We the People competition People frequently ask about the connection between We the People
competition and We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution
curriculum. WTP competition is a high school program funded by the
Department of Education through the National Endowment for the Humanities. WTP
curriculum is based on a radical set of National Standards for Civics and
Government funded by the Department of Education through the Center for Civic
Education (CCE) in California.
While WTP competition is not necessarily built on WTP curriculum (see FedEd: The New Federal Curriculum
and How It’s Enforced), it stands to reason that the standards of the
federally funded WTP curriculum might commonly be used as the basis for
preparing students for WTP competition. The Indianapolis Star newspaper
made that connection clear last month, by stating that WTP textbook would be
used as a study manual. One alert citizen wrote this letter to The
Indianapolis Star in response:
25 December 2004
To the Editor The Indianapolis Star
Dear Sir:
It was with great interest that I noted in your newspaper of December 23 that
two local teams won a “We the People” competition and were headed to Washington,
D. C. to compete in the national contest for state high school “civics savvy”
winners. I was particularly surprised that the textbook “We the People” as used
as a study manual. Let me give you a few examples of its shortcomings.
This textbook’s view of the Bill of Rights is decidedly lukewarm, and Unit 5 it
does not even mention the Second Amendment, the Ninth Amendment or the Tenth
Amendment. Yet this section is titled “What Rights does the Bill of Rights
Protect?”
Elsewhere the text teaches there is no right of the private citizens to own or
bear arms. Yet only recently the Justice Department issued a long paper
detailing that the right to bear arms is a fundamental individual liberty. The
Ninth and Tenth amendments describe those rights reserved to the states and that
those rights not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved
to the states. Textbooks have historically separated between those powers
delegated to the central government and those reserved to the states. This
textbook doesn’t even mention the words “reserved rights.”
The Declaration of Independence begins with a statement of national sovereignty,
yet this book “We the People” not once mentions the concept of “National
Sovereignty”. Without these basic facts, these students are not prepared for any
contest in Washington and are certainly not prepared to assume leadership
positions in our sovereign country. Its worldview is hostile to national
sovereignty.
May I quote from its We the People textbook pages? It states “…Issues of
economic competition, the environment, and the movement of peoples around the
world require an awareness of political associations that are larger in scope
than the nation-state.” (p 202) that is, We the Peoplestrongly
suggests that the U.N. is more important than the United States.
The citizens of Indiana should be informed of what these supposedly
“best-educated” students have been taught and are being taught in our school
system. What is shocking is that the judges, 36 professionals in law-related
fields, acted as congressional representatives and did not comprehend that these
students were not qualified to present the story of this sovereign nation to
anyone. This book We the People should not be in the Indiana school
system.