Dear Friends,
Happy Constitution Day! As we celebrate the 232nd anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution and welcome more than 3,500 students to the National Constitution Center, I’m thrilled to share the launch of the Interactive Constitution: Classroom Edition, which will provide learners of all ages the best nonpartisan educational materials about the Constitution in America!
The Interactive Constitution: Classroom Edition, a path-breaking multimedia digital platform, is trusted, nonpartisan, and free. If you click on any major provision of the Constitution, you will find essays by America's leading liberal and conservative scholars, the Drafting Table, a tool that allows you to explore early drafts, educational videos with Supreme Court justices and other constitutional experts, lesson plans, and all of our relevant podcasts, blogs, and material about constitutional issues in the news. The new platform builds on the success of the first edition of the Interactive Constitution, which has already received over 25 million unique views since its launch on Constitution Day 2015.
The Classroom Edition hosts the Center’s new Classroom Exchanges, an exciting matching tool which unites classrooms from across the country for civil dialogue about the Constitution moderated by judges and master teachers. It is an integral part of the new Constitutional Ambassadors program which aims to bring over 10,000 students to the Center this school year for an immersive experience in constitutional education. The College Board is encouraging all 25,000 Advanced Placement teachers to bring the Classroom Edition to more than three million AP high school students, and our goal is to bring it to learners across America, from eight to eighty.
Convening students across America, from different states and different perspectives, for civil conversations about the Constitution, these programs have the potential to transform the way students learn the skills of civil dialogue while also ensuring students have the civic knowledge that the Framers considered essential to preserving the American Republic. I think the Interactive Constitution: Classroom Edition is the most important educational resource the National Constitution Center has created, and I can’t wait for you to start exploring and learning from it.
This afternoon, Justice Neil Gorsuch, our new Honorary Chair, will join us at our Constitution Day celebration for a Student Town Hall and then later this evening for an America’s Town Hall program where he will discuss his new book, A Republic, If You Can Keep It. If you haven’t yet signed up for the evening program, you can register here. Justice Gorsuch and I will have a great conversation, and I’d love for you to join us here at the Center or watch the livestream.
You can read more about our efforts to increase civic knowledge and elevate civil dialogue and the many supporters who make our work possible here. I’m excited for you to explore the Interactive Constitution: Classroom Edition and to share your feedback.
Thank you for being a vital part of the National Constitution Center’s community of lifelong learners and for educating yourself about the U.S. Constitution!
With appreciation,
Jeffrey Rosen
