Understanding the Constitution is a brief course consisting of ten PragerU videos on key aspects of the U.S. Constitution. With free enrollment in the course, you receive two PDFs with transcripts of the ten videos and a copy of The Constitution of the United States.
Most of the videos objectively explain elements of the Constitution, and a few of them address the underlying principles and ideas it embodies. Overall, the course takes a positive view of the Constitution and emphasizes the idea that our Founding Fathers created checks and balances to limit the power of both the government and factions that would develop among citizens. The presenters include occasional commentary such in the video “Taxes, Voting Rights, and Prohibition,” which offers this explanation for the passage of the 16th Amendment that created an income tax: “As wealth disparity increased between farmers, workers, and a new class of fabulously wealthy industrialists like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan, so did the sentiment for an income tax.”
The videos use the typical PragerU format with fast-moving, five-minute presentations supported by graphics that visually explain the content.
The videos and transcripts can be accessed individually without course enrollment, but with enrollment you get one video delivered via email each day for ten days, and you don’t have to search them out from among the many PragerU videos. The videos and their presenters are:
- “The Constitution: Why a Republic?” with Robert George
- "Writing the Constitution: Miracle in Philadelphia” with Jay Cost
- “The Constitution: The Limited Powers of Congress” with John Yoo
- “The Constitution: Presidential Powers” with John Yoo
- “The Constitution: The Supreme Court” with Sherif Girgis
- “The Constitution: Our Bill of Rights” with Sherif Girgis
- “The Constitution: A Nation of States” with Kurt Lash
- “The Constitution: The Civil Rights Amendments” with Kurt Lash
- “The Constitution: Taxes, Voting Rights, and Prohibition” with John Yoo
- “The Constitution: A Moral Challenge” with Robert George
The Understanding the Constitution course should be useful as part of a government course for students in junior or senior high. Even if you use other sources, supplementing with these videos is likely to increase students’ understanding and emphasize critical points they should know.
