"We The People" National Institute in Boston

This school year, I am teaching a course called We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution. I had the privilege of attending the We the People National Teacher's Institute in Boston with 50 or so teachers from across the nation. We the People is a curriculum used nationwide that is developed and funded by the Center for Civic Education. Students participating in the course study the philosophical roots of the Constitution (Locke, ancient Rome, Greece, classical Republicanism, the Magna Carta, etc.) They continue on to study the constitutional convention of 1787 and the subsequent amendments and evolution of the Constitution. The culminating project for students is a simulated congressional hearing in which students speak about and then answer challenging questions about the Constitution, its history, and their thoughts on modern interpretation.

Even after studying Constitutional Law in great depth in law school, I learned many new things at the Institute, which is designed to aid teachers with content knowledge and curriculum ideas for implementing the course. It was an intense week of study, but I have so much to take back to Hawaii and share with my students. Not to mention, the Center for Civic Education provided us with several texts to add to our classroom libraries for the course. The week consisted of lectures by leading scholars and jurists on the subject of Constitutional Law. As teachers, we also got the opportunity to try participating in mock congressional hearing ourselves.

It was awesome to spend a week among other enthusiastic teachers, each of whom brought unique knowledge and experience to the Institute. We had many thought-provoking discussions and I learned much from the vast and broad experience of my colleagues.

We didn't have a lot of time to see Boston, but we did manage to take in a few sites. I also got to see college friend, Kathy, and her adorable daughter, Meg. My roommates at the Institute and I trekked up to the North End and had a delicious Italian feast in Boston's Italian district. Yummmmmm! Here are a few of my pics from the week in Beantown.