The paper discusses the pressure on social studies teachers to teach about the United States Constitution during its bicentennial period and offers ideas to improve instruction about the document. After reviewing the inappropriateness of memorization of the document and suggesting that its content be organized to focus on its major concepts and principles, the paper places primary emphasis on concept mapping as an effective strategy for teaching about the Constitution. Both the technique and the topic require a perceptual grappling with the subject matter. In mapping the document, constitutional ideas are arranged and rearranged to show new patterns of meaning, images are linked and cross-linked to show visual relationships, and concepts are ordered and reordered to show different hierarchical structures. A table illustrating a concept map of the Constitution is included. (TRS)