We have a saying here at the National Constitution Center: we are not here to teach lawyers, we are here to teach citizens. This is our rallying cry—one we need because making a 228-year document relevant to a 21st-century audience isn’t easy. Now, after years of planning, we have found a way to take this 18th-century document into every classroom in America.
On September 17th, thanks to a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation, we are launching the NEW Interactive Constitution, a free, online tool that allows students to gain a deeper understanding of what the words actually mean. The Interactive Constitution is produced in collaboration with the Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society, the leading conservative and liberal lawyers groups in America. Thanks to this collaboration, the top liberal and conservative scholars in America will write about every clause of the Constitution describing what they agree about and what they disagree about. The Interactive Constitution is a site where constitutional experts interact with each other to explore the Constitution’s history and what it means today. For each provision of the Constitution, scholars of different perspectives discuss what they agree upon, and what they disagree about. These experts were selected with the guidance of leading constitutional law organizations—The American Constitution Society and The Federalist Society.
The Interactive Constitution will be available free to anyone, anywhere and anytime. It will be distributed in partnership with the College Board as a teaching tool in the new AP history and government curriculum, and it will be available to students of all ages across America and around the world. I’m especially excited because, as an educator, I know that the best learners are active learners. To learn and master a topic, the learners must enjoy what they are studying and feel in control of their learning. This is exactly with the Interactive Constitution provides.
So, now that we’ve brought the Constitution into the 21st century, here’s the other key tactic for explaining and building understanding of the Constitution: storytelling. And the U.S. Constitution is full of stories. Take the Fourth Amendment as an example. It reads:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Where did those ideas come from? What happened to make the Founding Fathers write these words and how does this protect us today? This is where it gets interesting.
As you explore our new interactive Constitution, you will read more about what the Founding Fathers concerns were when writing and ratifying the Fourth Amendment. You will learn about a man named John Wilkes and how King George prosecuted him for his political views. You will find out that the British government’s use of “general warrants” that is, warrants that didn’t particularly specify the houses to be searched or the persons or things to be seized — created a deep mistrust in Founders of government’s unchecked ability to search without cause. These stories give today’s citizens a sense of where these rights came from and allow us to imagine how they apply today, in our high-tech cyber world.
• Kerry Sautner is Vice President of Visitor Experiences and Education at The National Constitution Center. For more information, please see https://constitutioncenter.org/.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.