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Defending Freedom
Preliminary Outline of Summer Institute, Year Three
Campus Coordinator: David Voelker (Univ. of Wisconsin-Green Bay)
The drive to defend freedom has played a crucial role in shaping American history since the colonial period. Even in the interaction between European colonists and American Indians, the defense of freedom played a central part. Furthermore, the Massachusetts Bay Colony splintered as some groups fled in order to defend their rights of conscience. (See Roger Williams’s 1644 “The Bloody Tenet of Persecution”.) In the late 18th century, the American revolutionaries explained their quest for independence largely in terms of defending their liberties. (The 1765 Stamp Act Congress “Declaration of Rights” provides an excellent primary source for beginning to explore this issue; Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the “Declaration of Independence” provide accessible routes for continuing this inquiry.) As they were fighting for independence, the revolutionaries began forging new governments, first at the state and then at the federal level. The new constitutions that they created usually included embedded “bill of rights,” intended to empower citizens to protect their liberties against state intrusion. (The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 and the bill of rights within the Virginia Constitution allow for student-friendly inquiry into this question, and they also helped to inspire the bill of rights that was appended to the federal constitution once the new federal government was up and running.) While the Constitution laid a basic groundwork for the defense of freedom, it also inspired various democratic movements, including political parties and labor unions, that were focused on protecting rights and liberties.
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Day/Time
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Grade 4-8 Teacher Scholars
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Grade 9-12 Teacher Scholars
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Day 1 Intro.
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Plenary Session: Guest Historian (Defending Freedom in Early America)
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Day 1 AM
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Teaching with Regional Primary Sources
(Area Research Center Workshop)
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The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Defense of American Freedoms
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Day 1 PM
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The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Defense of American Freedoms
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Teaching with Regional Primary Sources
(Area Research Center Workshop)
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Day 2 Intro.
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Plenary Session: The American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Defense of Freedom
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Day 2 AM
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Defending Religious Liberty
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Defending Civil Liberties in Times of War
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Day 2 PM
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Defending Civil Liberties in Times of War
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Defending Religious Liberty
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Day 3 Intro.
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Historical Thinking by Design: Discussion of Emerging Lesson Plans
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Day 3 AM
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Taking Artifacts and Photos into the Classroom (Neville Public Museum)
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Interactive Lesson Plan Workshop
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Day 3 PM
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Interactive Lesson Plan Workshop
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Taking Artifacts and Photos into the Classroom (Neville Public Museum)
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Day 4 Intro.
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Plenary Session: Guest Historian (Defending Freedom in Modern America)
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Day 4 AM
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American Democracy and the Defense of Freedom
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American Indians and the Defense of Freedom
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Day 4 PM
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American Indians and the Defense of Freedom
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American Democracy and the Defense of Freedom
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Day 5 Intro
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Plenary Session: Freedom as an Organizing Principle of American History
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Day 5 AM
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Lesson Plan Research
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Day 5 PM
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Wrapping Up and Follow-up Planning
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