Constitution

With the help of blackboard erasers, pupils in a fifth-grade class at Lower Moreland Middle School were taught a lesson in how the nation's Constitution was formed. Teacher Gerri Ruckel asked the pupils to stand in two lines. She handed the first people in both lines an eraser and simply told them to start playing the "Eraser Game. " The children looked puzzled. Then came cries of "What do we do now?" and "We don't know how to play. " It was her way to show the students how the framers of the Constitution may have felt when they convened in Philadelphia 200 years ago to write the laws that would govern the new nation: They, too, could decide the rules.

Was that a candle growing out of Mike Schmidt's left ear? No, but that's what it looked like on the television monitor. So Sy Weissman, a producer for CBS News, asked the Philadelphia Phillies' third baseman to "move a couple steps over to the left" so that Schmidt's impeccably groomed form and the antiques of Independence Hall's assembly room were properly aligned. And all was in readiness yesterday afternoon to tape the first of what will be at least a year-long series of television spots commemorating the 200th birthday of the U.S. Constitution.

Many admirers of the delegation from the 13 states that drafted the Constitution know that, figuratively, it took some fancy footwork to come up with a governing document that satisfied the diverse concerns and interests of the founding states. So what better way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Constitution than with clogging, one of the oldest forms of dance in America. That's the thinking of the Burlington County 4-H Cloggers. About 25 of the dancers, ages 6 to 18, will perform at Penn's Landing tomorrow night.

In this bicentennial year of the Constitution, most of the commemorative programs seem to be aimed at venerating the old girl; and up to a point this is fine. As a product of time and circumstance, the charter that emerged from the "miracle of Philadelphia" deserves all the praise that is being heaped upon it. But as Justice Thurgood Marshall reminded us last month, the Constitution, great as it is, remains in many respects a product of the 18th century. The worst of its original provisions, sanctioning slavery, were wiped out by the Reconstruction amendments of 1865-70.

Next year, the anniversary of the nation's Constitution will be celebrated with much fanfare. But a group in the Northeast is making sure that senior citizens are not left out. The group will celebrate with a patriotic picnic, an oratorical contest, a cruise and a march in the grand procession over the next year. Up to a few months ago, none of this had been planned. Harry Fox, president of the Northeast Senior Citizens Council and a former Philadelphia police deputy commissioner, said some senior citizens in the Northeast had lamented that not enough activities had been scheduled for them by We the People 200. He said this was disappointing to many.

Promise of Permanency" - that's what an elated Benjamin Franklin saw in the new U.S. Constitution. Now, it also is the name of a high-tech, high-minded and even high-spirited exhibit relating the 200-year evolution of that document. "A Promise of Permanency," adding glitter to the celebration of the Constitution's bicentennial, opened Wednesday at the Independence National Historical Park Visitor Center and runs until 1992. The new exhibit complements the "Miracle at Philadelphia" display that opened last fall at the Second Bank of the United States.

In scope and spending, the Philadelphia celebration of the Constitution's bicentennial has become vastly more ambitious than it was only a few months ago. The city is now hoping to raise up to $45 million - most of it from major corporations - to stage more than 110 events, highlighted by a televised extravaganza next Sept. 17 rivaling the hoopla that drew the attention of the nation to the Statue of Liberty celebration in New York Harbor. The new price tag was announced by Mayor Goode at a City Hall news conference yesterday.

I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them, for, having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. . . . Most men indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them, it is . . . error.

CONSTITUTION guard Daiquan Walker was so excited for yesterday's Class A state semifinal against defending champion Math, Civics & Sciences Charter that he didn't sleep a wink Monday night. Going into halftime, he wished he had. Walker, who with star forward Savon Goodman is part of a dangerous scoring tandem for the Generals, went 0-for-6 in the first half, with his only two points coming on free throws. But sleep wasn't the only thing missing. "I had the wrong shoes," he said.

Better break out the bugles and fetch those fifes and drums. This might seem like history repeating itself, but the people of Tacony are planning a city-paid parade this June to celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution. They owe it all to Councilwoman Joan Krajewski. The two-mile march June 18 will be a low-budget affair compared to the $3.5 million extravaganza that was staged in Center City last September to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.