I read an Sept. 16 concerning a new mandate put upon the schools by the federal government. This new mandate concerned Constitution Day or the day the constitution was signed. The mandate required schools to teach about the Constitution as close to the day of Sept. 17 as possible.

I think that the schools could do without this mandate for many reasons, one of them being that at one time or another, students, such as myself, will learn about the Constitution and the rest of our history. Therefore, to teach it to students in every grade every year is going to create the problem of making students bored.

Another reason is that schools already have so many things to teach students between the No Child Left Behind Act and our Maine Learning Results that to have to teach about the Constitution is just another thing teachers have to squeeze in on a certain date.

In conclusion, I would like to say that teaching should be left to teachers, and that the government should not get involved. Also, what are we coming to? If something as small as teaching about the Constitution, which will be done at one time or another before graduation, can’t be left alone, what else might they force us to learn? I think that we in the schools could do better without this new mandate.

Brian Holland