Students and faculty gathered Wednesday in the OU Joe C. and Carole Kerr McClendon Honors College to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.

Wednesday marked 221 years since the signing of the document that gave Americans the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Constitution Day celebrates the day the members of the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787. In 2004, Oklahoma passed a law requiring public schools to celebrate the day.

Jordann Good, elementary education sophomore, said she reads the entire Constitution every year for the holiday, and even though most students may not read the document, they should still realize its importance.

“OU prides itself in excellence, and how can we obtain that excellence without our constitutional rights?” Good said.

Americans as a whole tend to forget about the values of the Constitution, Law professor Rick Tepker said.

In the U.S., two-thirds of high school graduates cannot place the Civil War in the correct century, Tepker said.

He said many students only care about the day off school, not the significance of the holiday. Even former President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday has been forgotten, Tepker said. Lincoln’s birthday is no longer considered a national holiday.

“I fear that too many Americans cannot remember an image of Lincoln, except from the penny, the $5 bill or the iconic Lincoln memorial,” Tepker said.

Comedy Central’s popular television show “South Park” even had an episode that poked fun at Lincoln’s expense, Tepker said.

He blames the entertainment industry and the elementary education system for youth apathy toward American history.

Schools all over the country have fallen into the “terrible national scandal” of allowing athletic coaches to teach history classes, Tepker said.

OU law student Bryan Gordon said he agrees with Tepker’s criticism of the educational system.

He said coaches rarely make the best teachers, because they may not have the knowledge to dig deep enough into the issues.

Good said she thinks the state law that protects Constitution Day will help inform students about civic issues and stop political ignorance in the future.

“I believe civic education is very important because if we don’t know where we came from, we can’t go anywhere in the future,” she said.