With two weeks of the National Academy behind the 2010 crew, there’s been a lot of talk about the Writing Assignment. Locke claimed the largest portion of this year’s re-writes with Cicero and Deuteronomy each coming in as a close second. News stories and six word re-presentations took on the challenge of communicating world-making ideas. [...]
Posts under ‘PURPLE/Polity’
Seeing America
The second week at Montpelier concluded Friday with this question… What do you SEE when you say AMERICA? As the American public celebrates independence through fireworks, BBQ and pool parties, the 80 teachers who studied constitutional citizenship at Madison’s Montpelier know we must keep the future as well as the past in our mind’s eye. [...]
Knowing Political Knowledge
In The Politics, Aristotle suggests political knowledge is sovereign knowledge: In all the branches of knowledge and in every kind of craft the end in view is some good. In the most sovereign of these, the capacity for [leadership in] political matters, the end in view is the greatest good and the good which is [...]
Obama to NAACP: Our Work is Not Over
In a recent lecture, Will pointed to the constitutional nature of the speech President Barack Obama gave to the NAACP to mark their centennial convention. Obama marks the occasion as an opportunity to celebrate “not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we have, as Americans, have traveled over the past [...]
Project Citizen
Having been briefly introduced to Project Citizen at the National Academy, I decided to try it out this year. It’s an ideal, outcome-based activity as much about the journey as the finish. And the great thing about the finish is that it’s really just the beginning, for students receive the tools to research and formulate [...]
It's America and We are One
Did you see the We are One celebration yesterday? It was a powerful combination of our best words, music, and ideas. From the MLK and JFK quotes you’d expect to Reagan quotes you wouldn’t. I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Mary J. Blige or Jon Bon Jovi but they provided a moving performance with [...]
What Is Patriotism?
A few years back, I purchased a packet of posters which proclaim democratic ideals. One reads: PATRIOTISM: People show loyalty to the values of the country. That got me pondering whether this notion is essentially federalist or anti-federalist, and I realized that it could be either depending upon which values one decides to choose. I [...]
Heroes
What is a hero? What is an American hero? These were questions raised at a recent workshop at James Madison’s Montpelier http://www.montpelier.org/ . On display in the lobby of one of the buildings, there is a bust of “Jemmy” more than a bit out of proportion to his actual (slight) dimensions. However, artists sometimes exaggerate in [...]
Are We One Yet?
I nearly titled this post, “Seth’s People of Circles.” His extension of Will’s boxes included adding all kinds of little circles to the red box indicating the many different groups present in the American people. Religious groups, community organizations, and even some families may earnestly assert a covenant they’ve made and hold above that of [...]
Essence of a Federalist
I have what at first seems to be a simple question, until you begin to try and answer it: What is the essence of a federalist? –Keith J
stepwinder
