Trares
We the People of the United States,
in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
— The Preamble of the U.S. Constitution
There’s been a lot of Constitution talk around our house this week.
Anthony’s fourth-grade class has been focusing on government in social studies. They’ve been learning about the three branches of the government, parsing out the roles of the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
At the same time, the class has been studying the system of checks and balances created by the Founding Fathers to ensure no one branch of the government gains too much power. Future lessons investigate how bills are passed and laws are created. They also talked about vital actions of citizens, such as responsibility, civility and caring.
I couldn’t be happier.
Familiarity with our civic systems seem to be in short supply these days. Too few people understand the safeguards our democracy has built in, and how those protections can be shifted, altered or taken away if we’re not vigilant.
So when Anthony said he was studying the Constitution, I thought it was a great opportunity to start learning those bedrock ideals that are so important to our freedoms.
I remember when that realization clicked into place for me. Though I’d studied civics and those basic freedoms at different points in elementary school and junior high, the first rigorous examination came my freshman year of high school.
During Mr. Ferguson’s honors government class, we learned how the concepts and protections in the Constitution and Bill of Rights came into being, the protracted tug-of-war between differing viewpoints, and the compromises necessary to find workable solutions.
In between rounds of Civics Jeopardy and play-acting negotiations between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, we saw how despite challenges and crises throughout the country’s history, our system had maintained important freedoms — only because citizens understood what they were and fought to keep them in place.
At the time, Mr. Ferguson’s class was just another 50-minute period in my school day. But looking back, I consider the lessons I learned as the foundation of being a good citizen.
Hopefully, this introduction to civics will start Anthony on a similar path.
One of the big assignments of this unit they’re learning is to memorize the Preamble. All of the students had to memorize the 52-words that introduce the Constitution, and be prepared to explain the meaning of the different phrases such as “promote the general Welfare” and “secure the Blessings of Liberty.”
The assignment had Anthony stressed. He wasn’t confident that he’d be able to remember all of the words properly; he struggled with words such as “tranquility” and “posterity.” And he wasn’t sure he’d recall what some of those phrases meant.
We studied. We pulled up the study sheet the class had been working on, as I quizzed on the significance of “We the People” and “ordain and establish.”
We even pulled up the old Schoolhouse Rock song about the Preamble. The catchy tune stuck with Anthony more than anything; he even got a little sing-songy when reciting the words back.
I felt good that he’d do great, and I think he was confident too. His work paid off — he got an A+ on the assignment, he reported after the test.
The grade is great. But I hope Anthony takes much more from the lesson that that. Being a good and informed citizen will only serve him for the rest of his life.
Ryan Trares is a senior reporter and columnist for the Daily Journal. Send comments to editorial@therepublic.com.
