A Child's Version of the Constitution

Each member of my daughter's fifth grade class held a practice version today, which I attended, of their oral reports on the Constitution. Next week each panel of five will read their reports in front of three judges for a final grade. These projects are completely done at school with no parent help whatsoever, other than their practice time at home. They work very hard on these and performing in front of groups can be stressful for some. I was immensely proud of all the ones I saw read theirs today.

Upon completion of each panel's reports, the teacher allowed for a question or two to be asked by the parents. One father inparticular (an annoying father I might add), took issue with one boy's comments on who the signers of the Constitution were, and who they weren't. Specifically, the boy said in his report, that many groups of people were excluded from contributing to this document. American Indians, for one, women, poor people, etc. The father asked, weren't these men that signed this important piece of paper the best and brightest that we had to offer at the time? The boy didn't know what to say, and the teacher had to butt in and offer an explanation, like the one I just said, Indians, women, etc, were originally left out, but gained more rights under it later.

If my thermostat wasn't so out of whack of late, I might've said something, but we were in a child's classroom and it was not the time or place for debate. But still, I whispered to my friend sitting next to me. I was under the impression, while they were smart, intelligent men, they were mainly white, rich land owners. They were hardly a composite slice of what was America at the time. Just because you're rich are you always considered the best and the brightest? I'm sure there were plenty of extremely intelligent people who would've contributed nicely to this famous document, but because they were poor, female or of a different race they were excluded. That's just a fact. Let's not sugar coat it.

Oh, but wait, if women would've been allowed to participate it would've injected too much unnecessary emotion into the whole process. There might've even been tears shed, instead of blood. Or at least that's what these ya-hoos are saying here. But beware before you read it, actual brain cells may die because of it.

I needed to vent. My Bp's well below stroke level now, so I feel better. Sort of.