A classroom examination of the featured historical article announcing North Carolina's ratification of the Constitution can springboard into a lesson on federalism, the Bill of Rights, and the ratification process.

Civic education in public schools faces major challenges. Under No Child Left Behind, many schools have favored teaching math and English rather than civics, which undermines one of the purposes of public schools--to educate students to be responsible and active citizens in democracy. A second challenge comes inside the classroom: engaging the…