Constitution of U.S. Proves Greek to Bulk of Its Youth

There was no celebrating the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution on Thursday at the Calabasas headquarters of one national bicentennial commemoration.

Instead, planners of the National Bicentennial Competition on the Constitution and Bill of Rights were wrestling test results showing that most U.S. teen-agers have a dismal understanding of this country’s democratic framework.

The San Fernando Valley-based Center for Civic Education scheduled a joint news conference today in Philadelphia with the federal Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution to reveal the preliminary findings of the test, administered last month to high school students in the East and West. Seven out of 10 teen-agers taking the multiple-choice exam did not know that the American political system derives its authority from the consent of the governed, officials of the center said Thursday.

Two-thirds of the youngsters did not know the importance of the Magna Charta or the essential difference between democratic and dictatorial governments.

Sixty percent of those tested did not know the meaning of due process of law.

The findings were a gloomy counterpoint to Thursday’s daylong celebration of the Constitution’s bicentennial outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia. About 250,000 attended the ceremonies, which included a 200-second, bell-ringing tribute that coincided with the hour that George Washington and 38 other delegates signed the document in 1787.

“Unfortunately, it’s the parades and fireworks that get all the coverage,” said Kerin Martin, administrative coordinator of the Center for Civic Education. “There aren’t any fireworks going off around here.”

The center’s test results were hardly a bombshell to educators, either.

Other surveys in conjunction with the bicentennial have shown many gaps in the public’s knowledge about the Constitution, said Charles N. Quigley, the center’s executive director. He will participate with former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger in today’s Philadelphia meeting.

Said Evelyn Davis, one of Quigley’s associates: “When I told my friends I was going back East for the 200th anniversary, they said ‘200th anniversary of what? Didn’t we already celebrate the Bicentennial?’ ”

Officials at the Calabasas center said the test results will be used to help gauge the success of a five-year national education project on the Constitution and Bill of Rights that begins this fall.

The $15-million program, financed by Congress and co-sponsored by the Constitutional Bicentennial Commission, involves special civics lessons and tests in 10 selected 11th- and 12th-grade classrooms in each of the 435 congressional districts.

Administrators of the nonprofit center said the project is expected to spread quickly as school districts acquire copies of workbooks and tests at a cost of $150 per classroom.

Alabama has ordered enough for every student in the state, they said.

The program involves three to six weeks of instruction that lead to competitive or non-competitive testing. Top local winners in the competitive program will advance to state and national level contests, Martin said.

The program could reach 9 million students each year, Quigley said. It will end in 1992, when the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights is celebrated.

Last month’s test contained 62 questions and was administered to 620 summer-school students at high schools in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Ohio and New York. “It was a typical representation of students, a true cross-section,” said Michael Geller, who coordinated testing for the center.