“Old teachers never die, they just keep thinking of ways to educate and inspire people”.
On a rainy Rhode Island Victory Day listening to Annie Lenox’s Medusa and reading Jon Meacham’s “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels”, an idea flashed into my head; A viral challenge that celebrates the Constitution. Yes, I thought, no moving cars, ice water, plastic bottles, lip syncing, or ghost peppers involved, just a copy of the US Constitution, a cell phone and a social media post. I enlisted the fabulous Ken Abrams, teacher extraordinaire from Scituate Middle School, who concurs that we need to reinvigorate the civics component, as well as interest in the founding documents and together we put forth this challenge.
Let’s face it, civics are dying a slow and painful death. The death of civics and lack of its instruction are taking a toll on our participatory government. And so, the old history teacher in me felt the urgent need to make a small step to ignite what I hope will be a rebirth of interest in our Constitution. The rediscovery of our founding principles will no doubt make clearer our responsibilities in self-governance. The idea is to not over complicate this, just take a selfie with your copy of the Constitution, post it on your Twitter, FB, Insta or Snapchat, use the hashtag, #Wethepeoplechallenge. That’s it. But, here’s the rub, you may not have one. So, get one. (available on the website) Read it, share it and know it. I have reached to my friends in teaching, government and law and will we be reaching out to other resources to obtain pocket Constitutions and make available for people to treasure and selfie with! The web page has a downloadable version as well, also perfect for a selfie. A special thank you to Senators Whitehouse and Reed for sending along some pocket Constitutions for the challenge.
US Constitution Day is September 17, 2018, and school has started. The challenge is to make this Constitution selfie go viral before 9-17-2018.
Let’s do this! #Wethepeoplechallenge
For more information, visit https://wethepeoplechallenge.com/.
Written and submitted by Carol Anne Costa