Founding Forward Educators at Valley Forge

(Valley Forge, PA) In mid-July the historical setting of Union Hill near Philadelphia provided an educational for fifty selected fellowship teachers from around the United States to learn about the how the founding fathers worked to forge a new nation.

Sponsored by the Founding Forward Foundation, the program is designed for history and civic educators that have passion for teaching about the Constitution and the historical events that formed our nation. Fifty teachers were selected to attend the six-day session to explore the topics and challenges faced by the first five presidents of the United States as they built a new nation from scratch.

Attendees actively engaged in analysis of primary source documents and interacted with scholars, Dr. Denver Brunsman from George Washington University and Dr. Stephen Knott. In addition to the author lectures, the teacher toured the sites of Philadelphia, the US Supreme Court in Washington DC, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the White House Visitor Center, and the Octagon House.

Teachers learned more in-depth methods to bring back to their classrooms as they examined and learned the basic structure, relevance and understanding of the US Constitution through early events in the history United States. In addition, teachers identified and examined elements of the Constitution that impacted early constitutional crises during their administration.

Representing the Pacific Northwest was local Julius a Went Elementary School educator, Jamie Brown. Brown looks forward to sharing the value-added activity with her students as a focus in the classroom this fall.