The political ideas of John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other Founders of the United States have been a rich civic legacy for successive generations of citizens. An important means of ensuring that these ideas on constitutional government continue to inspire and guide people in the 21st century lies in the curricula of secondary schools. Students need exposure to the constitutional thought of the Founders, and the documents that contain the Founders' ideas, if they are to be expected to think critically about these ideas in order to identify and maintain the best of them and to modify and improve upon the rest of them. Current secondary school curricula are flawed by neglect of core ideas in the political thought of the Founders. This volume is designed to address this flaw; its contents highlight the constitutional thought of important Founders in scholarly essays and teaching plans for high school history and government teachers and in document-based learning materials for students. The volume contains nine units, each of which is based on the ideas and primary sources found in essays originally published in "This Constitution: A Bicentennial Chronicle." Each of the nine units includes four elements: (1) An "Introduction" that announces the topic and main ideas of the constitutional government unit; (2) an essay written by a scholar that highlights primary sources on political ideas of one or more of the Founders of the United States; (3) a teaching plan for high school history and government teachers to guide their use of learning materials for students based upon the essay; and (4) a lesson for high school students of history and government designed to teach ideas in primary sources featured in the scholarly essay. (DB)