Module Overview

The Institute envisions a society in which all individuals enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is a society in which:

·      Students engage with and champion these rights for themselves and others.

·      Teachers educate students to seek knowledge and tackle challenges with these rights in mind.

·      Parents empower their children to apply these rights in their own lives through interaction, example, and dialogue.

·      An education in the principles of the American founding is an education in self-government and everything we produce has self-governance as the core lesson. Every aspect of classroom lessons and culture teach values that either align with or do not align with supporting an education for self-governance.

By completing this course, you will be able to independently create lessons and develop a classroom culture that supports education for self-governance.

Votes for Women: The Story of the Nineteenth Amendment provides classroom resources and activities to help students explore the history of women’s suffrage in the United States through background narratives and primary sources. Throughout the course, you will have an opportunity to become familiar with the interplay between such governing principles as equality, liberty, justice, and separation of powers on the one hand, and essential civic virtues such as civil discourse, humility, integrity, and responsibility, on the other. Through a variety of reflection activities, you will have opportunities to continue developing the habit of thinking about self-government through the lens of these crucial principles and virtues that can be transferred to your own classroom and your own students.

One of our hopes for the use of this curriculum is that you and your students will grasp the costs and benefits of change within a constitutional order. One increasingly common characteristic of modern life is the expectation of immediate results. Good and speedy ways exist to solve some of our problems, but other require long-term commitment and a willingness to appreciate what Elizabeth Cady Stanton called “winter wheat”: “We are sowing winter wheat, which the coming spring will see sprout, and other hands than ours will reap and enjoy.”

Radical and rapid change is not necessarily bad, but the slow process of constitutional change allows for many people’s thinking and attitudes to adjust, contributing to stability for the resulting improvements. The pattern is illustrated in the slow steps toward justice and equality in several movements: abolition of slavery, civil rights, prison reform, and the rights of the accused, to name a few. The challenges of course, are patience, determination, resilience, and continued belief that the system will eventually allow for success. Under the rule of law, and given these virtues, the arc of the moral universe can “bend toward justice.” (Theodore Parker, 1853)

Through this heroic story of perseverance and overcoming injustice, all can enhance their civic understanding, skills, and dispositions to better understand the past and courageously address today’s challenges.

Course Learning Objectives

Upon completion of each module of this course, you will be able to:

Module 1

·      Analyze the principle of equality

·      Examine the principle of equality with respect to long-term change in the US constitutional order

·      Apply the concept of “historical thinking” to the act of voting in U.S. history

·      Assess the principles of equality and liberty, their relationship, and how they relate to American citizenship

·      Reflect on your learning experiences and share thinking around teaching the women’s movement

Module 2

·      Understand women’s roles as citizens in colonial America and the early republic.

·      Review constitutional amendments related to equality and voting

·      Apply the concept of “historical thinking” to the act of voting in U.S. history.

·      Assess women’s liberty and equality during this period and today.

·      Draw connections between the past and present.

Module 3

·      Trace the growing public voice of women in American society, including important female figures in various reform movements.

·      Analyze the writings of men and women central to the rise of the women’s rights movement.

·      Analyze the writings of men and women central to the rise of the women’s rights movement.

·      Analyze the contributions of leading movement figures.

·      Discuss the rise of an organized women’s rights movement in antebellum America.

·      Reflect on their learning experiences and share thinking around teaching the women’s movement.

Module 4

·      Describe the growth of the women’s suffrage movement and its controversies following the Civil War.

·      Analyze important primary sources in the story of the fight for women’s suffrage.

·      Analyze important primary sources in the story of the fight for women’s suffrage.

·      Analyze the growth of the women’s suffrage movement and its controversies following the Civil War.

·      Reflect on their learning experiences and share thinking around teaching the women’s movement.

Module 5

·      Understand how women won suffrage with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

·      Assess the connection between suffrage and citizenship, including individual efficacy in politics and public life.

·      Recognize ways in which people applied or failed to apply constitutional principles and civic virtues in the women’s suffrage movement.

·      Continue to assess the connection between suffrage and citizenship, including individual efficacy in politics and public life

·      Reflect on their learning experiences and share thinking around teaching the women’s movement.

Module 6

·      Trace trends in reform movements toward equality in the twentieth century.

·      Understand the variety of issues of concern to women today, acknowledging that women are not a homogeneous group.

·      Review the impact of the Nineteenth Amendment on American society and public discourse.

·      Assess the impact of the Nineteenth Amendment on American society and public discourse.

·      Reflect on their learning experiences and share thinking around teaching the women’s movement.

Demonstration of Mastery

·      Develop lessons that support education for self-governance

·      Evaluate your own efficacy in supporting education for self-governance