Hillsdale College is unveiling a new website dedicated to improving history and civics education in the United States as we celebrate our 250th anniversary of independence this year.
Hillsdale promises the project, the product of years of preparation, will “have a direct impact on classrooms and homes across the country.”
The website will provide teachers, parents, and homeschoolers with these lesson-planning resources free of charge :
- The full, updated American History and Civics Curriculum, which includes lesson planning prompts, assignments, and assessments
- Primary sources, images, and maps to support instruction
- Interactive, searchable flip books that make the material easy to navigate and share
- An online course that gives practical strategies for teaching American History with excellence
Dr. Kathleen O’Toole, Hillsdale’s Associate Vice President for K-12 Education, says the curriculum provides instruction on our role as Americans:
“Understanding our founding documents and the story of America is essential for American citizenship. The next generation cannot chart a wise course for the future without reckoning honestly with the arguments about freedom, justice, and the purpose of government that have shaped our past. That is the task this curriculum equips educators to do, and every piece of it, from primary sources to video training, helps teachers bring the American story to life. We provide this curriculum at no cost to all who wish to learn.”
Hillsdale says students will learn The Battle of Yorktown in Virginia eventually won independence for America, that Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in the famous duel, that William Howard Taft was appointed chief justice years after his presidential term ended, that 270 votes in the Electoral College (which students will also learn about) elects a president, and that the relationship and interaction among the federal and state governments is federalism.
