Paris Junior College students mark Constitution Day
Published or Revised September 20, 2012
As part of Constitution Day, celebrating the U.S. Constitution’s ratification on Sept. 17, 1787, PJC Government students marched to the cafeteria in period costumes, made speeches and sang about the Constitution, and handed out commemorative bookmarks. Here they are shown having just crossed Lamar Avenue.
Paris Junior College government students, many in patriotic period costume, marched with a waving flag to the beat of a drum from their classroom in the Workforce Training Center across the street and into the McLemore Student Center cafeteria on Sept. 17 to celebrate Constitution Day.
Before a packed room of lunching students, they announced the content of the Constitution, sang the Preamble song from School House Rock, played the snare drum and displayed the flag. Constitution Day celebrates the anniversary of ratification of the Constitution in 1787. The students were from the U.S. Government and State and Local Government classes taught by PJC Government instructor Ruth Ann Alsobrook.
"It gives our students meaning about the anniversary of the ratification by making it an event," said Alsobrook. "My U.S. Government students have also been surveying people over the age of 18 about what they know is in the U.S. Constitution and comparing answers in class. They are learning what people really know about the constitution. Events like today and the surveys bring home to them how little people know and that helps them to learn. They will remember this."
All colleges and universities receiving federal funds are required by federal law to mark the event.
