Today we spent the majority of today in the library, so it was a lot of lecture. That being said, the lectures were amazing, so it didn’t really seem like a lot of sitting. We first heard from a local Washington D.C. teacher for ideas on how to teach to students who do not speak English as their native language. We got a lot of resources that will be super helpful in the classroom.
The biggest lectures of the weekend happened today, we heard from Dr. Carol Berkin about the Constitutional Convention and the Bill of Rights. I would love to be able to tell you that I knew all this material before, but that wouldn’t be honest. I learned so much from these two lectures that I feel pretty confident that I can say this was the best part of the entire trip. Her insight was exceptional and I could sit and listen to her speak all day.
We then spent the afternoon reenacting the Virginia Ratifying Convention. It was a fascinating activity and helped me internalize the arguments that were going on in that room. In between Dr. Berkin’s lectures, we also reenacted the Constitutional Convention. I had the honor of playing Gouverneur Morris in our reenactment, so I had fun on one leg.
In the evening we were entertained by David and Ginger Hildebrand playing Colonial music. I watched them expertly play a number of instruments that I had never seen played. After dinner, a small group of us walked down to see George Washington’s tomb, the memorial to the slaves on Mt. Vernon, and down to the wharf on the Potomac River. It was a great day, although very mentally strenuous.