as well, as keep the tops and insides of their desks neatly arranged. (2) Each student is adept enough to take home their returned paper and tests, including the ones with non-passing grades.
Freedom to think: (1) Each student is allowed to think for themselves instead of waiting for me to give them the answer.
Freedom to be responsible: (1) All students are skilled enough to remember to take home their homework, complete it at home without complaining, and bring it back to school on time.
Freedom to read: (1) All students are free to read for pleasure or to learn. However, this does not mean wasting time by going back to the bookshelves over and over in a three-minute period.
Freedom to pee and to hold it: (1) Each student is capable of remembering to use the restroom before school, during recess, and at lunch. (2) All students are able to wait at least an hour at the beginning of the day or upon returning from both recess and lunch.
John Adams was a grammar school teacher before becoming a lawyer and a statesman. I found a quote of his interesting, “My little school, like a great world, is made up of kings, politicians, divines, fops (a vain person), buffoons, fiddlers, fools, coxcombs (a conceited pretentious person), sycophants (a self-seeking parasite), chimney sweeps, and every other character I see in the world. I would rather sit in school and consider which of my pupils will turn out to be a hero, and which a rake (an immoral person), which a philosopher, and which a parasite, than to have an income of a 1,000 pounds a year.”
I love it. My little classroom is my little world. But a democracy it isn’t. It’s my little monocracy. It’s an exhausting but wonderful job. I have the honor of trying to give them not just an education but also a little guidance to help them grow up and be thoughtful, caring, productive members of their communities, under the freedoms and protections that our grand Constitution provides.
Public education has quickly become all about test scores. Teachers and students are being judged not on a whole body of work but on few dozen math and reading questions. My job is to not only get children to pass the test but to also make sure they passed with a higher score than the previous year. I don’t take that responsibility lightly. But I’d rather my students be dependable, responsible, and compassionate adults than coxcombs and sycophants, regardless of their test score.
So, I hope my classroom constitution is helpful this year for both building knowledge and character. We’ll know in about 10 years when my students have to chuse what they want to do with their lives. Err ... I mean … choose. Thank God for spell checkers.
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