Today’s Millennial students do not understand the freedom and opportunity that America offers. Armed with a proven approach and successful model, Ashbrook seeks to educate middle and high school Social Studies teachers and their students about our history and character – ensuring that the next generation will not be duped by false promises of demagogues, but can articulate their own arguments in defense of freedom. Ashbrook’s Core Documents and Core Questions on American Freedom project seeks to answer the following Big Questions:
- Will teachers transform their classrooms into small republics teaching less with textbooks and more with primary source documents dealing with the great questions about freedom if they have access to effective educational resources?
- Will teachers reach a deeper intellectual understanding of the principles securing our freedom if they participate in Core Document Seminars?
- Will students taught by teachers with access to Ashbrook’s resources or seminars gain greater understanding and appreciation of freedom than those students taught using textbooks?
This project will create 35 collections of primary source documents on the full range of topics covered in American History and U.S. Government curricula. With the Templeton Foundation's support, Ashbrook proposes to create and market 12 of these collections that include scholarly introductions and discussion questions that challenge students to consider how Americans have secured and expanded freedom and opportunity. Each collection will be presented at two Core Document Teacher Seminars. Ashbrook proposes to conduct a Speaking Out for Freedom multi-media student competition to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach. Through our extensive network of teachers and national marketing campaign, Ashbrook’s Core Documents and Core Questions project is positioned to engage 60,000 teachers and their seven million students with the great ideas that define American freedom.
