Daniel Barkowitz | September 16, 2005
"Constitution Day"
MIT is celebrating Constitution Day this weekend (September 17, 2005). As many colleges around the country will do this week, MIT has kicked off a celebration of the US Constitution by hosting a series of lectures, presentations and events.
The MIT News Office released a statement capturing some of these events, including:
Daniel Weitzner, Technology and Society Domain Leader, World Wide Web Consortium, will present a lecture, "The Internet Meets the Constitution," from 2 to 5 p.m. in room 34-304. His talk will be captured so it can be streamed on demand.
The MIT home page today also celebrates Constitution Day.
To learn more about the US Constitution, feel free to browse the National Archives web page dedicated to Constitution Day, or the National Constitution Center's page.
As a humorous take on this issue, you may want to take a look at this Tech opinion piece (page 5) entitled "Teaching the Constitution like an Engineer". The article suggests ways we might want to integrate teaching about the Constitution into the curriculum. Some suggestions the author makes (with her tongue planted firmly in her cheek) to incorporate teaching the Constitution into some current MIT classes include:
4.305 (Advanced Visual Arts Studio) -- The original paper version of the U.S. Constitution is still on display in the National Archives. Design a new form for the text of the U.S. Constitution to challenge citizens by both synthetic and critical models of production.6.041 (Probabilistic System Analysis) -- Given the state you live in, the number of electoral votes held by your state, and your state's voting record, does your vote influence a national election?
7.012/7.013/7.014 (Introductory Biology) -- Students will conduct laboratory work to solve some of the great political questions of the last 219 years, including, but not limited to: discerning when life begins (at birth or at conception), and proving or disproving the theory of evolution.
8.01 (Introduction to Classical Mechanics) -- How do Newtonian physics apply to federal spending? Can spending be conserved?
21L.011 (The Film Experience) -- The obvious choice is a showing of the musical comedy "1776." Possible alternatives include "A Clockwork Orange," "Full Metal Jacket," or "Dr. Strangelove" -- the possibilities are endless.
21M.600 (Introduction to Acting) -- The qualifications to run for elected office.
Of course, the "be all / end all" of Constitution Day is the requirement to watch or listen to the "Preamble" as performed on Schoolhouse Rock, those wonderful early 1980s cartoon vignettes on ABC. Here is a link to the "Preamble" fan site.
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The author has filed this entry in the "Miscellaneous" section; check it out for further reading on this topic. |
Responses To This Entry:
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u know, it had to be not only 8.01, but also 8.01 TEAL : "all right class, take ur PRS devices and choose how much should government spend on education next year"
Posted by: MJ Kamalov on September 16, 2005 11:48 AM
Well, I was looking people, who might be concerned with Constitution Day. That's how I stumbled on your blog.
Anyway, here's the message I've been sending out.
Likely enough, President George W Bush is completely oblivious to his accomplishment. So (?) what! He's cleared the way for Constitution Day. Eventually, it'll be a federal holiday, and Americans will celebrate it in the way they now celebrate Thanksgiving and Fourth of July. And that's what matters.
To go along with Constitution Day as a national holiday, we should have a Pledge for Constitutional Allegiance. Anyway, you can gather the entire story by clicking on the below U.R.L, specifically,
http://hewhoisknownassefton.blogspot.com/2005/11/constitutional-allegiance-pledge-for.html
Posted by: A Alexander Stella on December 8, 2005 12:57 PM
