Reflection 2 (short book): The US Constitution
Brief summary
The US Constitution is a document of about 8,000 words that outlines the framework for the federal government in the US. It was drafted in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, ratified in 1788, and came into effect in 1789. It was drafted by 55 white, male, property-owning delegates from 12 of the then-13 states. The delegates ranged in age from 26 to 81. The Constitution contains seven articles. Articles I through III outline the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, while Article IV outlines powers of the states. Article V establishes how amendments can be made. In total, there have been 27 approved amendments to the Constitution. Article VI decrees the Constitution and all the laws compatible with it to be the supreme law of the land (taking primacy over state laws), and Article VII declares that the Constitution will come into effect upon being ratified by at least 9 states.
Pedagogical use
The Constitution is a key document studied by people trying to become US citizens because the US citizenship test contains questions about its content. The Constitution is also a seminal legal and historical document that is studied by students and experts of law, political science, and history all over the world. It is an authentic text that can be used in Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) classes and Content-Based Instruction (CBI) classes. Since the Constitution is a cornerstone of US society and often referenced in US culture, it can also be used to analyze aspects of US culture. Analyzing and comparing the ideas in the Constitution (and its historical context) with current practices and sociopolitical issues could be a great way to bring social justice issues in the classroom.
Discussion points and core concepts
The Preamble, the first sentence and introduction to the Constitution, starts with the words “We the People.” This means that it is the people of the country, not the government, who control the country. Of course, this has to be done through elected representatives because it is impossible for every single person to have a say in how the country is run. However, if we look at the history of elected representation in the US, who falls in the category of “we the people,” and therefore whose interests are actually represented, has never been all people in the US. The Framers were white, property-owning men living in the 1780s, and 25 of the 55-member delegation were enslavers (Mintz n.d.). They did not envision “majority rule” including women, poor people, and people of color. The definition of “we the people” has changed over time, from white property-owning men, to white men, to all white people, and ostensibly with the Voting Rights act of 1965, to all people, though many people, especially Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC), remain disenfranchised through gerrymandered districts and other state and local laws and policies (Tausanovitch and Root 2020, “Voting Laws Roundup” 2021). A discussion question for students could be, “What is the first sentence of your country’s constitution? What kind of people do you imagine when you hear ‘We the People’? Who is included and excluded? Who has been excluded historically?”
“Establish justice” is also a stated goal of the Constitution and therefore the US government. As we read in Rank’s (2014) “Why poverty and inequality undermine justice in America,” and for many other reasons, the historical and current justice system in the US is set up to deliver justice that is skewed by race, class, gender, ethnicity, and so on. If we conceive of justice as the equal entitlement and protection of rights, equal opportunities, punishments being proportionate to crimes committed, and success being proportionate to efforts made (Rank 2014), then it is clear that the US Constitution has not been able to guarantee justice to all people. A discussion question for students could be, “What is your definition of justice? How is justice defined in your home society? Does this justice apply to everyone equally, or does it serve some people and not others? What injustices do you notice around you? How could justice be better established around us?”
Articles I-III: These articles set up the three branches of the federal government: executive, legislative, and judicial. Crucially, while each state is allowed a number of representatives proportional to its population in the Lower House, each state is also allocated two senators regardless of the state’s population. According to an NPR news article, while the Senate is split 50-50 between Republican and Democratic senators, “Democrats represent 41.5 million more people” in the Senate (Liasson 2021). Apparently, the Frames of the Constitution intentionally set up the Senate this way so that states with small populations would not be overpowered by states with large populations. However, Jesse Wegman, a political writer, says, “At the time of the founding, the biggest state was 13 times the size of the smallest state. Today, the biggest state is 70 times the size of the smallest state…So a few hundred thousand people in Wyoming have as much power as tens of millions of people in California or New York. And I think that violation of majority rule is going to continue to haunt us through the Senate, which is not really alterable in any meaningful way other than by just adding more states” (Liasson 2021). One way to help solve the issue would be to redraw gerrymandered districts. Another way would be to add more seats to the House of Representatives. Without these solutions, the US federal government could slip into extreme minority rule by 2040, with 70 senators representing 30% of the population, and the courts stacked in favor of Republicans due to their legislative majorities (Liasson 2021). This context could be used to ask such discussion questions as, “How do you define power in society? Who holds power in your society (national, local) and why? What do you think about this distribution of power? What could be done so that power is distributed more equally? What is democracy? How important is it to maintain a democratic government? Is the US a true democracy?” These questions relate to our discussion of the definition of social justice and how it corresponds to distribution and access to power and resources. These questions also encourage students to become aware of and question the status quo, the kind of education that Freire (2018) urges teachers to enact.
Article V: Article V establishes that amendments to the Constitution must be made with a two-thirds majority vote in both Houses of Congress or approval by three-fourths of states. The first ten amendments, also known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified at the same time in 1791 and guaranteed specific rights not previously guaranteed in the Constitution itself. These rights include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press; the right to bear arms, the prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures; the rights to due process and a speedy public trial by jury; and the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Clearly, in 1791, these rights did not extend to all people living in the US. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments (1866) abolished slavery, guaranteed equal protection and treatment of all citizens under the law, and prohibited denial of the right to vote based on race. However, various state laws, Supreme Court decisions, and a general lack of implementation of these protections stripped Black Americans and other marginalized people of these rights for many more years. Furthermore, the construct of “citizen” vs. non-citizen was a key tool to withhold these rights from immigrants and Native Americans (Bell et al. 2016). The gap between the letter of the law and real practice is a good starting point for discussions about not only the law and social justice, but also about how national narratives and myths are circulated and reinforced. For example, the Constitution and its amendments are often held up as shining examples of the US’s “exceptional” democracy and free society. How is this narrative upheld or challenged in public discourse? Who does this narrative serve, and who does it erase? What does “freedom” really mean?
References
Bell, L. A., Funk, M. S., Joshi, K. Y., & Valdivia, M. (2016). Racism and white privilege. In M. Adams and L. Bell (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice (pp. 133-183). Routledge.
Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed (50th anniversary edition). Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Liasson, M. (2021, June 9). Democrats increasingly say American democracy is sliding toward minority rule. NPR. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1002593823/how-democratic-is-american-democracy-key-pillars-face-stress-tests.
Mintz, S. (n.d.). Historical context: The Constitution and slavery. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-resource/historical-context-constitution-and-slavery.
Rank, M. R. (2014). Why poverty and inequality undermine justice in America. In Routledge international handbook of social justice (pp. 462-474). Routledge.
Tausanovitch, A., & Root, D. (2020, April 27). How partisan gerrymandering limits voting rights. Center for American Progress. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.americanprogress.org/article/partisan-gerrymandering-limits-voting-rights/.
Voting laws roundup: October 2021. Brennan Center for Justice. (2021, October 4). Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2021.
Wow, Zoya, thank you for this thorough and very useful reflection! I didn’t realize the Constitution was on the short book list, but after reading your post, I can see how much potential use it could have in the language classroom (ESL in particular). I used to work in a writing lab in a big open office space where ESL classes were held, and I got to listen in to many different classes, including the citizenship class. I love the idea of challenging students (in that kind of course especially) to think critically about the U.S. Constitution and how it has been used and interpreted throughout U.S. history to exclude and marginalize both citizens and newcomers. That seems just as valuable as going through the endless sample questions and preparing for the citizenship test. Your last discussion point about freedom also seems essential to me. That word gets thrown around a lot in our society, and I think it would be helpful to ask students to explore it in the context of the Constitution as well as in various contexts they are exposed to outside the classroom.
Zoya, this is a stupendous reflection! I especially appreciate your reflection questions, which allow students linguistic and philosophical latitude to express their opinions, engage with the text, and engage with issues of social justice. I liked the questions about the first sentence in their country of origin’s constitution; the injustices they have noticed in the community where they live now; who is included/excluded in “We the People;” and inquiring how power could be more equally distributed. I think it would be difficult for beginning learners to have deep conversations about these topics (but should still be pursued with beginners), but intermediate and advanced learners could really expand on these prompts.
Hi Zoya, thank you so much for your summary and interpretation of the constitution. I somehow managed to avoid reading it throughout my education, and I think I prefer your version. What you’ve written here is not only accessible for us, your peers, but also learners. I really like how you laid out the social/historical context of the document, and your discussions questions are awesome. The last one, about Article V and the gap between law/practice, reminds me a lot of what I read for my reflection on James Baldwin’s “Dark Days.” He discusses the hypocrisy of the U.S. government in caring for its Black citizens as far as supposedly treating them as “equal:” It has granted them voting rights, and they have access to higher education and social class mobility and job security, but the reality is that Black people do not truly have equal access to these things. It could be interesting to discuss with students their experience of access to what is promised in the Constitution.
This was a great reflection to read, Zoya! I never thought about using the constitution in my classroom, but you’re right in that it’s a very important document for those wanting to live in The United States. One of the most important things to know are your constitutional rights and how the government works so that you can vote to influence the right type of change. For instance, so many people think that the president holds quite a bit more power than they actually do, which indicates that they are unaware of the powers of the judicial and legislatives branches. Because of this, they don’t think it’s important to vote in the midterms, and thus only a small percentage of the population is voting for 1/3 of the power in the country. Especially exploring articles I-III and V is a great idea for students to know what system they’re coming into.
Wow Zoya! Thanks for choosing the US Constitution as your text to read. Brilliant idea. I shall make sure to add it for next cohorts. I have never read the constitution, but after reading your reflection I believe I should, and actually I would prefer to read that and come back here and read your reflection again. A lot of the “legal” stuff is hard for language learners, and this seems to be an area you are passionate about. I would seriously consider making this interest and knowledge part of my teaching skills. The literature is very limited in this field but here are some articles that might be of interest all by Aneta Pavlenko:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tesj.570
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/IJSLL/article/view/17250
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ818250