What is the A More Perfect Union Seminar?

We are a professional development program and opportunity for public and private school teachers of history and social studies. The Seminar's purpose is to provide school teachers with an intensive content-based immersion in traditional American history. The Seminar is funded by the U. S. Department of Education's Teaching American History (TAH) Grant program, which defines "traditional American history content" as the "significant issues, episodes, and turning points in the history of the United States; how the words and deeds of individual Americans have determined the course of our Nation; and how the principles of freedom and democracy articulated in the founding documents of this Nation have shaped America's struggles and achievements and its social, political, and legal institutions and relations."

Here is the Department of Education's description of the TAH Grant program:The Teaching American History Grant program is a discretionary grant program funded under Title II-C, Subpart 4 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The goal of the program is to support programs that raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of American history.The program supports competitive grants to local educational agencies. The purpose of these grants is to promote the teaching of traditional American history in elementary and secondary schools as a separate academic subject. Grants are used to improve the quality of history instruction by supporting professional development for teachers of American history. In order to receive a grant, a local educational agency must agree to carry out the proposed activities in partnership with one or more of the following: institutions of higher education, nonprofit history or humanities organizations, libraries, or museums.The Teaching American History Grant program will support programs to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of American history.Grant awards will assist local educational agencies (LEAs), in partnership with entities that have extensive content expertise, to design, implement, and demonstrate effective, research-based professional development programs.By helping teachers to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of American history as a separate subject matter within the core curriculum, funded programs will improve instruction and raise student achievement.The goal of this program is to demonstrate how school districts and institutions with expertise in American history can collaborate over a three-year period to ensure that teachers develop the knowledge and skills necessary to teach traditional American history in an exciting and engaging way.Through these projects, districts will demonstrate comprehensive professional development approaches for providing high-quality American history instruction. Students will develop an appreciation for the great ideas of American history.

Dr. Peter H. Gibbon