For the seventh consecutive year, the Library, in partnership with Boston Public Schools, will offer a five-day professional development institute funded by a U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History Grant. This year’s program, Our Government in Action, will take place from June 25th-27th and June 30th-July 1st, 2008, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
This institute is designed for teachers of Civics, United States History, and American Government, and will both examine issues arising during the Kennedy years and relate them to the roles and powers of the three branches of government. It will feature such topics as: Choosing a President, State versus Federal Authority, Presidential Powers in Foreign Policy, The President and Congress in Times of Crisis, and The Legislative Process.
Each morning will begin with a talk by modern American political history scholars Dr. Meg Jacobs of MIT and Dr. Julian Zelizer of Princeton University, who will present an historical case drawn from the Kennedy era. The cases include: the 1960 presidential election, school integration, JFK and Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Following their opening talks, teachers will have the opportunity to engage with distinguished guests who will provide an insider’s view of more recent events and issues related to that day’s historical case. Speakers will include: Lincoln Chafee, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, 1999-2007; Paul Kirk, chairman of the Democratic Party, 1985-89; Frank Fahrenkopf, chairman of the Republican Party, 1983-89, founders, and co-chairmen of the Commission on Presidential Debates; Scott Harshbarger, Massachusetts Attorney General, 1991-99 and former president and CEO of Common Cause; Antonia Chayes, Under Secretary of the Air Force in the Carter Administration and director of the Project on International Institutions and Conflict Management, Harvard Law School; and Amory Houghton, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York, 1997-2005, and founder and chairman of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Each afternoon, Kennedy Library educators will introduce documentary materials from the Library's collections relating to the events and topics being examined that day. Teachers who wish to earn Professional Development Points (PDPs) may develop and submit lesson plans based on resources gathered during the institute.
The fee for teachers who do not teach in the Boston Public Schools is $100. There is no charge for Boston Public School teachers.
For further information on the program, email Nina Tisch at nina.tisch@nara.gov