How many Americans have actually read the Constitution and Amendments?

[Avalux]

I doubt it's a lot. Do they even do in-depth teaching in school anymore? And even if read, can Americans comprehend?

It's easy for political charlatans to misrepresent the brick and mortar of our country when the electorate is dumb and the media doesn't kick them in the balls for it.

[guillaumeb]

1. considering the utter lack of comprehension demonstrated

by many when speaking of the first 2 amendments, my guess is very few have read and fewer understand them.

[SamKnause]

2. I have read them.

I graduated high school 70-71.

I attended a public high school and had an excellent education.

[lovemydog]

3. I don't know, but I have a copy I got in the mail from the ACLU

just last week. It's pretty cool, fits in a back pocket. I love it.

[csziggy]

4. That was one advantage of being raised by a DAR member

The Daughters of the American Revolution might be right wing but they did distribute copies of the Constitution in the schools when I was a kid. In going through my parents' house I keep finding copies of the little DAR brochures from various eras.

They also sponsored writing contests for student which encouraged learning about American History and provided awards to the best writers. I just got finished scanning the minutes of the local DAR chapter that my grandmother helped start and every year they discussed those awards and the subjects for the essays.

Of course, at the DAR meetings they also discussed how the "Welfare State" encouraged communism (in the late 1940s) and pushed for classes in the high schools on "Americanism vs. Communism" in the 1950s.

[MANative]

5. I doubt it's covered to the degree that it was when I was in school...

I had a whole semester of American Government focused solely on the Constitution and Amendments, then went on to study Constitutional Law in college - just three credits shy of a minor. I can still completely ace citizenship exams. I doubt most people under 30 would get better than 60%. I have a digital copy of the Constitution on my cellphone, just to settle arguments!

[treestar]

6. not many and those who did

think they can interpret them all on their own with what their opinions are they should mean.

[TexasProgresive]

7. 5 and that's counting me

[Lochloosa]

8. We study and read the entire thing in the seventh grade.

It was a class called Civics.

[Igel]

9. Constitution?

Dunno.

Bill of Rights? Most middle school kids in Tx are expected to have "learned" them (meaning "to have memorized them long enough to score 70 or above on a multiple choice test"--that's what more than a few educators deem "mastery" to be; some are overachievers and require a 75% right on that MC test).

In high school the standards require going through each amendment in context historical or social.


Heck, even constitutional scholars and presidents (or both) have been known to mis-cite the Constitution, however. And for understanding the language you really have to have more than middle-school English under your belt. It's a bit educated for 1790, and "educated" usually means "more conservative than popular speech". At 225, it's old-fashioned for formal written English, and that screws up a lot of people. Esp. those who take their modern, new-fangled punctuation norms oh-so-seriously.