Consulting the Manual

"Earlier this week, I expressed exasperation at the seeming irrelevance of what I used to teach in American government classes in the context of what's going on now. Old standbys like "checks and balances," "equal protection of the law" and "judicial review" seem to have been discarded in favor of what Lionel Trilling called "a series of irritable mental gestures." I couldn't imagine how I would teach the class now."

"As an erstwhile political theorist, I admit liking this a lot. I'd add a few of the Federalist papers, but that's a quibble. I'd also take "capitalist" out, since that's more descriptive than aspirational. (As Oliver Wendell Holmes noted, the Constitution does not include Mr. Herbert Spencer's Social Statics.) But the basic idea of walking students through the foundational logic of why the government was built and rebuilt the way it was could certainly help students understand what's so deeply disturbing about the current moment."

Traditional civics concepts like checks and balances, equal protection, and judicial review feel inadequate in the current political context. Focusing instruction on the Constitution can reorient students by explaining the founding logic behind government structures and intended limits. Including Federalist arguments and clarifying aspirational versus descriptive language helps illuminate original aims. Guided examination of constitutional text corrects misconceptions about what the Constitution actually contains and what "unconstitutional" means. The First Amendment protects free exercise and forbids establishment of an official religion; it does not use the phrase "separation of church and state," nor does it prohibit basing political views on religious beliefs.

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