The 917 Society’s efforts to promote the U.S. Constitution were featured in a story Thursday by Dennis Ferrier on Nashville’s Fox 17 News.
A nonpartisan nonprofit based in the Nashville area, the 917 Society aims to get a free copy of the Constitution to every eighth grader in Tennessee.
“This is the one thing that binds us together no matter what we believe,” Joni Bryan, founder and executive director of the 917 Society, told Fox 17.
Bryan has been mailing or delivering hundreds of copies of the Constitution to schools across the state. The copies include an oath of citizenship to make the Constitution more personally meaningful to the students receiving them.
Ann Marie Crozier, a history teacher at Richview Middle School in Clarksville, is using the 917 Society booklets with her students.
Crozier said students have taken better care of the Constitutions than is typical for materials associated with classroom activities.
“We are not finding these in the trash can. We’re not finding them on the floor,” she told Fox 17. “I have one child that dropped hers on the floor and was real excited to get it back.”
Thirteen-year-old Nicholas Newman, who was interviewed in Crozier’s classroom, said the Constitution is an “amazing” document.
“It sets guidelines for everybody,” he said. “It is a guideline for what life should be like. Basic rights. Otherwise the government would walk all over us.”
More information about the 917 Society can be found at 917society.com.
