You Got That Right!

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20

Question #1

The First 10 Amendments to the Constitution are known as The Rights of Bill.

False: Close! They are known as the Bill of Rights and they were all added at the same time, three years after the Constitution was approved. You read this question too fast, we said Rights of Bill!

Question #2

The President has to be at least 35 years old and have lived in the U.S. for 14 years.

True: The youngest President however, was 42 years old. That sounds old to you now, but time flies when you are young. When the school day starts to feel long, then you're getting old.

Question #3

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution both do pretty much the same thing for the United States.

False: The Declaration of Independence explains why the U.S. told Britain to back off. The Constitution explains how the United States government would work.

Question #4

All of our Presidents in the U.S. have been U.S. born citizens.

False: The first U.S. born citizen to become President was Martin Van Buren, the 8th President; he was born after the American Revolution. The first seven Presidents before Van Buren and the 9th President were all originally "British subjects" before the revolution.

Question #5

No one in the country even knew about the new Constitution until after it was signed by the delegates.

True: People in Philadelphia found out that a new Constitution had been written when it was published on September 19, 1787 – two days after it was signed!

Question #6

The Constitution affects everyone in the U.S. even students like you.

True: Everyone in the U.S. is affected by the Constitution every single day of their lives. Did you know that the ramps at sidewalk intersections are there because of the Constitution? How else would disabled children get to school or other places?

Question #7

Constitution Day is a new holiday.

It depends on what "new" means to you: Constitution Day is only nine years old and that's new compared to how old the Constitution is. Constitution Day started in 2004 and although you don't get to miss school that day, learning about the Constitution is fun!

Question #8

About half of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention at one time owned slaves.

True: Talk about irony: writing a document about freedom while having slaves. Slavery was hotly debated during the Constitutional Convention. In 1865, the 13th amendment finally abolished slavery.

Question #9

Because of its age, the Constitution is no longer as important as it was when it went into effect in 1789.

False: The Constitution is as important now as it was back then! Every day, things happen in the courts, government or schools that could threaten your rights. If you don't know what your rights are, how can you stop someone from taking advantage of you?

Question #10

The Bill of Rights has always been part of the Constitution.

False: The Bill of Rights was added in 1791 and it includes the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.

Question #11

The Constitution became the law of the land as soon as the delegates signed it on September 17, 1787.

False: Not so fast. The states that the delegates represented still had to agree to the new Constitution and 9 out of the original 13 states had to approve it before it could go into effect. That finally happened on June 21, 1788.

Question #12

At 16, Benjamin Franklin faked being a 40-year-old widow.

True: Franklin pretended to be an older woman so that his articles could get published in a newspaper. Talk about being a rebellious teen.

Question #13

The reason the Framers set up three branches of the U.S. government is to make it easier for the government to control the people in America.

False: No way! The people in America control the government by voting for the people they want as representatives and by deciding what the government will control.

Question #14

Children do not have the same rights as adults.

True: Children don't have all the same rights as adults until they turn 18, like voting, for example. And anyway, if your baby sister, Ticonderoga, who your parents lovingly nicknamed No. 2, could vote, she would probably just drool everywhere.

Question #15

The Constitution established that all US citizens can vote.

False: The Constitution did not spell out who can vote.  That’s one of the reasons it took years of struggle for Blacks, women, Native Americans, and many others to be able to exercise their right to vote. People are still fighting for the right to vote to this day! Of course, kids under 18 still can’t vote.

Question #16

Changing the U.S. Constitution is as simple as writing a letter to the President.

False: The President does not have the power to amend the Constitution. Changing the Constitution can be a long and difficult process that is usually unsuccessful. If you think Flappy Bird is hard, try amending the Constitution.

Question #17

The reason the Framers set up three branches of the U.S. government is to make it easier for the government to control the people in America.

False: No way! The people in America control the government by voting for the people they want as representatives and by deciding what the government will control.

Question #18

When the delegates signed the Constitution they were in the largest city of all the colonies.

True: At the time, Philadelphia was the largest city with about 40,000 people. Today, over 1.5 Million people live in Philadelphia.

Question #19

In America, everyone has the freedom not to pray.

True: The first Amendment guarantees the right to pray and the right not to pray. So it's up to you to pray or not pray when you're in school, but the school can't force you to pray and, as long as you are not disturbing class time, your school can't stop you from praying either.

Question #20

James Madison was worried that the Constitutional Convention was going to be canceled.

True: On the first day of the Convention only delegates from PA and VA showed up. That’s way worse than only a few kids showing up for school on the first day. Good thing the others delegates showed up 11 days later.

,