Here at the Law School we are ever striving to provide something new, interesting, and fun for you. In this podcast, we think we might have found something unique as well. Our very own David Currie, to mark the occasion of his retirement from the Law School faculty after 44 years, has kindly read the entire text of the United States Constitution aloud for us to record. We have created a web page where you can listen to the recording in its entirety (which you may also do by clicking here), or listen to its component parts. We hope that this page will serve as a resource for educators wishing to enhance their teaching of the Constitution. We could think of no better person to bring this document to life than David Currie - constitutional scholar and actor extraordinaire. The Law School Class of 2006 (who graduated today - see below) received as their graduation gift from the Law School a USB flash drive loaded with this recording. We hope you, and they, will enjoy it.
Despite having little interest in constitutional law as a student, and despite it not being a required course, I took Professor Currie's Con Law I class based on his reputation as a master in the classroom. He did not disappoint. A decade later, I can still vividly remember the way in which he would concretize abstract principles and the way he would use human stories to draw out fine distinctions from the text. It was in his course that I read the entire text of the Constitution in one sitting for the first time, something that opened my eyes to the wonder of the document.
So last night it was with great nostalgia and happy memories that I sat in my living room and listened to Professor Currie read the Constitution through the speakers on my laptop. (What a magical age we live in!) I had my 18-month-old daughter on my lap, hoping that she would get more from this than her favorite Raffi CD. She didn't make it through Article I, but I will keep this file for her to enjoy in a few years. When we listen to it together, I will tell her about the great man who I had the tremendous pleasure to have as a teacher, to have as a colleague, and to know as a person. Three cheers for David Currie!
Posted by: Todd Henderson | June 10, 2006 at 09:06 AM
God Bless David Currie. A gem of decency, genuine intellectual curiosity, charm and scholarship hidden amongst the blow-hard sophists and dismal pseudo-scientists at that school. What a profound loss for the law school.
Good luck professor. Your kindness and humor will be severly missed at that institution, I'm sure.
Posted by: Louis Kessler | June 14, 2006 at 01:16 PM