Constitution Explained: Living Our Values | History in 5 | PragerU Kids

Before we start this episode, you should know that History in Five is a series that teaches about America's greatest ideas in a fun, conversational, age-appropriate style for tweens. From civics to history to our U.S. Constitution and beyond. Enjoy more free videos like this for kids of all ages on our website. And for parents and teachers, subscribe for free to PragerUKids.com. America was founded on some awesome ideas, like life, liberty, and equality. But ideas are one thing. Living up to them is another. It's popular today to attack the founders and the founding documents, like the Constitution. After all, many of the founders owned slaves. So how could they talk about liberty? Seems hypocritical, right? Yes, it was. And the founders, and this might surprise you, knew it. They knew slavery was wrong, and it tormented them. Unfortunately, slavery was a normal part of society throughout all of history. If you think that slavery only existed in America, well, you've been misled. Slavery had been around for thousands of years before anyone had even heard of America. Making the statement that all men are created equal, like Thomas Jefferson did in the Declaration of Independence, was bold. Revolutionary. Martin Luther King said by making that promise, the country would one day have to live up to it. The truth is, humans are complex. They aren't simply just good or bad. One moment, your sibling might be calling you names and kicking you while you're down. Later, they're defending you from the class bully, standing up for you when no one else will. It's important that we don't define people entirely by their mistakes. You have to look at the whole picture, the good and the bad. Unfortunately, people's criticism toward the founders has made its way to the founding documents. The entire founding of America, really. When you don't like someone, it's easy to attack their every move. Kind of like when someone's mad at you. They criticize everything you do, even when it's good. Just because the founders were flawed men, doesn't mean the documents they wrote were equally flawed. It's possible for an imperfect person to make a perfect statement, or get a perfect score on a test, or create a perfect pizza. You don't throw out something good just because the person who did it is imperfect. That would be like throwing out the law of relativity just because Einstein didn't know how to comb his hair. As we've already discovered, the constitution for all of its complexity is based on a few basic principles. Power corrupts, all men are born to be free, and everyone is equal before the law. And the thing about these principles is that they don't go out of date. They're not bound by time or location. Two plus two equals four. In America, in China, and in Egypt 4,000 years ago. Oppression is bad wherever it happens. People have God-given rights. Power corrupts. Principles like these will always be true. That's why the founding documents are just as good today as they were 200 years ago. Yes, the founders were flawed men, but despite falling short of their own ideals, they believed they could make the world a better place. Not a perfect place, but a better one. Anyone who tells you they can make the world perfect is selling something, or just doesn't understand the world. Sometimes making something good and actually getting it done is better than trying to make something perfect and failing altogether. And that's exactly what the founders did. They got us started. They built a ladder for future generations to climb. Something that had never been done. And no, they didn't make it to the top to see the stars for themselves, but they made a way for us too. And they believed we could. Thank you so much for watching this episode of History in 5. You can watch the full series and more on our website. And parents, make sure you subscribe at PragerUKids.com to never miss an episode.