Montpelier Weekend Seminar: Constitution
From the Montpelier website:
"The very idea of 'constitution' is one of the crucial inventions of our founding. How did Federalists and Antifederalists view the nature of a constitution at the time of the founding of the United States?
We will use the concept of a constitution to develop a deeper understanding of American constitutionalism. What is the relationship between a 'constitution' and a social compact among the People, or a contract between citizens and government?
The associated innovations of a Bill of Rights, amendment, and citizenship will be highlighted from the perspective of the unprecedented process of constitution-making as a means to define the contours of a new political world."
"Participants will receive a collection of primary documents in advance of the seminar, specific to the content of each program, which will be the basis of most discussions. They include writings by James Madison, sections of The Federalist Papers, selections from Antifederalist writers, and other fundamental documents. Each seminar includes an intensive session on ways of reading a document of political or constitutional theory. . . . Each seminar will conclude with the lecture 'American Citizenship as Constitutional Citizenship: The Exemplar of James Madison.'
Teachers will also become acquainted with the curriculum We the People: the Citizen and the Constitution, which is widely used across the nation and is compatible with state and national standards. All participants will receive a complete classroom set of the We the People textbooks, appropriate to the grade level they teach. A classroom set includes 30 student texts and 1 teacher's guide."