Bill of Rights: What do you propose we do?

Lesson of the day

Bill of Rights: Time to Fight for your Right(s)

Listen: You can hear the episode here (Apple podcasts) on YouTube, or on our website. Feel free to take notes on our Graphic Organizer!

Do: Bill of Rights Quiz! (Grades 6-12)

When you hear the full story, it can seem pretty amazing that we got a nice, neat Bill of Rights at all. So now that you have heard it, what did you take away? Test your know-how of this most precious founding doc with our Bill of Rights quiz!

Do: Fight for your Right(s)

When James Madison first polled the states to ask what rights they'd like added to the Constitution, he came back to the framers with a whopping 200 suggestions. Imagine debating and editing those down! Talk about a nauseous project. In the end, he listed 12, which were boiled down to 10.

We've only added an additional 17 amendments to the Constitution over the years. We've addressed the institution of slavery, how many terms a president can serve, even prohibition of alcohol (and then prohibition of alcohol... again). Many have been proposed, but it takes a lot of support (three-fourths of all states, to be exact) to make a change to our Constitution.

Now it’s your turn to take a stab at it. If you were going to try and change our rule book, what would you add? Give us your top three — Amendment 28, 29 and 30.

Consider these barriers when you write your proposed constitutional amendments:

1. What language should you use to appeal to as many states as possible?

2. What issues do you think are most likely to be ratified these days?

3. Are you proposing an amendment that’s best for you or best for your community?

4. Is you proposed amendment somehow already taken care of in the Constitution?