SCL faculty led summer seminars for over 100 high school teachers across five Texas cities, partnered with the Jack Miller Center and backed by a $1.8 million federal grant. Sessions covered foundational American texts alongside strategies for primary sources and discussion-led teaching.
All summer, SCL faculty led teaching sessions for more than 100 high school teachers in Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, and Austin, as part of the American Civic Tradition Seminar, a partnership with the Jack Miller Center’s Founding Civics Initiative.
Supported by a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education awarded through the American History and Civics-Seminars program, the Summer Institute program addresses a critical national priority to support the K-12 teaching corps entrusted with transmitting the principles of American constitutional self-government: genuine civic renewal begins with well-prepared educators.
Teachers engaged with foundational texts and figures from across the American civic tradition. Topics included Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. The seminars also gave teachers an opportunity to consider how they could incorporate more primary sources into their classrooms, encourage students to read more, and focus on conversations instead of screens.
“I am beginning my own preparation and will be implementing some of the ideas we discussed at the seminar in June,” one teacher wrote.
“Thank you for an incredibly insightful and constructive seminar. I learned a great deal from you all. I hope I can stay in touch and continue to pick your brain as I grow in the profession,” said another.
