The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

I know it's Tuesday and I should be teaching something constitutional.  But I have nothing.  I'm trying to get ahead on my To Do list and I'm still busy taking my Christmas decorations down.  However, I will let you know that I am reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.  I really like it.  I'm reading it because it's the first selection in the Harvard Classics.

"The Harvard Classics?" you ask.  Yes, the Harvard Classics.  About 10 years ago my husband somehow came across a volume of the Harvard Classics.  He was determined to get the whole set.  They aren't that hard to come by, but the problem was that we were newlyweds and we didn't have any money.  Every weekend we would go on a hunt for Harvard Classics at thrift stores and garage sales.  Finally, we found a used bookstore that had a whole set (an old one).  The owners of the bookstore were very nice and they let us buy two volumes per week for $2.60 per book.  So since there are about 50 volumes, it took us about six months to get the whole set.

For the past several years the set has been sitting in our garage.  On Saturday we brought it into the house. Supposedly if you read the books, it's suppose to be like getting a college education, or something like that.  You can read more about it here.  Anyway, I was recently inspired to maybe try to read these books.  By nature I'm kind of the type of person who likes to watch The Bachelor and read People magazine, and the subject of history has never really been my "thing".  But learning about the Constitution and our Founder Fathers has been an enlightening experience.  I'm am thirsty for more knowledge in this subject area.  I was excited to find that the first selection was good 'ole Ben's Autobiography.

I also came across a homeschool method called the Thomas Jefferson Education.  I am partially adopting this method for our family.  It's basically a method that uses classic books instead of textbooks to teach your children.  Of course there is more involved, but that's the jist.  Several of the selections in the Harvard Classics are also classics included on the list of recommended reading for the Thomas Jefferson Education.

So there we have it.  Today's lesson is that I'm reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.  Ben Franklin was a Founding Father.

Oh, and did you happen to see Congress read the Constitution last week?  I sat with my kids and we watched it on C-Span.  The media kind of criticized that they left out certain parts that had been altered by amendments, saying that they were overlooking part of our country's history.  I say, "whatever."  I think it's cool that it was read and I hope it helps bring Congress to a remembrance that we should have Constitutionally sound legislation.

One more thing.  This weekend we took a tour of a local attraction.  It's where our state ratified the constitution.  I got to take the kids' picture by a framed copy of the Constitution.  They were excited to see it.

Constitutional Convention Part 1

Ok, so I was going to post about the Founding Fathers today, but I'm not finished with my research because there were 39 of them who signed the constitution and I wanted to read about each one.  It takes a long time.

I bought this book (see below) titled, We the People, at a discount book fair about 3 weeks ago.  It's written by Lynne Cheney.  It's a good book for kids ages 8+.  It talks mostly about the Constitutional Convention.  It does not cover the actual content of the constitution, but it's a good start.  You can buy it or check it out from your local library.  I find that I learn a whole lot from reading children's nonfiction books.  Don't overlook their value.  You can usually finish a children's book in about 20 minutes or less and not have to look up fancy words in the dictionary to understand what the author is talking about. I don't know why I don't remember learning half this stuff when I was a kid. Either it wasn't taught well, or I have horrible retention.



I only got through about half of the book while reading it aloud to my children today in 25 minutes. I think the language in the book is still a little too sophisticated for young children, so I had to stop and talk about it in their language. This is what we learned today in my own words:

Way back on October 16, 1781 America won the last battle of the Revolutionary War in Yorktown, Virginia. Yay! So now America was independent from Britain. (This was when my eight year old son told me the war actually ended in 1783. I looked it up, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, so I'm not quite sure which date is the official ending to the war. According to Mrs. Cheney it was when the last battle was won.)

So anyways, the British were totally bummed because they totally thought they were going to win, but now there were a bunch of Americans that were really excited (we'll call them "Patriots") that have this big huge country all to themselves (except, of course, for the Native Americans) with so much potential for prosperity and greatness. However there was no, like, official government or anything to keep things in order. Some people wanted to appoint George Washington as king because he was so awesome, but he was like, "Wait a minute. No way. Don't you understand that we just spent six years fighting for independence because kings are not a good idea?" So instead they continued operating under what was call the Articles of Confederation, which was America's a first attempt at a form of government after the signing of the Declaration of Indpendence.

The Articles of Confederation ended up proving to be a total bust for a few reasons. One was because the states were printing their own money which was a total mess because it was difficult for states to buy and sell goods from each other and all that. Secondly, the government couldn't get the citizens of the states to help defend America. Thirdly, the government couldn't do anything about getting the states to contribute to paying off all the debt that it owed from fighting the war. Basically the Congress didn't have enough power and it flopped.  Other countries saw that the newly formed union was weak and took advantage of it.  Britain didn't leave like they were supposed to. They were pretty much like, "Nanny nanny nanny, you can't get us." It needed to be fixed quick or America would have egg on its face. George Washington said:

"I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds which have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any country."  :( 

He didn't actually use a sad face, but my point is that it was a sad time for America.

So in May of 1787 some American guys (we'll call them delegates) got together and said, "Let's fix this."  At first they were just going to fix the Articles of Confederation, but it ended up they scrapped the whole Articles of Confederation thing and started fresh. It was a big deal. Many, if not all, of the men were very well read and learned on the subject of government. They were smart, they cared about the country, and they wanted it to succeed. So they committed to spend how ever long it took to get a really solid government in place. It ended up that they spent the entire summer from May 25 to September 17 working out the kinks of this new Constitution.  It wasn't easy. There were lots of arguments, it was hot (and I imagine stinky) in that unairconditioned room in Philadelphia.

James Madison was a key writer of the Constitution. He knew that the key to a solid government was if it rested on the People. All but, one of the 13 states was in attendance at the convention. Rhode Island was the party pooper and chose not to attend.

During the convention, the delegates threw out their ideas and suggestions. One guy from Virginia, Edmund Randolph, suggested the Virginia Plan which suggested that bigger states had more representatives than smaller states. But the smaller states were like, "No way, Jose!" So a guy from Delaware, William Paterson, presented a plan called the New Jersey Plan that suggested an equal number of representatives in each state. Basically it was like having a 5 year old and a 6 year old arguing over who is more deserving of the last piece of Double Bubble in the Halloween candy bowl.  Nobody wanted to budge on their opinion.

But finally a guy from Connecticut, Roger Sherman, suggested a plan that there would be two bodies of Congress.  The House would be represented according to the size of the state.  The Senate would have equal representation from each state.  Brilliant!  Now is everybody happy?  Of course they weren't, because the big states thought they were all more cool and important and stuff, so Ben Franklin had to step in and say, "Hold it!  Let's not forget to bring God back into this equation.  Perhaps he can shed some light on our predicament."  (Not an exact quote.) So they stopped arguing long enough to form a committee that came up with the Great Compromise, which was pretty much what Sherman proposed, but it made it more appealing to large states by having the House deal with legislation dealing with money first.

That is as far as we got today.  Join in for Part 2 next week.....

Thanks to all who are joining in! Learning the constitution is very important to keeping our country strong. I'm still reading The 5000 Year Leap that I mentioned last week. It's a great book, and I officially recommend it.

Constitution 101 - Lesson 1

Where to begin?  There is so much to learn!

I'm currently reading the book titled The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen.


I'm only on page 55, but so far it's been an informative read.  Here is some stuff that I learned:

First let's talk about the spectrum of government.  Imagine a line.  At the left side of the line there is big controlling government and at the right side of the line there is complete control by the people.  Let's call these Monarchy and Anarchy.  Neither one of these extremes is desirable, and our Founding Father's had a desire for the United States government to be as dead center as possible where people ruled with a small central government.  In the middle there is balance and order.

Monarchy--------------Balance--------------Anarchy

In order to explain this to my kids I gave the example of our family.  If the dynamics in our family were entirely to the left side it would mean that Mommy and Daddy would be barking out commands such as "Clean your room! Do your homework!  Cook us dinner!" while Mommy and Daddy are not doing much but sitting and watching TV and eating bon bons.  They thought that was very uncool.  On the other hand, if the dynamics were entirely to the right, all family members would do only things that they wanted to do which would mean we would likely never clean, we would eat out every night, and we wouldn't educate ourselves because it's so much easier to watch cartoons all day while jumping on the couch and eating junk food.  They liked the idea of watching TV and eating candy, but even my nine year old recognized that an absence of order would cause us to "get sick and hurt."

So where is the balance?  In the middle.  But what does that mean?  That means that all family members chip in and have the opportunity to voice their opinion for the common good of the family.  Both children and parents clean, parents help children with homework, and mom cooks nutritious meals that the kids help pick, while the rest of the family sets the table.  Of course this is an extremely simplified example, but my point is that too much government is oppressive and annoying and no government is chaotic and unhealthy.

Finding and agreeing on a happy middle can be a tricky thing when people have opinions.  That is why we common folk need to educate ourselves on the Constitution and find out for ourselves why the United States of America's system of government works when practiced properly. We would be wise to learn how our Founding Fathers managed to be successful at drafting this document despite their differences.  We can take that knowledge and apply those same principles to our current 21st century US citizenship.  Our Founding Fathers were men of varying opinions, beliefs, and faiths, and many of them claimed that the document was divinely inspired and their ability to complete it a miracle. I leave you with a quote:

"I beg I may not be understood to infer, that our general convention was divinely inspired when it formed the new federal constitution, merely because that constitution has been unreasonably and vehemently opposed; I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance [as the framing of the Constitution] ... should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being." - Benjamin Franklin, 1787.

How can you not love Ben?  There's a bunch more good quotes in the beginning of The 5000 Year Leap from our Founding Fathers.  Join in next week.....