This paper contends that the issues of constitutional government debated during the founding of the United States should be in the core curriculum of any school that seeks to educate students to become responsible citizens of a constitutional democracy. For purposes of teaching students, the issues debated by founding-era political thinkers can be…

This paper assesses efforts undertaken to promote teaching and learning about the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights during the years leading up to and including the bicentennial celebrations of these two documents. The assessment focuses on three specific topics: (1) patterns of content coverage; (2) materials for teachers and students; and…

The core civic ideas that helped form a consensus around a United States Constitution in 1787 are the seeds that produce the civic culture of the United States today. Constitutionalism, republicanism, communitarianism, and classical liberalism were related ideas at the center of U.S. civic culture in the 1780s. Two hundred years later, with some…