Amending the Constitution

Civics Lesson

GRADE LEVEL: High School

What is an Amendment?

How Does the Constitution Affect People Other than the Founding Fathers and Who They Represented at the Time?

Should the Constitution be Easier to Amend?

Imagine! The United States of America is still referencing the same Constitution that was written on September 17, 1787. What did the Constitution do for people who were not wealthy, white and male? What freedoms were left out from the original document? The Founding Fathers “recognized that, for a government to function well, the ground rules should be stable. But they also understood that the people will need to change those ground rules as new challenges and problems surface with the passage of time” (Posner, 2014). While there haven’t been any amendments that have passed since 1992, many challenges and problems have come up since 1787. Understanding the amendment process is vital to understanding not only how a constitutional democracy works, but also aids in being an active community member.

About the Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn about how the Constitution affected persons who were not of the same demographics as the Founding Fathers. They will also discuss the ease and difficulty of making amendments to the Constitution.

Standard(s):

D2.Civ.3.9-12

D2.Civ4.9-12

Objective(s):

• Learn the process of amending the Constitution.
• Understand the reactions of ordinary Americans to the Constitution.
• Discuss justifications for how easy or difficult it is to make amendments to the Constitution.