I signed up for this a month ago and it started last week, "Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases". So far so good!
I finished the first weeks lectures and reading in time for this weeks stuff. That makes me feel good because I wasn't sure I could keep up. We homeschool our kids and so there is a lot of noise all day. I can't really focus on watching a video or writing well when there is much of a distraction. I can do it while video games are being played, but not during TV shows.
Reading is different. I need to do that when everything is quiet and still. I only have about two hours in the morning with that kind of an atmosphere. That would be plenty of time for the reading for this class, but I already read my Bible first, then a few pages of my current part of "The Great Books of Western Civilization". And then my husband is working on remodeling our bathroom in the morning before he goes to his room to work (he works from home), so the boys hear that and wake up a little earlier. They have been very helpful by keeping the TV off until at least 8am for me.
As for the class, I like it. I took a Constitution class through Hillsdale last year and it was not to my liking. It was more about worshiping the Founding Fathers and treated the Constitution as a holy document instead of a legal one. This class is a bit more objective so far.
The first lecture talked about how the Constitution that we have could have been construed as treason since they went to amend the Articles of Confederation and ended up scrapping them all together.
The other thing I never really understood was Originalism vs. Evolutionism regarding the Constitution and judicial activism. That has been fascinating. I have leaned toward keeping true to the original intent of the authors, but hearing the evolutionist side, I can see where they got their ideas. What bothers me about it is that it seems like one of those "slippery slopes" you hear about.
I finished the first weeks lectures and reading in time for this weeks stuff. That makes me feel good because I wasn't sure I could keep up. We homeschool our kids and so there is a lot of noise all day. I can't really focus on watching a video or writing well when there is much of a distraction. I can do it while video games are being played, but not during TV shows.
Reading is different. I need to do that when everything is quiet and still. I only have about two hours in the morning with that kind of an atmosphere. That would be plenty of time for the reading for this class, but I already read my Bible first, then a few pages of my current part of "The Great Books of Western Civilization". And then my husband is working on remodeling our bathroom in the morning before he goes to his room to work (he works from home), so the boys hear that and wake up a little earlier. They have been very helpful by keeping the TV off until at least 8am for me.
As for the class, I like it. I took a Constitution class through Hillsdale last year and it was not to my liking. It was more about worshiping the Founding Fathers and treated the Constitution as a holy document instead of a legal one. This class is a bit more objective so far.
The first lecture talked about how the Constitution that we have could have been construed as treason since they went to amend the Articles of Confederation and ended up scrapping them all together.
The other thing I never really understood was Originalism vs. Evolutionism regarding the Constitution and judicial activism. That has been fascinating. I have leaned toward keeping true to the original intent of the authors, but hearing the evolutionist side, I can see where they got their ideas. What bothers me about it is that it seems like one of those "slippery slopes" you hear about.
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