Intellectual history · Enlightenment roots of the Declaration · Grades 9–12
Premise: Students trace the Declaration's core ideas to Enlightenment philosophy — especially John Locke on natural rights, consent, and the social contract — using short excerpts. They analyze what Jefferson inherited and what he changed (notably "pursuit of Happiness" for Locke's "property").
Students work through five source excerpts and solve four locks (source-of-rights MC, a substitution word lock, an influence-vs-invention MC, and a lineage evidence sort). Each lock reveals a short reasoning explanation. The answer key is not shown on this page.
Student activity: grade912/philosophy-student.html · ~10–15 minutes · works on tablets, laptops, and interactive whiteboards.
Skills & standards alignment
Content is aligned to these strands; the activity is a supporting resource, not a verbatim standard statement:
Texas TEKS · U.S. Government / U.S. History: analyze the Enlightenment ideas (Locke, social contract, natural rights) reflected in the Declaration of Independence.
Texas TEKS · Social Studies skills (HS): analyze primary sources and trace the development of political ideas over time.
Common Core ELA/Literacy · RH.9–10.9 / RH.11–12.2: compare primary sources and analyze how ideas develop across texts.
Reasoning habit: distinguishing supported conclusions from unsupported guesses ("prove it from the clue").
💡 Teacher tip: The "pursuit of Happiness" vs. "property" substitution is the richest discussion point — ask students what the change reveals about Jefferson's intent. The Roman-bust decoy models matching an idea to its actual textual source.