Tucked into a massive appropriations bill approved without fanfare late last year by Congress is the requirement that every one of the estimated 1.8 million federal employees in the executive branch receive “educational and training” materials about the charter on Constitution Day, a holiday celebrating the Sept. 17, 1787, signing that is so obscure that it, unlike Arbor Day, is left off many calendars.
That’s not all: The law requires every school that receives federal funds — including universities — to show students a program on the Constitution, though it does not specify a particular one. The demand has proved unpopular with educators, who say that they don’t like the federal government telling them what to teach and that it doesn’t make the best educational sense to teach something as important as the Constitution out of context.
“We already cover the Constitution up, down and around,” said August Frattali, principal of Rachel Carson Middle School in Fairfax County. But, he chuckled, “I’m going to follow the mandates. I don’t want to get fired.”
2 thoughts on “Constitution Day”
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As an ex-teacher, I totally agree with the teacher from Rachel Carson. Why teach something as important as the Constitution without tying it into a full unit of study?
Then again, the law simply requires an assembly around the September date. I’ve been to some pretty horrible and time-wasting assemblies, so I can imagine that this would at least be a good assembly topic.
As someone who now works in educational publishing, I can say that we are producing special items for teachers to use this fall to celebrate the day (and follow the federal mandate).
By the way, NewMexiKen’s daughters both know the congressional aide who wrote that part of the appropriations bill. She’s a good friend of ours from The College of William and Mary.