Learning Objectives and Goals from the Constitution Power Series of Courses (31 pages)
The Federalist Papers permits us to construct our country’s founders’ and Constitution framers’ view of the Constitution based on the Papers’ “structure or internal logic.” The importance of their views makes the topical subheadings crucial. They also had eight Axioms – self-evident truths – like Thomas Jefferson’s Preamble of the Declaration of Independence in the wisdom of John Locke: “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In that regard, some subheadings represent “axioms” of the “System of Government” and the “great American System of Finance,” of Alexander Hamilton. With annotated system functional models to grasp the stages of development of their System of Government, quotations from Federalist Papers help us understand the true meaning of the Constitutional Convention’s intense 5-month effort by small group teams in 1787. The Constitution Power Series of Courses follows development of our original system of government from Montesquieu’s model to the framers’ version of it from their own words depicted in system functional models like those used in developing space systems.
The second objective is learning how to process concepts and turn them into things that work. Early space systems from Apollo moon rockets to spy satellites came about by making visual system functional models of how they would work. From these models, small group teams were able to put together working systems that made space flight work on the first try. Like making a quilt from a pattern, visual functional models show us how the Constitution’s Powers made a system of government that worked for us. The Convention had these too, a discovery from considering that Madison’s six Classes of Powers described in Federalist Nos. 41 to 44 resembled an “organizational pyramid.” That led to the Great Seal of the United States (1782) found in the U.S. Department of State’s 1976 bicentennial book on the Great Seal’s history and use: “The Eagle and the Shield.” Used by the State Department for official documents, this “Image of the Republic” depicts Madison’s “Republican principles” of his Federalist No. 39.
The third learning objective is “what do we do now” to apply Madison’s remedy in the Constitution and Jefferson’s Declaration Preamble after the “alter or abolish” remedy: “It is their right, it is their duty… now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government” to avoid “absolute Despotism.” Here is Madison’s “popular information” and “the means of acquiring it. …Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.” We “must arm” ourselves “with the power which knowledge gives” for our voices to be heard – to have a clear vision of how their System worked – to motivate us into action today!