The Founders and the Constitution

FAIN: ED-50018-03

Bill of Rights Institute (Arlington, VA 22203)
Claire McCaffery Griffin (Project Director: October 2002 to August 2010)
Christa Lyn Floresca (Project Director: August 2010 to November 2005)

The creation of a teachers' guide, pilot workshop, interactive website, and other teaching aids to improve students' knowledge of the contributions of the Founding generation to American democracy.

Because contemporary Americans have only limited knowledge about the intellectual lives of the Founding Fathers, the Bill of Rights Institute, in partnership with a team of scholars, will develop a 5-part project to assist high school teachers in introducing the Founders and their unique contributions. We will create a Teachers' Guide with interpretive essays, biographical accounts, primary source documents, and teaching activities; we will design and distribute a Founders' poster series; we will create and maintain an interactive website; we will circulate a monthly email newsletter; and we will present a day-long teacher workshop. An on-going project evaluation will ensure that students will be prepared to incorporate the Founding principles into their own lives.