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America’s First Principles: Exploring the Declaration, the War, and the Constitution

Image: A View of Part of the Town of Boston in New-England and British Ships of War Landing Their Troops 1768 by Paul Revere, Boston, 1770 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute)

America's First Principles is a multi-year seminar series designed to reinvest in civics education and deepen engagement with the nation’s founding principles. Over three consecutive years, this seminar will give K-12 teachers the tools they need to teach about the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence, the struggle of the Revolutionary War, and the promise of the American experiment embodied in the Constitution.

 

2027: The American Revolution

The 2027 seminar will explore the American Revolutionary era, with a focus on the War for Independence. This seminar will turn its gaze to the war in its entirety, exploring how the people of a new nation organized, fought, experienced, and ultimately won their independence.

Each day will combine:

• Lectures from master educators;
• Breakout Sessions for hands-on engagement with primary documents;
• Digital Storytelling Lab Sessions for methods and classroom application, including oral history, genealogy, mapping, and podcasting as innovative ways to bring student voice and civic engagement into the study of history; and
• Gilder Lehrman Master Teacher Sessions for strategies to apply new content knowledge into the classroom.
  

By the end of the week, participants will leave with both renewed knowledge of the founding era and practical tools to bring these lessons to life for their students.

The seminar is organized by the ����ר�� Center for Presidential History, will run from June 27th-July 2, 2027, and will be held at ����ר�� in Dallas, TX.

Applications for the 2027 seminar will open in Fall 2026.

Please check back for updates and contact seminar coordinator Dr. Katie Carper at cphsummerseminar@smu.edu with any questions.