We can always do better

The election has happened, and the inauguration is over. 
 

But the conversations about democracy, dissent and decisionmaking continue.
 

Seventh grade has begun an extended study of America’s founding documents, going line by line through the Declaration of Independence and sections of the US Constitution, and drawing in commentary from politicians and thinkers from the past two hundred and fifty years.
 

Their look at the Declaration of Independence included reading other declarations, including the Declaration of Sentiments from the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World adopted at the Convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1920, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child adopted by the UN in 1959, the Montreal Declaration on LGBTQ Human Rights from 2006 and the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007. 
 

They also practiced writing declarations of their own, advocating for the end of assigned seating in the classroom, the adoption of a nine am start to school, a move to three-day weekends, and dedicated reading times in every school day. 
 

above: as part of today’s class, students stretched the Preamble to the US Constitution to its breaking point - and a little bit beyond
 

The work draws on skills they’ve learned in critical readings of poems and novels: looking up words they don’t know, identifying ambiguous phrases, playing with multiple interpretations and considering authorship and historical context.
 

But the lesson also covers the difference between aspirations and practicalities, comprehensive arguments and simple statements of belief, ideals and specifics, and the ways the applications of these documents change over the centuries.
 

After a comparison of Gordon’s mission and the US Constitution, the teacher asked:

"We’ve had our school for a hundred years. The United States is two and a half centuries old. Why do we keep revisiting these founding documents?" 
 

They’ll be returning to that question again and again as this learning stretches through the winter and into the spring.

For today, the students’ answer came quickly:

“We always look back at these because, no matter how well we've done, we can always do better.”
 

More lessons on democracy, dissent and decisionmaking from this year