What is the supreme law of the land?

If you answered “The Constitution,” then congratulations. If you did not know, then you are like the 70 percent of citizens polled by Newsweek who failed to remember the almost 227 year old document written by James Madison that dictates what you can and cannot do as a citizen of the United States of America.

Every United States citizen is granted five essential freedoms within the first 45 words of the First Amendment, but too many Americans do not understand the importance of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition or the rights guaranteed in the Amendments that follow.

“Knowledge of our system of government is not handed down through the gene pool. But we have neglected civic education for the past several decades, and the results are predictably dismal,” Sandra Day O’Connor said in an interview in a Cato Institute article. “Barely one-third of Americans can even name the three branches of government.”

The United States Constitution is composed of five articles and 27 amendments, an important fact we all learned in middle school. Unfortunately, as people graduate from school and grow older, they forget about the importance of knowing the composition of the Constitution, or worse, they do not care to remember.

At our school, students are required to take a government course in order to graduate. This course requires knowledge to pass the state and federal Constitution tests. The class itself is a great promoter of learning and understanding your rights, but it cannot force anyone to care.

“[The Amendments are] complex. They’re not black and white, there’s a lot of grey area. All of the rights have an asterisk next to them. It would be nice if it was black and white, but it’s not,” Terry Geoghegan, government teacher, said. “That built in complexity, that built in ‘what you need to know,’ for some issues take time and effort, and people either don’t want to or don’t feel the need to look into the issues more in depth.”

It is quite common to hear seniors complaining about the work they have to put into their Government class. The difference between Government and other classes, though, is that whether you like it or not, your life is governed by what you learn. It is not a class in which you can just study, take the final, pass, and forget everything.

The lessons you learn during the course are essential to being an educated citizen. Without the knowledge of how elections work, what political parties stand for, and so on, we can easily be manipulated by the media, political parties, and even our friends and families.

Aside from knowing what the Constitution says, people must know what their rights are. Without the understanding of one’s rights, one cannot defend him or herself if need be.

For example, if a police officer were to pull you over and ask to search your car, he does not automatically have permission to do that. Unless there are illegal substances in plain sight or he has probable cause, the officer needs permission from the owner of the car (most likely the parents) to search it. The exception of course is if the officer has a warrant. Police officers can easily take advantage of the fact that young people do not know that officers need a search warrant in order to do that.

The sad truth is that authorities may stereotype teenagers and assume they do reckless things. If students do not know how to protect themselves against this misconception, they easily fall into the traps set up for them.

Of course, many people are aware of their right to remain silent and their right to a lawyer. How many of you, however, are aware “if you are not under arrest, you have the right to calmly leave,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union?

Our founding fathers gave us certain unalienable rights so citizens could protect themselves. If citizens do not understand their rights, how can they protect their freedom?