How to Teach Constitution History

Not long ago we attended a lecture on teaching the Constitution by one of the book's authors.  The Forward of the book was written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Essays were written by essayists, pertinent to the subject of 8 chapters.  The book's authors encourage readers that they need not be a lawyer or a constitutional scholar to teach constitutional history in the classroom.  

However, teachers are already struggling to educate today's children to read, write, and do math. They    may feel overwhelmed to be expected to pick up a 436-page book to learn how to teach kids about the Constitution, as important as they know it is.  High School Students in Kansas are expected to pass a test on the constitution in order to graduate, and they may take the test as many times as it takes to pass.  I fear that memorizing test questions is not really teaching students about the American Constitution.  

With many young Americans claiming to prefer Russian laws verses our American Constitution, Kansas lawmakers were understandably concerned.  They required that in addition to testing students about the Constitution, they also be prepared for knowledge of Russian Laws.  Unfortunately, a few questions on a test are not going to fix those problems.  

A new possibility?

I understand that it is important that American students learn to read. write, and understand math.  However, I believe it is equally important that American students learn in depth about our American Constitution.  Passing questions on a test is not going to make much difference in students' appreciation of our Constitution.  Understanding and seeing the importance of our Constitution takes more.  

I believe that if this nation is to survive, teaching students about our constitution is just as important as reading, writing and arithmetic.  Many people see AI as a means of making our lives easier.  I see it as a reason for us to get smarter.

Teachers have made it clear that they are already struggling to teach all of their students enough to succeed with a basic education.  Many teachers cannot see any room for an additional task.  I understand their feelings, but it seems to me that it is more important than ever that we find a way to teach children the importance of our constitution.  I have an idea to ponder.       

 Many years ago, when I was teaching in New England, on Wednesday afternoon, students who wanted to attend religious class in their church were excused from school an hour early.  Students whose parents did not wish their children to be dismissed for religious training used the hour for study hall or other activities.  Why couldn't teaching the constitution for one hour at the close of the day, one day a week, be part of the school day.  If that was done from the time kids started school, a smaller burden could be placed on teachers.  The Constitution weekly programs could be prepared by constitutional scholars, freeing teacher from intensive research.  The scholars would not insert political bias, and if the teaching plan was consistent throughout the nation, children whose parents moved would be receiving the same education when they moved to a new school.  If it was a program for public and private schools, without exception, America could have an educated population without bias and misinformation. President Washington's concern about the problem of political parties would be considerably reduced.  One hour a week, or perhaps a shorter time for younger students, for sixteen years of education, uniform across the nation, whether in Private or Public schools, with unbiased learning about the Constitution, would be good for the kids, teachers, and ultimately for the nation.  It's just a thought, but it might work, free from the bias of politics and without burdening teachers with preparing lessons.  

It's just a thought, but if the politics were removed, and teachers were relieved from having to prepare the lessons, perhaps the nation could benefit from an educated population with a reduction of political bias. It's just a thought!

 

To answer a readers Question

 The drilling is taking place in the Great Plains Industrial Park in Parsons, Kansas.  

Going Underground in Kansas

I saved a clipping about Kansas getting the world's first mile-deep nuclear reactor and have continued to watch for recent news about the dig.  I did find that they had begun, and that some of the neighbors close to the dig were concerned about safety.  I plan to continue checking on progress.  

As I was researching the current issue, I remembered an old clipping about the tragic death of two men, one from Ulysses, Kansas, who decided to go into an abandoned mine shaft near Georgetown Colorado, in hopes of finding something worth the effort.  My mother-in-law had saved a clipping, beginning with a headline "Hope Dims for Missing Pair." The rescuers had followed their tracks left in the dust, and they knew that the two men carried tanks with enough oxygen to last 4 hours.  One of the men had 3 children, the other had two, and hope for the men's survival was strong.       

That general area in Colorado had been a mining region almost 100 years before, but no strike of precious metal was ever found in that particular mine.  Sadly, their decision to enter the mine was a mistake.  The searchers said that it appeared that the men stopped for a rest, pulled off their oxygen masks, and died so quickly they had no awareness of their mistake.    According to the newspaper, the mine was opened only a year.  

A happier story in Grant County, Kansas goes back to the late 1910s, when a farmer discovered a badger hole of nearly pure white ash.  The ash originated in the Pleistocene-era, and it was found in other Western Kansas locations.  By 1922 production reached four tons every hour and a half. The ash was used in toothpaste, grit, soaps, and cleaning powders, although superior abrasives eventually replaced it's use.  In the 1916s it was once again marketable for such things as plaster, concrete, potassium fertilizer and oil absorbents.  However, by that time, it was no longer being marketed in the area of Grant County, Kansas. 

Deep Space

As I mentioned earlier, mining in Kansas has once again made the news.  Deep Isolation is testing in Kansas, Texas, and Utah as part of President Trump's nuclear pilot program.  A newspaper article described an "expedited testing of new designs" to ultimately design a pressurized water reactor--"the world's most common kind of clear technology--small enough to fit into the borehole and powerful enough to generate about as much power as 10,000 homes consume.  That article focused on the generation of power; however, I also found articles about the concern.  

Also of concern is the disposal of spent nuclear fuel.  The current process, as I understand it, uses existing drilling techniques used in the oil and gas industry.  Currently, the concerns about the deep boreholes are primarily the impact on the ground water and aquifer contamination, and while the companies assure the mile deep placement is secure, local people remain particularly concerned.  

Borehole drilling is common in the oil and gas industry, however, apparently using it for nuclear energy and waste disposal is something new. I have only dipped my toe into the issues that appear to be already underway. What concerns me is whether the safeguards I once trusted are still as competent as they once were.  I do not know.  However, I do know that we are living in a far different world that moves faster and seems less dependent on the wisdom of those well educated in their particular sciences.  AI is amazing but as I understand, isn't it only as intelligent as what the information of humans put into it.  It thinks faster and can assimilate the wisdom of a great many people all at once, but for difficult new issues, I still hope that human beings have a place.  We are already giving too little attention to Mother Nature's warning about global warming.  If we become careless about our planet, we do not yet have a backup, although apparently, we are also working on that!       

      

Baking with the Best--and a little humor.

     Every Christmas, and often Thanksgiving, I bake a pumpkin bread that is wonderful!  I do not remember the first time I made it, but it has been our holiday cake ever since.  I know that my favorite flour is Hudson Cream, and I blogged once about being on a trip in Canada, going into a specialty cooking store, and finding a special promotion selling Hudson Cream Flour.  Sometimes we do take for granted special things in our own communities.   

Doing my research for this blog I learned that Kansas Wheat is regarded as superior.  We are the top producer of hard winter wheat in the U.S., known for high protein and strong gluten content, making it ideal for yeast breads and commercial baking.  Because of our reputation, we export to over 100 countries for making premium flour.   

Our nearby Stafford County Flour Mill is generally ranked at the top.  There are also other respected mills in Kansas, and part of that reason for respect is the specific food safety standards and labeling requirements set by the Kansas Department of Agriculture.  First are the safety standards Equipment, Labeling, and Packaging Process steps.  I shared only the headings, but the details are strict. The next time you select your baking flour, feel proud of the respect we should feel for Kansas farmers.  

That being true, I hope the story I am about to share has nothing to do with our Kansas flour!  I prefer to assume that the flour in this case did not come from Kansas, or the culprit wasn't in the flour. There are many ingredients in that cake.  I'm sure it had nothing to do with Kansas!  Perhaps the problem was not in the flour at all!  Maybe it was in the canned pumpkin...or all those spices.  Who knows.  That recipe has many ingredients.

I certainly do not want you to think I am the kind of hostess who would serve cake that had anything bad to our guests.  Oh dear!  Maybe this blog wasn't a very good idea, but I suppose it is too late now not to finish!.  

The bottom line of the story is that all of the ingredients were mixed, and I was pouring the batter into the baking pans when the pieces pictured above were noticed. For those of you who might have reason to eat my cooking...bear in mind how much we love that pumpkin bread, how hard I worked making it, and the important fact that we were not inviting guests.  Now that all of that is understood, I confess that I poured all of the cake mixture back into the bowl where I could search for even the smallest pieces to be certain I had found all of them.  Only then did I bake the cakes. Despite the uninvited addition to the recipe, we ate every bit of that cake! 

I hope this story gave you a chuckle, even if you have never faced the choice between throwing everything out and starting over or carefully searching for unwelcome things in your cake!      

 

Celebrating 250 Years

The responsibilities of the America Constitution.

 

Sadly, for many of us, the American Constitution is taken for granted.  However, it is actually remarkable.  When it was written, only a tiny ancient republic had a codified written constitution.  Ours was the first of its kind.  Today that has changed but we Americans remain unique.  

Not only is it the oldest, but it is also unique for such a long success. It has only been amended 27 times, and those amendments protected individual freedoms.  

Many nations used our Constitution as a model in drafting their own, although that is less so today.  

History records how seriously people in the past took their responsibilities about their vote.  Having lived in times when there were no rights for citizens to vote, people of that era cherished their privilege.  America finally recognized the right for black men to vote, although they went through challenges for their rights to be recognized.  And although it took women a longer time to be granted that right, they did not give up.

As we celebrate our Bicentennial the nation is unsettled, and although it is undeniable that there have been disruptions in the past, the present turmoil is significant.  The Constitution has endured in the past because of its flexibility, because the documents can be read by ordinary citizens, and most importantly, Americans have understood the importance of their responsibility to care about all issues, not just those relevant to themselves.  Getting out the vote is important but being informed voters is also important.  Various researchers have found that between 5 to 37 percent of Americans have read the entire constitution.  As for candidates and elected officials, they certainly should be well informed about the Constitution, as well as the issues that will come before them if they are elected.  Being informed is important from the bottom to the top, and being responsible once elected is obviously important.  Certainly, all of that is demanding, and not every issue can be fully studied.  It is easy to think your one vote doesn't make much difference, but without the voters, elected officials get nowhere, or worse they get somewhere the founding fathers never intended.  

Without the responsibilities of everyone, the system weakens.  We Americans must understand the system, take the time to understand issues, and avoid assuming that political parties are always concerned about the citizens.  The supreme court's decision regarding the capacity of money pouring into elections has made it harder for individual voters to feel like they can make a difference, but we do still matter.  The better informed we are as citizens, the more officials take notice.  The more informed we are, the more attention we receive.  Our responsibility is not just voting.    

What we can do is talk to our representatives.  We can follow the news and not just sources that have a political bias.  Remember misdeeds or neglect of officials.  If their primary home is far from the state they represent, and they rarely visit their home state, take that into consideration.  Do not rely entirely on the party you favor.  Your vote is yours, not theirs.  When George Washington declined running for a third term, he warned against presidents serving too long.  Today presidents can serve only two terms, but Washington also warned against political parties, giving organized political parties more power than the people.  That warning has not been adequately respected, and it is up to us to pay attention to the issues that will serve you and protect the constitution.    

As we celebrate the Bicentennial, we can wave the flag and cheer the parades if we choose, but it is also a good time for us to read the Constitution.  Perhaps it is an opportunity to talk with your children and grandchildren.  It might be a good time for all of us to give ourselves a peptalk on the power citizens actually have, and with the power, the responsibility.  We can honor the Constitution by remembering that we do make a difference, if we take our role seriously.