Dear Families,
As you may know, next Thursday, September 17, is Constitution Day. Schools across the country that receive federal funding (including GRCDC) are required to provide students with learning about the United States Constitution on this day. Our classrooms will be doing that in developmentally appropriate ways- learning some of the history, ideas, rights, responsibilities, and structures connected to the Constitution. Sometimes, this requirement can feel like a "disruption" to our normal learning sequence. However, this year, I have been thinking about Constitution Day as something bigger than a lesson we are "required" to teach.
Our children are growing up in a world where they hear adults disagree. They hear conversations about fairness, laws, elections, rights, leadership, protest, citizenship, and who gets to make decisions. As a parent, I hear my children grapple with these concepts during car rides, at the dinner table, and even in private conversations with one another. Even our youngest children notice when people have power, when rules feel fair or unfair, when someone is included or left out, and when their own voice is heard- or not heard.
The Constitution is, of course, a document created in a particular moment in American history. The questions the Constitution brings up for us to consider are ongoing: How do a group of people live together? How should power be shared and limited? What rights should people have? What responsibilities do we have to one another? What happens when we disagree? And how do we continue working toward the promise of a country in which liberty and justice truly belong to everyone?
At GRCDC, we talk often about the image we hold of children. We believe children are capable. We believe their ideas matter. We believe they learn in relationship with other people. Democracy requires many of these same things.
It requires us to listen. To participate. To be curious about perspectives other than our own. To ask questions. To notice whose voices are present and whose might be missing. And to understand that being part of a community comes with both rights and responsibilities.
These are really big ideas. Fortunately, children give us opportunities to practice living into these ideas in our everyday lives!
At dinner, in the car, or while walking home from school this week, you might try asking your child:
- What makes a rule fair?
- Who should get to help make rules?
- What should happen when people disagree about a rule?
- What does it mean to have a “right”?
- What responsibilities do people have to one another in a community?
- How can you make sure someone else’s voice is heard?
My hope for Constitution Day is not that our students memorize a set of facts about a document written in 1787. My hope is that they begin to understand something much bigger: their voice matters, other people's voices matter, and living together in a community asks something of all of us.
Sincerely,
Lisa
