How The Constitution Works for Students
By Ari McKenna

In a sparsely furnished courtroom in Manhattan recently, students from IS 89 had the opportunity to mock-try a Supreme Court Case on National Security vs. The First Amendment. Equipped with suits, some robes, a large wooden hammer and some sound knowledge of the Constitution, the students played out the case, which lingers in the shadow of the September 11^th attack on the World Trade Center and explores democracy.

IS 89 is only one of approximately 400 schools in the New York area that take part in such activities, due to their collaboration with the Constitution Works (TCW) program. Now in its fourteenth year TCW is a veritable harbinger of conscious and active future citizens who will participate in government.

Here is how The Constitution Works works: The Board of Education offers a supplementary program, which satisfies requirements in social studies and language arts to teachers of civics, social studies, and related subjects. TCW, whose full-time staff includes Thomas Stokes (Executive Director), Rosa Taveras (Program Manager), and Eric Neutoch (Program Associate), holds training workshops for those teachers, brushing them up on their constitutional knowledge, introducing them to methodologies concerning group work, interdependence, and active student participation, and eventually putting them through a role-played court case.

Before they return to the classroom they are given a “unit” to introduce to their respective classes. While some units may be more involved with the Executive or Legislative branches, most deal with the Judicial branch and are usually recent Supreme Court cases with current implications.

Students start with groundwork introduction on relevant excerpts from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As the process continues they receive roles and engage specifically with their own “unit.” Upon the teacher’s request, TCW provides technical support in the form of law students from Fordham University, volunteer attorneys, and TCW staffers who are able to help kids on a more one-on-one basis.

TCW is involved with public, private, Jewish, and Catholic schools as well as some adult education centers. It is privately funded but has recently been seeking public funding with the help of Borough President Virginai Fields.

While working with a bilingual class that TCW services, Taveras noticed an interesting phenomenon: many of the South American students refused to take the side which was in opposition to the government because they were “afraid of punishment.” At this point, Taveras explained the first amendment’s second clause, involving free speech and free press. Taveras notes that the American students had no such qualms about opposing the state; “they don’t see it as going against the government, they see it as ‘this is my right.”

The Constitution Works has reached about 100,000 students, establishing and sending out into the future a “Reserve of Uprights” of sorts, emerging young citizens aware of their own personal-political contexts who will participate in government with acuity, awareness and knowledge.#

Name: E-mail: Comments:

Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001.
Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919.Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2002.