Sixth-graders asked to 'prune' Bill of Rights from 'outdated' Constitution

Brett T. | 9:07 PM on October 07, 2013

Via Digital Journal, an Arkansas mother was surprised to learn her sixth-grade daughter’s first assignment on the Constitution was to work in teams to revise the Bill of Rights, including “pruning” two amendments. Why? The assignment posits that the government of the United States has determined that the Bill of Rights “is outdated and may not remain in its current form any longer.”

For the assignment, the kids are to assume the persona of “experts on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights” in their aim to ensure that “the pursuit of happiness remains guarded in the 21st century.” Hopefully one of the young experts will recognize that the pursuit of happiness is named in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, and there’s a method for amending the Constitution that doesn’t involve a special task force.

bill-of-rights-assignment

Mother Lela Spears explained to Digital Journal:

[My daughter] was never told how the Bill of Rights is amended; I do not believe that amended was even used in the class language, only “changed.” I read through the handouts she was given (they do not use a book for this class, nor take one home to study from, only handouts that are put in a box for their table to share and place in their binders), around 6 in total, and nothing about how an Amendment is ratified. I believe that, with the wording of the assignment, many children will think that the Bill of Rights is amended and can be changed by a “special” committee instead of an act of Congress.