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Our American Heritage

Words that are not yours

Everything on these pages that we wrote rather than you — all of it yours to keep, rewrite or cut.

Companion to CHANGE LOG - what changed and why.md, which is the master record. This file holds the detail of section 4.

Authored content — Chapter Six

Everything below is text I wrote, not text the author wrote. It is here so he can approve, rewrite in his own voice, or cut each item. Nothing in this list came from the manuscript.

Standing rule from this point: I do not add facts, explanations or asides to this book. Where a page pattern needs words the manuscript does not supply, I write the minimum, flag it here, and it is his to accept or replace.

Manuscript paragraph numbers refer to Our American Heritage.docx.

1. Required by the page pattern, no manuscript equivalent

"Why are these two together?" panel — page 51

A militia is citizens acting together; the right to keep and bear arms is what makes that possible. The Founders wrote both into one sentence because neither one stands alone — a free people must be willing to serve, and free to prepare.

Chapter Five has a manuscript paragraph for this slot (¶508, "Why are these freedoms together?"). Chapter Six has none. Built from the sense of ¶¶577, 581, 582, 588. Needs his words or his approval.

Twin card labels — page 50

"The government's duty" / "The citizen's part"

His sentence in ¶586 split across two cards. The words inside the cards are his; only these two labels are mine.

Family activity tasks — page 59

A bicycle · Name the safety rules you keep before you ride. A family pet · Say who feeds it, and what happens if no one remembers. A kitchen knife · Show how it is carried, and who in the house may use it. A car · List three things a driver must do before the engine starts. Power tools · Explain why these wait for training and permission.

The manuscript (¶¶643-647) gives only the five nouns. The page pattern needs a label and a task. His framing question from ¶¶648-649 is preserved above them. These five prompts are entirely mine.

2. Parent notes — three, all mine

  • Page 46, pacing: "This amendment has two parts, not five, so it reads shorter than Chapter Five. Two sittings work well..."
  • Page 58, on question three: "Question three is the hinge of the chapter. Ask for something the child is already trusted with..."
  • Page 53, framing his ¶585 firearms passage: "This is a parent's decision and a parent's lesson — the age, the setting, and the supervision are yours to judge." (His sentence is quoted verbatim above it and attributed to him.)

Chapter Five's parent notes are editorial in the same way, so this follows precedent — but they are still not his sentences.

3. A fact I added — needs his ruling

Fifth Constitution fun fact — page 54

The whole amendment is one sentence long — just twenty-seven words.

The manuscript supplies four facts (¶¶618-621); the pattern calls for five. I counted and it is exactly twenty-seven words. He approved adding a fifth from chapter material at the time, but the sentence is mine.

4. Word search and review page

The ten review answers, the ten fill-in sentences, the word search grid and the two extra words (Courage, Wisdom) are all constructed, not transcribed. They are drawn strictly from his Words to Know list, the verbatim amendment text, his founder spotlight and his memory verse — no new facts — but the sentences that carry the blanks are mine.

5. Artwork briefs

Every <image-slot> description is mine. They are production instructions rather than book text, but they decide what a child sees, so they are listed here for completeness. The opener was originally written "at dusk" by me; the manuscript says only that the farm is far from the nearest town.

Withdrawn — added and then removed

The "Article the fourth" credit line. I drafted a caption for the Bill of Rights image explaining that Congress proposed twelve amendments, that the first two were not ratified, and that the Second Amendment was originally Article the fourth. The author did not write any of this, did not ask for it, and it is confusing for a child. Removed, along with the whole sourced-artwork credit system, now that all artwork is generated.

Authored content — Chapter Seven

Same rule, same purpose: everything below is mine, not the author's.

Required by the page pattern, no manuscript equivalent

Crossword clues — page 71. Ten clues. Nine are lifted from the Chapter Review sentences on page 70 so nothing new was invented; those review sentences are themselves mine (see below), drawn strictly from his Words to Know list and the verbatim amendment text.

Chapter Review sentences — page 70. The ten fill-in-the-blank prompts. The answers are all his — quarter, consent, owner, property, Soldier, peace, house, law, Adams, build — but the sentences carrying the blanks are mine.

Section headings. "Words to watch for" (p63), "Why it matters" (p67), "A saying worth keeping" (p64) are pill labels I wrote. The manuscript supplies no headings for those blocks.

Parent notes — two, both mine

  • Page 60, pacing: "This is the shortest amendment in the Bill of Rights and the least argued over..."
  • Page 72, on question three: "Let the child name something specific and small that would make your own home more peaceful this week."

Editorial placements

  • ¶707's saying ("As goes the father...") is on page 64 in a gold panel, with his own framing line beneath it. His words; my decision on where they sit.
  • The three Scriptures were distributed one per page: Deuteronomy 6:7 to the Bible-connection page, Psalm 127:1 held back for the memory verse card.
  • The four-item "place of" list and the six-item "the home is where" list became the chapter's structural spine, because the Third Amendment has no parts to split into part pages.

Deliberately NOT included — awaiting the author

  • The R.J. Rushdoony quotation (¶736) is omitted pending a rights decision. About sixty words from a work still in copyright. Page 67 has a natural place for it.
  • A fifth Constitution fun fact. The manuscript gives four; the page pattern wants five. Left at four rather than inventing one.

Authored content — Chapter Eight

Same rule: everything below is mine, not the author's.

Required by the page pattern, no manuscript equivalent

Chapter Review sentences — page 84. The ten fill-in-the-blank prompts. The answers are all his — search, seizure, warrant, privacy, effects, papers, oath, Otis, probable, prudent — but the sentences carrying the blanks are mine, drawn strictly from his Words to Know list and the verbatim amendment text.

Word search — page 85. The grid, and the closing line "Two of these words are not answers to anything. They are what every honest search is for, and what it must never cost." The two extra words in the bank are Justice and Truth.

Section headings. "Words to watch for", "Remember this", "What he meant" and "A grandparent's thought" are pill labels I wrote.

Page-turn line. "Talk these through together before you write. There is no hurry." above his Family Discussion questions.

Parent notes — two, both mine

  • Page 74: "This chapter has more moving parts than the last one — a right, a warrant, and a standard called probable cause. Three sittings work well, and the search-warrant page is the one worth reading twice."
  • Page 86: "Question two is the hinge. A child who understands that the rules bind the people who enforce them has understood the whole chapter — and most of the Constitution besides."

Artwork briefs

All eight image descriptions are mine. The scenes are not described anywhere in the manuscript.

Authored content — Chapter Nine

Required by the page pattern, no manuscript equivalent

Chapter Review sentences — page 100. Ten fill-in-the-blank prompts. Answers all his — jury, jeopardy, witness, process, property, liberty, indictment, Madison, Justice, judgment.

Crossword — page 101. The grid and all ten clues. Every clue is a rewording of a Chapter Review sentence, so nothing new was invented at this step.

Section headings. "Why this shield matters", "A government of laws", "Remember this", "What he meant", "Then discuss" are pill labels I wrote.

The shield framing. The manuscript calls them protections; the pages call each one a shield and number them One to Five. His word is kept in the body text; the numbering and the shield label are mine.

The halfway marker — page 100. "Five down, five to go. Halfway." Mine.

Parent notes — two, both mine

  • Page 88: "Five protections in one amendment — the longest chapter so far. Three or four sittings work well, and Shield Four, due process, is the one the rest depend on."
  • Page 102: "Question three is the one the family activity is built on. Ask it before you do the activity, then ask it again afterwards and see whether the answer changed."

Artwork briefs

All ten image descriptions are mine.

Authored content — Chapter Ten

Required by the page pattern, no manuscript equivalent

Chapter Review sentences — page 117. Ten fill-in-the-blank prompts. Answers all his — accused, jury, impartial, counsel, witness, speedy, public, Adams, facts, neighbor.

Word search — page 118. The grid, and the closing line "Two of these words are not answers to anything. They are what justice needs after the facts are in." The two extra words in the bank are Mercy and Dignity.

Section headings. "Words to watch for", "Why these matter", "Remember this", "Jury nullification", "Then discuss" and "Thought to remember" are pill labels I wrote. "One of America's greatest principles" is not mine — it is his own lead-in from ¶1012, moved onto the label.

Parent notes — two, both mine

  • Page 104: "Six protections this time, and the John Adams story is the heart of the chapter. A child who understands why he defended men he disagreed with has understood something most adults have not."
  • Page 119: "Question three is the hard one and the good one. Ask whether the child would have defended those soldiers, and let the honest answer stand before you talk about why Adams did."

Artwork briefs

All sixteen image descriptions are mine.

Withdrawn — added and then removed

"A jury is not made of experts. It is made of neighbours — which is exactly the point." I wrote this line for page 108 and removed it the same day. It is a good line and it is not his. If he wants it, it is there for the taking; it should not have been on the page without him asking for it.

Authored content — Chapter Eleven

Required by the page pattern, no manuscript equivalent

Chapter Review sentences — page 137. Ten fill-in-the-blank prompts. The answers are all his — civil, criminal, jury, common, controversy, impartial, twenty, Jefferson, evidence, poor — but the sentences carrying the blanks are mine, drawn from his Words to Know list and the verbatim amendment text.

Crossword — page 138. The grid and all ten clues. Every clue is a rewording of a Chapter Review sentence, so nothing new was invented at that step.

Section headings. "Two Different Kinds of Case", "The Importance of the Jury", "Justice for Great and Small", "What Does It Mean?" and "Words to know" are page titles I wrote where the manuscript supplies none. Pill labels — "An important idea", "Remember this", "A major principle of our Founding", "Famous quote", "Then discuss", "Thought to remember", "Ask" — are also mine. "Why Do We Need Fair Decisions?" is his (¶1103), and so is "Rights Come with Responsibilities" (¶1143).

Page-turn line. "Talk these through together before you write. There is no hurry." above his Family Discussion questions.

Parent notes — two, both mine

  • Page 122: "The Seventh Amendment is about disagreements between ordinary people, not crimes. If the child has ever argued over something borrowed, start there — the whole chapter follows from it."
  • Page 139: "Question three is the one worth slowing down for. Ask the child whether they have ever seen someone get their way just because they were louder, and let that answer sit before you talk about juries."

Artwork briefs

All seventeen image descriptions are mine.

Withdrawn — added and then removed

A twentieth page headed "Seven Down, Three to Go." I drafted it to round the chapter to an even page count, and it contained a sentence of my own: "The next amendment asks what a punishment may be once a case is decided." He did not write it and did not ask for it. The page was cut and the even count found honestly, by giving the amendment text its own page as in every other chapter.

Authored content — Chapter Twelve

Required by the page pattern, no manuscript equivalent

Chapter Review sentences — page 159. Ten fill-in-the-blank prompts. The answers are all his — bail, fine, excessive, cruel, mercy, unusual, Blackstone, dignity, justice, humbly — but the sentences carrying the blanks are mine, drawn from his Words to Know list, the verbatim amendment text and his memory verse.

Word search — page 160. The grid, and the closing line "Two of these words are not answers to anything. They are what justice looks like when it is exercised rightly." The two extra words are Compassion and Restraint, both his words from ¶1244 and ¶1264.

Section headings. "Too Little, or Too Much", "What Does It Mean?", "The Two Foundations of Law" and "Words to know" are page titles I wrote where the manuscript supplies none. Pill labels — "Remember this", "Blackstone's wisdom", "Then read together", "Thought to remember", "Ask" — are mine. "Why Is Mercy Important?" (¶1221), "Lex Talionis", "The Actual Eighth Amendment", "Cruel and Unusual Punishment", "Why Did the Founders Include This Amendment?", "Justice and Mercy Belong Together", "Bible Connection", "The Virtues Behind the Eighth Amendment", "Rights Come with Responsibilities", "Constitution Fun Facts", "Founder Spotlight", "Justice or Revenge?" and "A Grandparent's Thought" are all his.

Page-turn line. "Talk these through together before you write. There is no hurry." above his Family Discussion questions.

Parent notes — two, both mine

  • Page 142: "This chapter holds two ideas at once — that wrongdoing must have consequences, and that the consequence must fit. Children grasp the second faster than the first. Take both."
  • Page 161: "Question three is the whole chapter in one sentence. If the child can say why a person who has done wrong still has dignity, they have understood the Eighth Amendment."

Artwork briefs

All sixteen image descriptions are mine.

A tool, not content

A word-search generator was written for this chapter (pipeline/wordsearch.py). It checks that every answer appears in the finished grid exactly once — the random filler letters can spell a short answer by accident, and if that is not caught the answer key is wrong. The three earlier word searches were built without that check; they have since been re-verified out of their printed grids.

Authored content — Chapter Two

Everything below is text I wrote for Chapter Two (pages 19–40). The manuscript is ¶162–234. Found by comparing every line on the pages against the manuscript.

1. Headings and labels

  • Subtitle, page 19: "The blueprint we stand on"
  • Page headings where the manuscript has no heading of its own: "A Plan on a Firm Foundation" (20), "The Blueprint of Our Government" (21), "Why a Lasting Plan Matters" (22), "Where We Have Failed" (25), "Articles Five, Six and Seven" (27), "A Right Being Violated Today" (30), "The Other Seventeen" (31), "Articles, Sections and Clauses" (32), "Constitution Fun Facts" (34), "Wise Laws, People of Good Character" (35), "Make Your Own Family Constitution" (40). His own headings are used where he has them: Part Two: The Seven Articles, Part Three: The Amendments, and Why → How → Changes from ¶198.
  • "Part One: The Preamble" (24) — built from his "Part one is the Preamble."
  • Pill labels: "Remember this" (24), "A charge to the young" (25, 30), "The oath of office" (28), "To learn more" (31), "Why it matters" (40), "John Adams" (35), "For the parent or grandparent" (19, 39).
  • Stat cards, page 21: "words, about" beneath 7,500 and "years of guidance" beneath 239. The numbers are his; the captions are mine.
  • "A family activity." — the opening words of page 40.
  • "Family Questions" — the book-wide name for his Family Discussion. See AUTHOR QUERIES G3.

2. Parent notes — two, both mine

  • Page 19: "This chapter is a tour of the whole document before any single part of it. If the child can say what a Preamble, an Article and an Amendment each do, the rest of the book has somewhere to hang."
  • Page 39: "Question five is the one that turns the chapter into something they own. Let them argue for their three values before you offer yours."

3. Instructions to the child

  • Page 36: "Spell each word correctly, then use it in a sentence of your own." (His assignment sentence above it is printed in full.)
  • Page 38: "Every answer comes from this chapter. Write one letter in each white square."
  • Page 39: "Talk these through together before you write. There is no hurry."

4. Chapter Review — ten sentences, all mine

The answers are his Words to Know (Constitution, Preamble, Article, Section, Amendment, Ratify, Rights), plus seven (Articles), Adams and rock from his text. Question 9 reads "John ____ said our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people." The closing panel — "The Constitution · three parts / You finished Chapter Two! You now know the why, the how, and the changes." — is mine.

5. Crossword clues — ten, all mine

Built from the same ten answers. The clue for SECTION shortens his definition to "A smaller part of an article that explains specific rules."

Authored content — Glossary and About the Author

Glossary (twelve pages). Mine: the "Back matter" kicker on the opening page; the "Constitution Glossary" kicker on pages 2–11; the twenty letter headings (A, B, C …) above his terms; the pill label "Of the people, by the people, for the people" on the Lincoln panel (the words are quoted inside his paragraph — using them as a label was my choice); the numbers 1–5 on his five discussion questions. Everything else — every term, every definition, both memory verses, the Lincoln passage, the discussion, activity and grandparent's thought — is his.

About the Author (one page). Mine: the "Back matter" kicker only.

Authored content — Chapter Three (The Preamble)

  • Opener: subtitle "Why the Constitution was written" (from his ¶263), the "Chapter Three" kicker, and the parent note.
  • Headings: "Why God Created Civil Government", "Noah Webster on Education", "Training Up Good Character", "Peace, Safety and Opportunity", "Liberty, Now and for Those to Come", "A Visitor from France", "Preamble Word Search", "More Family Questions".
  • Pill labels: "Webster's 1828 Dictionary", "Alexis de Tocqueville", "Word bank".
  • Chapter Review — ten sentences, all mine. The chapter has no Words to Know, so every answer comes from his factual text: words, People, changed, statement, states, peace, danger, Welfare, freedom, Education.
  • Word search: the extras LIBERTY and JUSTICE, the instruction deck, and the line explaining the two extra words.
  • Smaller: the review's closing panel; the two Family Questions intro lines; the parent note on question three.

Authored content — Chapter Four (The Bill of Rights)

  • Opener: subtitle "A fence around our freedoms"; the parent note ("This chapter is the doorway to the ten amendment chapters that follow…").
  • Headings: "A Clear List of Freedoms", "Like a Fence Around a Garden", "Rights Come with Responsibilities" (his heading in other chapters, not this one), "To Assemble and to Petition", "Justice, Truth and Human Dignity", "Bill of Rights Crossword".
  • Parent note, Family Discussion: "The last question is the one to linger on…".
  • Chapter Review — ten sentences, all mine. Answers: Rights, liberty, process, petition, Madison, Federalists, December, redress, grievance, First — from his Words to Know and factual text.
  • Crossword — ten clues, all mine, plus the instruction line (as Chapter Two) and the Across / Down labels.

Authored content — Chapter Fifteen (The 11th–27th Amendments)

  • Opener parent note: "Seventeen amendments in one chapter is a lot to take in. Read two or three at a sitting, and ask the child what problem each one was meant to solve."
  • Kickers: "Chapter Fifteen" on the opener, review, Family Questions and closing pages.
  • Chapter Review — ten sentences, all mine, from his factual summaries: amendments, slavery, income, Senators, Prohibition, women, repealed, citizen-statesman, eighteen, law. Also the panel label "Seventeen more amendments" and "You finished Chapter Fifteen! You have now met all twenty-seven amendments to the Constitution."
  • Crossword: the heading "Later Amendments Crossword", the deck (Chapter Two's wording), the Across / Down labels, and all ten clues.
  • Family Questions: the deck (Chapter Two's wording) and the parent note: "Question four is the one to end on. Before you close the book, pray together for the people who make our nation's laws, by name where you can."
  • The manuscript gives this chapter no Words to Know, Family Activity or Founder Spotlight, and none was invented.

Authored content — Chapter Thirteen (The Ninth Amendment)

  • Parent notes: page 1 of the chapter ("The Ninth Amendment rests on one idea…") and the Family Questions page ("Question three is the heart of the chapter…").
  • Headings: "Not for Light and Transient Causes", "Who Is the Ultimate Authority?", "Ninth Amendment Crossword". Every other heading is his.
  • Labels: "Ratified 1791", "Remember this" (twice), "Thought to remember", "For the parent or grandparent", and "The Declaration of Independence" as the citation under two panels.
  • Milestone: "Color it in", "You finished Chapter Thirteen!", "The Ninth Amendment — nine down, one to go.", "Bill of Rights", "9 of 10".
  • Chapter Review — ten sentences, all mine. Answers 1–5 from his Words to Know (enumeration, retained, unalienable, liberty, Creator), 6–8 from the amendment text (deny, disparage, people), 9–10 from his text (Madison, Hamilton).
  • Crossword: the instruction line (as Chapter Two), Across / Down, and all ten clues.

Authored content — Chapter Seventeen (Family Activities)

  • Three parent notes: pacing on the opener; the Scavenger Hunt answers (Legislative / Congress, Executive / President, First, Second, Fourth, Tenth); and "every answer is in this book" beside the Constitution Challenge.
  • One instruction line: "Draw a line from each Founder to the right accomplishment."
  • Labels: "Day 1" – "Day 7" on the Preamble tick row, "Name" / "Points" on the score card, "The Preamble", "Our family crest", and "Chapter Seventeen" kickers.
  • No headings. Every heading in the chapter is his.

Authored content — Chapter Sixteen (America's Founders)

  • Opener: the parent note.
  • Heading: "The Sword, the Pen and the Trumpet" (his words, my heading), and the life dates under the three founder frames (1732–1799, 1743–1826, 1736–1799).
  • Founder Spotlight: the label, "1735–1826", and "He wrote these words in a letter to his wife, Abigail, in 1777."
  • Chapter Review — ten sentences, all mine. The chapter has no Words to Know, so answers come from factual content only: Sword, Pen, Trumpet, Adams, Mothers, serve, terms, Franklin, Madison, People. Also the panel label and "You finished Chapter Sixteen!…".
  • Word search: the heading, the instruction line, "Word bank", and the line about the two rust words (Founders, Virtue).
  • Family Discussion: the instruction line and the parent note.

Authored content — Chapter Fourteen (The Tenth Amendment)

  • Headings: "Different People, Different Responsibilities", "The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate" (his phrase, my heading), "Tenth Amendment Word Search".
  • Labels: "Ratified 1791", "Remember this" (four times), "Thought to remember", "Word bank", "For the parent or grandparent" (twice), and the "Chapter Fourteen" kickers.
  • Milestone: "Color it in", "You finished Chapter Fourteen!", "Bill of Rights", "10 of 10", and the subline "The Tenth Amendment — ten down, and the whole Bill of Rights is done!" — the book's formula gives "ten down, none to go", which reads as if something were missing.
  • Parent notes: the opener ("This chapter is about who decides…") and the Family Discussion page ("Question two is the one to linger on…").
  • Decks: the Family Discussion line (as Chapter Two), the word-search instructions, and "Two of these words are not answers to anything. They are the virtues that keep power in its proper place."
  • Chapter Review — ten sentences, all mine. Answers 1–4 from his Words to Know (delegated, reserved, federalism, State), then national, people (the amendment text), Rights, Sherman, Compromise, safety (the memory verse). Extras in the word search: HUMILITY and WISDOM, from his virtues table.

Chapter Four — "My Notes" page (added for page parity). Heading "My Notes", the kicker "Chapter Four", and one line: "Write down anything from this chapter you want to remember." Then ruled writing lines. See the change log, section 9.

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