Constitutional scholar Richard Albert, assistant professor at Boston College Law School, recently offered a Constitution Day presentation to the students of Saint Columbkille Partnership School in Brighton. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
Constitutional scholar participates in Constitution Day at St. Columbkille Partnership School
Boston College Law School Professor Richard Albert discusses rights and responsibilities with middle school students
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Constitutional scholar Richard Albert, assistant professor at Boston College Law School, recently offered a Constitution Day presentation to the students of Saint Columbkille Partnership School in Brighton.Constitution Day commemorates the ratification of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. Since 2004, all publicly funded educational institutions have been mandated to provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.
Although St. Columbkille is privately funded, Albert said that it also is important for students at the Catholic elementary school - which, in 2006, entered into a groundbreaking partnership with Boston College and the Archdiocese of Boston - to become familiar with the nation's Constitution. His presentation will be offered to sixth, seventh and eighth grade students at the school.
"Today has a very special purpose - to commemorate, to reflect on and to celebrate one of the most important documents ever written: the United States Consitution," Albert said to the 80 children at St. Columbkille. "With rights come some very important responsibilities - be vigilant about how your government is performing, about how your members of Congress are behaving, about the direction in which your country is heading. If you disagree with something you hear or see, it is your responsibility to do something about it - no matter your age, young or old, no matter where you live, New Mexico or New Hampshire."
Albert specializes in constitutions law, democratic theory and comparative constitutional law. Before arriving at Boston College Law School, he worked as a corporate attorney for Fortune 500 companies at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and clerked for the Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court.
A graduate of Yale Law School, Albert served as senior editor of the Yale Law Journal, Yale Journal on Regulation and the Yale Law & Policy Review. He also was editor of the Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal and the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities. He has also earned degrees from Oxford and Harvard.
More about the U.S. Constitution is availabe at the National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html