A classroom examination of the featured historical article announcing North Carolina's ratification of the Constitution can springboard into a lesson on federalism, the Bill of Rights, and the ratification process.

After a 72-year struggle, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote in 1920. Coupled with the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended voting rights to African American men, the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment transformed the power and potency of the American electorate. This article invites the…

This 2020 issue of "Social Education," marking the centennial anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, seeks to broaden understanding of the suffrage story in several ways: by considering the strategies and tactics used by the suffragists to foment their agitation; by acknowledging the ways in which further work was needed to secure…

At the turn of the 20th century, Pink Teas (alternately known as "suffrage teas") were held by women who championed women's right to vote. In this article, the author provides historical background on Pink Teas and ideas of how to teach about them in the elementary classroom.

In this essay Bryan Warnick explores how rights to religious expression should be understood for students in public schools. Warnick frames student religious rights as a debate between the conflicting values associated with the Free Exercise Clause and the values associated with the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. He then…

In planning a freshman undergraduate curriculum with colleagues recently, the question arose as to what type of understanding educators wanted to impart to their students about the Constitution. The alleged defects of the Constitution that these books point to are wide-ranging and can be classified into various categories. Some problems--such as…

The last 50 years have seen a massive increase in the federal role in public education in the United States and a marked increase in the tension between the federal government and the states with respect to control over education. This article investigates the history of education in America, particularly with respect to federal versus state…

America's colleges and universities are supposed to be strongholds of classically liberal ideals, including the protection of individual rights and openness to debate and inquiry. Too often, this is not the case. Across the country, universities deny students and faculty their fundamental rights to freedom of speech and expression. The report…

In 1964, Congress passed Public Law 82-352. This civil rights act forbade hiring, promoting, and firing discrimination based on sex or race. Title VII of the act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to implement the law. Subsequent legislation expanded the role of the EEOC. Today, the EEOC enforces laws that prohibit…

Offers a lesson plan to teach grades four through six about the Constitutional amendments dealing with civil rights. The lesson covers four to five class periods and uses scenarios to demonstrate civil rights concepts. (BSR)

Considers the United States Constitution a "characterological" document that motivates the image-based politics characteristic of contemporary confirmation controversies. Suggests that this motive results in the embodiment of ideology in the characters who dominate American public life. Cites the confirmation debate regarding Thurgood…

Discusses the changing legal status of women from the American Revolution to the present. Divides discussion into five major constitutional periods. Describes the "Broken Barometer" theory in which laws passed for the benefit of women are actually an indicator of their past needs rather than their present concerns. (RW)

This issue of "this Constitution" is devoted to commemorating the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. Materials include: "A Chronology of Civil Liberties and Civil Rights in the United States" (Herman Belz); "Constitutional Power to Enforce Individual Rights: The Legacy of McCulloch v.…

Examines how John Locke's views on limited government, constitutional supremacy, republicanism, and internal checks and balances are represented in the U.S. Constitution. (Author/BSR)

Social scientists have suggested that all societies adhere to certain universal values. One form or another of the Golden Rule, for example, appears in all cultures. It may follow that, if we want to rise above cultural relativism, we might adopt values that humans seem to share and agree on already. The author of this article dismisses various…