A nation must think before it acts.
Forty Teachers from 24 States to Learn about America’s Wars
Forty Teachers from 24 States to Learn about America’s Wars
PHILADELPHIA, PA—The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is pleased to sponsor a professional development opportunity for teachers – a conference on “Why Does America Go to War?” The conference will take place on March 25-26, 2017, and is hosted and co-sponsored by the First Division Museum at Cantigny. This is the 12th such weekend conference for teachers of its kind. The program is also cosponsored by Carthage College, which offers a graduate credit opportunity for participating teachers.
The decision to go to war is the most momentous any leader, in any nation, can make. For the United States, the process of declaring war, enshrined in the constitution, has always been a source of domestic political dispute as well as geopolitical interest, as every conflict raised anew the fundamental question of whether and how the United States should deal with the wider world.
Forty teachers from 24 states will gather to grapple with this topic and more during this intensive weekend at the Madeleine and W.W. Keen Butcher History Institute, part of the FPRI Marvin Wachman Center for Civic and International Literacy.
The teachers will hear from eight prestigious scholars lecturing on America’s involvement in wars as well as the concept of war. A full list of speakers, their field of expertise, and the subject they will be speaking on can be found here.
Established in 1990, the Wachman Center seeks to foster the civic and international literacy in the community and in the classroom. History Institutes are the centerpiece of the Wachman Center, sponsoring programs designed to bring high school teachers from around the country together with the nation’s top scholars in history, political science, and other fields. The ongoing program on teaching American military history is also an activity of the FPRI Center for the Study of America and the West and is organized by Michael Noonan, Director of Research at FPRI.
Over the past twenty years, History Institutes have garnered a national reputation for excellence and have worked with over 1,000 teachers from over 800 schools in 47 states. The Butcher History Institute is co-chaired by Pulitzer prizewinning historian Walter A. McDougall and David Eisenhower; the Wachman Center is headed by Alan Luxenberg and Paul Dickler, a former high school teacher of 30 years’ experience.
FPRI is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank located in Center City Philadelphia. Its mission is to bring the insights of scholarship to bear on the foreign policy and national security challenges facing the United States. It seeks to educate the public, teach teachers, train students, and offer ideas to advance U.S. national interests based on a nonpartisan, geopolitical perspective that illuminates contemporary international affairs through the lens of history, geography, and culture.
Teachers from the following schools will be participating:
Alabama:
WP Davidson High School
California:
Great Oak High School
Hayward High School
Modesto Junior College
Colorado:
Littleton Academy
Steamboat Springs High School
Connecticut:
The Stanwich School
Wamogo High School
Delaware:
Wilmington Friends School
Florida:
North Broward Preparatory School
Georgia:
Paulding County High School
Illinois:
Neuqua Valley High School
Iowa:
Ballard High School
Kentucky:
Sayre School
Maryland:
Towson University
Michigan:
Lake Shore High School
Mott Community College
Minnesota:
Centennial High School
Litchfield High School
Mankato West High School
Missouri:
Maryville High School
Missouri Scholars Academy
Webster Groves High School
New Hampshire:
Campbell High School
New Jersey:
George Washington Middle School
Ridgewood High School
New Mexico:
La Cueva High School
New York:
George J. Ryan Middle School
Smithtown High School West
Pennsylvania:
California University of Pennsylvania
Downingtown East High School
Pottstown Middle School
Tennessee:
Gibson County High School
Texas:
Bellaire High School
Redwater High School
St. Thomas High School
Utah:
Fremont High School
Virginia:
Fuqua School
Washington:
Warden High School
FPRI congratulates the schools and teachers for their selection and participation in the 2017 Program on Teaching Military History.
For more information about FPRI, please visit www.fpri.org or contact Payton Windell, at 215-732-3774, ext. 122.