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Bigfork high school teacher Cynthia Wilondek approached me with a problem a few years ago. Partisanship was running so hot that she worried her students didn't have good models for civil dialogue and civic cooperation. She asked: "Was there a moment in Montana history where Democrats, Republicans, and Independents came together to work for the common good? And are there resources to teach about it?"
My answer to the first question was a resounding yes. The Montana 1972 Constitutional Convention was a signature moment in Montana history, when citizen delegates sat alphabetically (rather than by party) and worked through their disagreements to pass a constitution that all 100 of them signed (although some withdrew their support afterwards.) Republican delegate Betty Babcock, Democratic delegate Dorothy Eck, and Independent delegate George Harper traveled across the state to answer questions about the new constitution. The document was not universally popular; on June 6, 1972, Montanans went to the ballot box, ratifying the constitution by a mere 2,532 votes. However, it is an example of people working across party lines to serve Montana.
My answer to the second question was more equivocal. We did have resources for teaching about the Montana Constitution, including Chapter 21 of Montana: Stories of the Land: “A People's Constitution, 1972” (and the educator resources we'd gathered to accompany it) and Chapter Eight, "Montana's Quiet Revolution," (23 minutes) of the video series Montana Mosaic: 20th Century People and Events. But more could and should be done, I thought, and Cynthia was just the teacher to do it.
Cynthia took up the challenge and spent a year creating an intensive dive into Montana’s constitutional convention. The multipart lesson first asks students to analyze and compare the preambles of both the 1889 and 1972 Montana Constitutions. Then it asks students to explore how the 1972 constitution came to be, before researching some of the major people and events of the 1972 Constitutional Convention and presenting their findings in a digital “yearbook.” While the full lesson takes eight to eleven 50-minute class periods, parts can be used independently. If you teach high school government, Montana history, or even English, consider teaching all or part of Cynthia's lesson. It's worth it.
P.S. Don't forget to register for the November 13, 4:00 p.m-5:00 p.m. Monday Meetup: Indian Education for All Resources, with Mike Jetty.
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