The solution to this disturbing turn of events is Basics Project’s Constitutional Literacy Program.

The goal of the Constitutional Literacy Program is ensure that every American has the opportunity to understand the basic principles on which our country was founded, thus affording them the wherewithal to understand the value of freedom, liberty and our Constitutional Republic and the worth of our American heritage.

This program is being developed using first-source materials employed in the advanced study of our Constitution including the philosophies championed by those who influenced our Founding Fathers. It is designed to provide a basic understanding of the content of our Constitution and a fundamental comprehension of why our Founders addressed each concern.

Our Constitutional Literacy for the Classroom program of study is a sequential Kindergarten through Fifth Grade program designed to introduce Civic Education while merging the disciplines of Social Studies and Language Arts. Because each strand of Civics and Government Education, as suggested by the National Standards, is given equal attention, and because teaching an integrated curriculum combining two subject areas using analytical, written and oral communication skills enhances a teacher’s potential to cover required material in greater detail, students achieve a greater depth of understanding, a higher level of educational achievement and a healthy respect for the founding principles of our country.

The Constitutional Literacy Program, including the Constitutional Literacy for the Classroom program of study, is being developed for dissemination in print and on the Internet.

Because the purpose of Constitutional Literacy is to introduce the fundamental elements of Civic and Government Education through the understanding of the US Constitution using primary-source expository text, not only will the program make great strides in promoting good citizenship, it will effectively join the fight in the on-going battle against illiteracy.

The use of Constitutional Literacy in the classroom will encourage a more civic minded community. And because the program utilizes expository text and a wide-range of enrichment materials, this unique program supports a more literate community, as well. It can be argued successfully that civic competence is probably the most important capacity required for the maintenance of our Constitutional Republic. Unless the importance of a sound understanding of Civic Education is recognized as vital to the continuation of our way of life, and unless this belief is reflected in schools curriculums, we can no longer rely on the notion that our present governing structures are sacrosanct.

The successful implementation of the Constitutional Literacy program will result in adults and students alike being given every opportunity to learn about the important people, places, and events that influence the government of the United States. Students will also benefit from being provided the best venue for learning the important skills of reading and writing expository text.

Students need teacher direction to: make sense of primary source documents often written in unfamiliar styles or formats; work with different text structures used in the nonfiction genre; and write about real people, places, and events which necessitate citing sources or using facts to back up statements. The proper utilization of the Constitutional Literacy program in the classroom will achieve all of these results, advancing not only the level of literacy, but quality of citizenship; effectively promoting the neglected subject of Civic Education.

Our ultimate goal for the Constitutional Literacy Program is to achieve a level of financial support that allows the program to be made accessible to the American public, as well as to every educational institution throughout the country, free of any charge in perpetuity.

The classroom curriculum program will be continually evaluated in our educational institutions in terms of teacher satisfaction with the ease of implementation, students’ short and long term ability to remember the material covered in individual lessons and their ability to process expository materials at the end of any given year.

The evaluation process will center on test classrooms in three (3) demographic locations: urban, suburban and rural. This approach will allow for assessment based on a number of variables including but not limited to: class size, financial resources and cultural diversity. This approach will allow the assessment process to weigh less on the individual instructor’s abilities and more on the program’s performance by evaluating the degrees of success across the spectrum.

Based on baseline evaluations, it is anticipated that a significant, positive difference in the class average of those students who have received instruction in Constitutional Literacy will be indicated.

Find out how you can help Basics Project develop this educational tool so that it can benefit our children, and ultimately, our country. Click here to inquire about Basics Project's Constitutional Literacy Program.