From July 8th to 16th, 2004, the Warren Center will host the Eastern Regional Summer Institute of “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution.” The selective institute is a workshop for upper elementary, middle, and high school teachers. Its purpose is to give educators a fundamental understanding of the U.S. Constitution and the skills and tools to teach it to their students. For the past three years, the Warren Center has hosted the state institute, which was directed by Mary Catherine Bradshaw, an educator at Hillsboro High School and adjunct instructor at Peabody College. Ms. Bradshaw is the director of the regional institute this year, and we will continue the partnership.

Teachers from east of the Mississippi will apply to be among the thirty-six selected to spend nine days on Vanderbilt’s campus working closely with constitutional scholars and other educators. The work is divided into six units which examine the following: the historical and philosophical foundations of our country’s ideas about constitutional government; the creation of the Constitution; organization of the national government; development of the Constitution; expansion of rights during the last 200 years; and the roles of citizens in American democracy. At the end of the week, the workshop culminates in a simulated congressional hearing. Teachers can then use this program in their own classrooms, including guiding their students through a simulated congressional hearing in either a competitive or non-competitive setting. High school classes that opt for the competitive route have the potential to compete on a national level in Washington, D.C.

The institute is directed by the Center for Civic Education and funded by the U.S. Department of Education by act of Congress. For more information, visit www.civiced.org.