By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
An educator from the Fayetteville-Manlius district will provide her expertise to help students across the country better understand the Constitution of the United States.
Rebecca Stephens is one of 18 new advisers and one of only two educators hailing from New York State chosen for the non-profit National Constitution Center’s Teacher Advisory Board.
“I feel very humbled,” Stephens said. “I’m obviously thrilled that they selected me out of a state with such a big population.”
The Congress-chartered center, located on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, focuses on dispersing information concerning the United States Constitution with a nonpartisan approach.
The Teacher Advisory Board helps to create, support, oversee and give input on the center’s educational resources.
Now in her 22nd year teaching seventh grade history at Eagle Hill Middle School, Stephens said representatives from the center first reached out to her after she met with them at its Summer Teacher Institute last year.
At one of those summer sessions, which featured the rule of law as its central discussion point, Stephens expressed her desire to see the advisory board take up methods geared closer to the middle school level.
She pointed to the need for simplification of the Constitution’s language and message.
“The Constitution is a pretty complex document,” Stephens said. “I love helping students understand it better.”
In the past, Stephens has made her students take abbreviated versions of the country’s citizenship test—featuring questions on such topics as the three branches of government—at the beginning and end of each year.
She said exercises like this have increased her students’ understanding of the Constitution and their appreciation of its relevance through history.
“The Constitution, even though it was written and ratified in 1787, has only had to be amended 27 times, which is pretty incredible,” Stephens said. “I think when they understand that it’s that same document that’s been around so long, there is a reverence for it.”
Stephens said she will begin craft interactive lesson plans and study guides to be used in her classroom via the center’s online presence this month.
