Following up on my last post, I just learned (via a story on FoxNews) that every September 17 is supposed to be Constitution and Citizenship Day, where all schools that get federal funding are required to teach about the Constitution.

It was part of the “omnibus spending bill” that was passed by Congress last December, but it was buried in there somewhere and this is the first I’ve heard of it. To be fair, it was, in fact, officially communicated on 24 May 2005.

“One will not protect what one does not value. And one cannot value what one does not understand,” Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said when he introduced the provision, explaining that if students understood the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they would do more to protect and defend them.

“Through our schools, we can help to ensure that each new generation of Americans understands what is at stake,” Byrd said.

Starting this fall, Byrd’s provision will require all schools that receive federal assistance — that includes most public institutions and many private ones, too — to offer a “Constitution Day” program commemorating the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

The measure also requires that all new federal government employees receive educational materials on the Constitution at the time of hiring. All federal workers will also be offered some form of program each Sept. 17.

“It’s just common sense that on the day the document was ratified we spend a little time thinking about what it is and what it means and how it affects our everyday lives,” said Tom Gavin, Byrd’s spokesman, who added that the legislation was left purposefully open so that schools could create their own programs.

There has even been some help for creating learning activities put on the web. And it takes a step toward answering the question I posed at the end of my previous discussion of the Constitution. Cool!

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