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With all of this talk about "originalism," I want to share how I teach it in my survey classes. Usually, when I start my units on the Framers and the Constitution, I'll start off by asking my students to name some of the Founders. We get the usual suspects: Washington, Adams,
2/Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, etc. I usually make some innocuous-sounding statement, like "these were the guys who created our government. All their faults aside, they obviously did something great, right?" I'll usually get some affirmative responses. I'll then say
3/something like "there are many people in our government who believe that the best way to interpret the Constitution and make and evaluate laws today is by asking themselves a simple question: 'what would the Founders think about this law?'" I then say something like
4/"I think we can all agree that people like Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison are far superior to the crop of politicians we have today, right?" Again, I'll usually get a bunch more yeses and head nods. Then I say "Let's see if that's true." And I invite them to play
5/ a little game. I tell them all to stand up. I explain that this is the American electorate in 2020. This is the "people." These are the people who--we at least claim--should have full rights as citizens. I ask them to look at each other and tell me what kind of
6/people they see (and this is where teaching in a very diversely-populated school is wonderful). Obviously, they point out that standing up are blacks and whites and hispanics and Asians, men and women, and probably rich and poor. I say "this is a good thing, right?"
7/to which almost everyone says yes. I then say "ok, now let's look at those whom the Founders--those really awesome men who we all just admitted should be the arbiters of what we think is just--wanted to be part of 'the people'--in other words, who did the Founders believe
8/should have full rights of citizenship?" I start off by saying "ladies, please sit down." Half the class is left standing. Then I say "anyone not white, sit down." Then I ask who is left. When they say "white men," I explain that this is still too many. I ask anyone who
9/is not independently wealthy, either by owning their own business or having a large amount of land/property to sit down. (I sit down at this point as well). Usually by this point everyone in the room is sitting. "Understand?" I then ask? Then we talk about this ridiculous
10/idea that the Founders were somehow infallible, and that we, today, should bow to their every belief. Because if we did, we would really, really dislike the world we'd be living in. I think it gets the point across.
