By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

A little-known provision requires federally funded schools to teach students about the U.S. Constitution this week or next.

This new requirement was added to a massive spending bill signed into law last December. It takes effect this month because September is the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.

But “teach the Constitution” means something different to every school.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian will discuss the finer points of the Constitution at the University of Maine at Farmington.

A Web site will do the job for Bates College.

And in Lewiston schools, there’ll be a movie starring Snoopy.

“It’s harder to find out about, than comply with,” said Gene Wiemers, vice president for academic affairs at Bates College in Lewiston. “The notion is very vague.”

The provision, spearheaded by Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, requires schools to hold “educational programs” about the Constitution every year on Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.

When Sept. 17 falls on a weekend, as it does this year, schools can hold their program a week before or after.

The requirement doesn’t specify what “educational program” means or how much time schools should spend on it.

The University of Maine at Farmington’s biggest presentation will come on Sept. 25, when Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon Wood will lecture on the Revolutionary War period. He will then spend three days visiting classes and offering smaller presentations about the Constitution and other issues.

Andover College in Portland and Lewiston will give every instructor copies of the Constitution for students to read and discuss. Students will then be tested on it.

Bates College officials will set up a display in the library, create a Web site about the Constitution and hand out copies of the document later this week.

Wiemers said he learned about the requirement last spring, but “trying to get a word in edgewise at the beginning of school is difficult.” He believes the display, the Web site and the handouts will reach nearly all of the school’s 1,700 students.

“The Constitution is an important document. Sen. Byrd carries it with him all the time. We’ll pass out copies so people can do the same,” he said.

At the University of Southern Maine in Portland, faculty will hold a public panel next week to discuss the relationship between the First Amendment and free speech in college. Then, although it’s not required, a second panel of students and professors will meet in October to discuss their perspectives.

“It seems to me if we’re going to raise the issue, we ought to have an opportunity for students to tell us their experiences,” said Joe Wood, vice president for academic affairs.

Making it fit

Elementary and high schools will also honor Constitution Day in their own ways.

The Maine Department of Education has provided schools with free, ready-to-use lessons for kids in kindergarten through grade 12. SAD 43, which serves the Mexico area, will use those. Lewiston bought books and a Constitution movie – starring Snoopy – for its youngest students.

Like other Maine school systems, Lewiston already teaches about the Constitution as part of regular social studies classes. Some kids are learning about explorers now. They’ll have to jump ahead a few hundred years to get to the Constitution.

“I’m patriotic so I have no problems with it. It’s just the timing. It will have to fit,” said Janice Plourde, curriculum director.

While Lewiston has its day planned, many others schools are still discussing theirs.

Officials in SAD 39, which serves Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner, didn’t realize the day was coming so soon. Their two schools cover the Constitution during the year, but they didn’t plan anything for the little-known provision.

Next year they will, said Superintendent Richard Colpitts, but right now there’s just not time.

“Are we going to scramble to do something just to do something? No,” he said.

The new requirement doesn’t provide any money for schools to do programs. It also doesn’t provide any way to enforce the day.

Copy the Story Link