Lesson plan
Flag Acts
The Flag Acts are three laws that sought to define the design of the flag of the United States. All the submitted suggestions were remarkably short, the shortest being a sentence of 31 words, and the longest being a title and two sentences of 117 words. The brevity of the Acts leave a lot of ambiguity since neither the size or shape of the flag nor the exact colors or the size or placement of the design elements is specified. In 1912, there were 66 different designs in use which led William Howard Taft to address some of those shortcomings by issuing Executive Order 1556 which specified the size and placement of the design elements and the size and shape of the flag but not the specific colors. Executive Order 1637 later added a specific design example. The specifications were later further refined and revised by further executive orders but never codified into law. , Executive Order 10834 issued by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960 is the most recent executive order to establish these specifications. Since executive orders can be revoked or modified by any president, future presidents could change the look of the flag used by federal agencies at will.
Article summary
The Flag Acts are three laws that sought to define the design of the flag of the United States. All the submitted suggestions were remarkably short, the shortest being a sentence of 31 words, and the longest being a title and two sentences of 117 words. The brevity of the Acts leave a lot of ambiguity since neither the size or shape of the flag nor the exact colors or the size or placement of the design elements is specified. In 1912, there were 66 different designs in use which led William Howard Taft to address some of those shortcomings by issuing Executive Order 1556 which specified the size and placement of the design elements and the size and shape of the flag but not the specific colors. Executive Order 1637 later added a specific design example. The specifications were later further refined and revised by further executive orders but never codified into law. , Executive Order 10834 issued by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960 is the most recent executive order to establish these specifications. Since executive orders can be revoked or modified by any president, future presidents could change the look of the flag used by federal agencies at will.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.