PART I

Social Education 69(7), pg 360 365 2005 National Council for the Social Studies

Documents Can Help Teach Content and Process (How Our Government Works):

Making the Abstract Concrete

Lee Ann Potter
On August 19, 1981, President Ronald Reagan did something that had never been done before: He nominated a woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court. This rst, however, was accomplished through a procedure that had been completed thousands of times before. Acting in his ofcial capacity as president, Reagan sought the advice and consent of the Senate as directed in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution. He did so through a single-page form letter, completed in part by hand and in part by typewriter, announcing Sandra Day OConnor as his nominee (p. 361). While the document serves as evidence of a historic event, it is also a tangible illustration of abstract concepts that students in civics classes often struggle to learnin this case, separation of powers, and checks and balances. The nomination letter involves all three branches of government and it suggests the branches interrelationships. It originated in the executive branch, was sent to the legislative, and focused on the judicial. Documents such as the nomination letter not only make abstract concepts more concrete, they also simplify the complex; these types of documents prompt students to ask compelling questions that lead to greater understanding of how our system of government works. For example, when President Richard Nixon resigned from ofce, he did so through a single-sentence letter on White House stationery addressed to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (p. 362). Presented with this document, students may question why the resignation was given to Kissinger. Because the answer lies with an understanding of checks and balances, separation of powers, as well as the importance of a balance of power, asking students to consider the question of what if Nixon had resigned to Congress, or to the Supreme Court, or to his successor, may lead to an active discussion. Other documents can shed light on what is meant by enumerated powers versus implied powers Enumerated powers of the federal government are those that are specically listed in the Constitution. For example, Article I, Section 8, states that Congress has the power to raise and support Armies. From this enumerated power, it can be inferred that in order to raise an army, Congress has the power to draft people into the armed services. This implied power, not specically listed in the Constitution, can be explained to students by sharing with them examples of Selective Service Registration Cards from World War I (p. 364), and asking them to consider the relationship between the draft and the powers of Congress. Such an exercise may also help students understand how legislation passed by Congress is carried out by the executive branch. In this case, Congress passed the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917. It required American men between ages 21 and 30 (later extended to ages 18 to 45), inclusive, to register for the draft. Although exemptions from service were granted to men who had dependent families, indispensable duties at home, or physical disabilities, and Conscientious Objector status was granted to members of pacist religious organizations (with the requirement of alternative service), 24 million draft cards were eventually completed. Still other documents help to explain concepts such as federalism. Federalism is a political system in which power is divided between national and state governments. The transcript of a telephone conversation related to James Merediths admission to the University of Mississippi may enable students to consider issues concerning distribution of power in the United States. On the morning of September 30, 1963, President John F. Kennedy and Mississippi Governor Ross Robert Barnett spoke on the phone six different times. The transcript from the second phone call, in which Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy also participated, included an exchange in which the governor explained that obeying the federal court order to allow Merediths enrollmentand thus the integration of Ole Miss, as the school was commonly continued on page 365

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Above left: Registration card for World War I decorated Sergeant Alvin C. York (pictured above).

Far left: Registration card for Jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong (pictured below).

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MAKING THE ABSTRACT CONCRETE from page 360 calledwould come into conict with the oath that he had taken to obey the laws of his state. The president explained his desire to prevent violence and the federal governments need to know what actions the governor intended to take (p. 363). Encouraging students to read the transcript and put into their own words the positions of both the governor and the president may clarify student understanding of federalism. Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, Balance of Power, Enumerated Powers, Implied Powers, and Federalism are a few of the abstract concepts that students are introduced to in their study of civics. Providing students with opportunities to work with original documents that illustrate these concepts can help make them concrete

and meaningful, rather than simply vocabulary words that students must dene.
Note on the documents: All of the documents featured in this article come from the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration. The OConnor nomination is from the Records of the U.S. Senate, Record Group 46, and the resignation letter of Richard Nixon is from the Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59. The draft registration cards are from the Records of the Selective Service System (World War I), Record Group 163, and are from the National Archives, Southeast Region, in Morrow, Ga. The transcript of the Kennedy-Barnett phone call is from the Papers of John F. Kennedy: Presidents Ofce Files and is housed at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Mass. The York photo comes from the Records of the Ofce of the Chief Signal Ofcer, Record Group 111, and the Armstrong photo comes from the Records of the United States Information Agency, Record Group 306.

RELATED RESOURCES
Locating online copies of the documents featured in this article Many of the featured documents are available online from the National Archives in the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) at
www.archives.gov/research/arc/.

Lee Ann Potter is the head of Education and Volunteer Programs at the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC. She serves as the editor for Teaching With Documents, a regular department of Social Education. You may reproduce the documents shown here in any quantity.

Guidelines for Using Primary Sources

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Determine what is usable in the document. Decide how the document can be dropped into the curriculum. Relate the document to larger issues or concepts of study. Determine what personal application the document has for students. Establish the context of the document. Work directly with the document. Use documents to raise questions for further research. Use documents when longer reading assignments would be too much for the time available. Allow the student to become the historian and examine the document as a historians tool.

The OConnor nomination is identified by ARC number 595429, and the resignation letter of Richard Nixon is ARC number 302035. The transcript of the Kennedy-Barnett phone call is ARC number 193815. Other nomination letters are available in ARC, including FDRs nomination of Frances Perkins to be the secretary of labor, and Lincolns nomination of William H. Seward to be secretary of state. These can be retrieved by conducting a key word search on nomination. Transcriptions of the other phone calls between Kennedy and Barnett are also available in ARC. They can be retrieved by conducting a key word search on Conversation between President Kennedy and Governor Barnett. ARC also contains numerous other documents related to James Meredith. A key word search on James Meredith will retrieve these. In addition, the Kennedy Library has a special website devoted to James Meredith entitled Integrating Ole Miss: A Civil Rights Milestone at www.
jfklibrary.org/meredith/home.html.

Developed by the education staff of the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., 20408. For additional suggestions on selecting teachable documents, see Rulli, Daniel, Big and Famous is Not Always Best, Social Education 67, no. 7 (2003): 378.
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Finally, the featured draft registration cards and many others are available in a special online exhibit from the Southeast Region of the National Archives at www.archives.gov/ southeast/exhibit/, under the heading Draft Registration (19171918).