The Constitution

About the Book

When the Founding Fathers, in their collective genius, crafted the U.S. Constitution in 1787, little did they know that their cherished document would become a twenty-first century battleground over such issues as “Fanfiction,” vulgar and distasteful language, same-sex marriages, and abortion or student demands for equal rights. Nor did they anticipate that their failure to act on the divisive issue of slavery would lead inexorably to America’s Civil War.

Now, in an extraordinary series of essays, twenty-six unusually perceptive and talented Advanced Placement U.S. Government students at West Potomac High School, Alexandria, Virginia, explore today’s constitutional issues in a way the Founders may never have anticipated.

This collection of essays traces the original arguments between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists up to the federal government’s recent successful intrusion into such traditional state realms as the drinking age and speed limit on state roads. The students explore the Constitution’s relevance to the Internet and what some devotees call “Fanfiction” and detractors identify as plagiarism.

In one essay, the author claims that the American tradition of “freedom…of the press,” as articulated in the First Amendment, is being eroded daily – not by the government, as originally suspected by the Founding Fathers but by the press themselves.  Two essays address the questionable value of the U.S. Constitution in protecting the freedoms of young Americans, especially those in public schools. A third, dealing with a relevant subject, questions whether young Americans, who complain about the electoral system but rarely use the right to vote themselves, even deserve the Twenty-sixth Amendment.

When the Founders had completed their work in Philadelphia, they faced a major political challenge: how to convince the American people that the document and the government they had created should be ratified and approved by the people themselves. The political genius they demonstrated by accepting the Bill of Rights four years later is reflected in these essays, each of which looks at the Constitution, complete with its amendments, in light of today’s political realities.

About the Author

Bill Rhatican is an Advanced Placement (AP) Government teacher at West Potomac High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Each year, his students compete to win a coveted spot as a published author in a compendium of essays. Rhatican edits on important American topics. A former White House aide to Presidents Nixon and Ford, Rhatican began teaching Social Studies in Fairfax County, Virginia eight years ago. This is his second student-written publication. Last year’s work, “And Still They Come...” highlighted the trials and difficulties faced by immigrants from all over the globe as they arrived in the United States. This year, in “White House Under Fire,” his students tackle the political pressures on several American presidents during their tenure in office from Jefferson to George W. Bush. He considers his classroom a laboratory for student exploration of the American experience and expansion of political thought. As part of their curriculum, his students voluntarily attend a series of colloquia at his home with outstanding guest experts who share their real-world political experiences. Mr. Rhatican has been married for forty-two years. He and his wife, Leslie, have two sons and four grandchildren. They reside in northern Virginia.