Ball State University's J-Ideas presentation on Monday, "Pardon the Constitutional Interruption," addressed the need for young people to better understand the Constitution and its amendments.
J-Ideas, which stands for Institute for Digital Education, Activities, and Scholarship, has centered its efforts around Constitution Day this month. Warren Watson, director of J-Ideas, organized the presentation to inform students and the Muncie community about the U.S. Constitution.
Congress passed a provision in 2004 making Sept. 17 Constitution Day in the United States. Every high school and college that receives federal funding to educate its students is required to teach students about the Constitution on or around this date, according to the provision.
Because Sept. 17 fell on Saturday this year, Ball State held a panel discussion on the Constitution Monday night in the Art and Journalism Building.
Watson, along with the J-Ideas staff of Ball State, are planning to create a DVD which will help high school educators further their teaching on the Constitution. They plan to release the DVD at the Journalism Education Association Fall Convention in Chicago, Nov. 10 to 13. A mixture of shorter video clips will make up the DVD.
The clips are geared toward high school students and were taped at high schools the J-Ideas group visited. The high school clips and the video taken from Monday's presentation at Ball State will be combined to help teachers provide students with another way to view the Constitution through a question and answer formatted video.
"J-Ideas' goal is to improve high school newspapers in many different areas, but we have found our primary focus is bringing awareness to the first amendment," Gerry Appel, graduate assistant for J-Ideas, said.
Watson opened the ceremonies dressed as a judge from the 1780s to bring the presentation to life. He reminded the audience that the Constitution is a 218-year-old document but still plays a vital role in today's government.
"The goal of the presentation was to have a fast-paced, topical, close to the news hour, and I thought we achieved that," Watson said. "The Constitution is something hard to make sexy. However, I thought the observations from the panel and questions were good. Overall, it was a nice and fun hour and could have been considered a form of infotainment.
" The panel members answered questions about the Constitution and how it applies in today's society through current events.
"The discussion was very informative, and it was a great way to learn about what others felt about our Constitution and what is going on around the United States and the world," sophomore Stacey Snare said.
Free speech advocate Laife Janovyak, a Ball State senior, was the only student on the panel.
"You have to have the understanding of what your rights are, and if you don't understand what your rights are, then there is no way you can protect them," Janovyak said. "I think apathy is so incredibly prevalent. It is remarkable the number of people my age who just don't know or don't care about the Constitution and their rights.
"The panel members stressed the importance of students to understand their rights.
"The more students know about the Constitution, the more they appreciate it," Watson said.
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