Teaching Aid?
PrintBy Anonymous, July 23, 2009 in Pedagogy and Teaching
The conservative humorist P.J. O'Rourke has a piece in a recent Weekly Standard issue that includes—bizarrely enough—a "twittered" (meaning truncated and txt style) version of the Constitution. It is funny and biting and brilliant. And I think I will use it next year with my American government students, after they read the full version of the Constitution. Does it denigrate our grand founding document, and the intellectual accomplishments of its authors? Some might say so. But this strikes me as an excellent way for 18 year olds in 2009—those doyens of the digital—to latch onto the fundamentals of our governmental form.
Perfectly acceptable for freshman! At this point, our best hope it to have them absorb the basics of citizenship before they run off to their business, chemistry, or sociology majors. Add some smells and bells to your Twitter idea, and it would be even better.