Fred Beuttler
Lecturer, Master of Liberal Arts Program
Program Overview
Excellence in Civic Education: Teacher Development Program
Hone your craft, discuss your passion for civic education, and earn graduate credit by joining the Summer 2025 online cohort of UChicago’s Excellence in Civic Education program.
The University of Chicago Graham School is pleased to announce a continuing education opportunity to be held summer of 2025 designed for high school and middle school educators who teach courses focused on American History, Government, or Civics.
Thanks to generous support from the Jack Miller Center, teachers selected to participate will receive full tuition scholarships.
This Summer, we are offering two graduate classes for teachers, the details of which can be found below. Each class will confer 075 University of Chicago Units (which translates to 2.5 graduate semester hours of credit). Teachers are welcome to enroll in one or both of this Summer’s offerings.
2025 Course Details (Application Now Closed)
The Settling of America: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Citizenship
Instructor: Fred Beuttler
Monday through Friday | June 16 – June 27 | 10 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CT
Remote via Zoom
There is no history of America without its immigrants; indeed the immigrant story IS American history, for we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants. This course, designed for practicing teachers, will examine migration, immigration, and citizenship to the lands that become the United States, from the Colonial period through the present. We will learn of how early settlement shaped patterns and cultural mores, as well as how later waves of peoples enriched what some have called “trans-national America.” The Framers encouraged immigration, as the Constitution gave Congress the power to establish “an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” The First Congress passed the first naturalization act in 1790, answering Crèvecoeur’s question, “What then is the American, this new man? … here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.” This course will use a combination of secondary and primary sources to see how ethnicity and immigration shaped key parts of our identities as Americans, to better equip practicing teachers to show how their students are part of the continuing American story.
The Founders and the Classics
Instructor: Kendall Sharp
Monday June 30 – Wednesday July 2; Monday July 7 – Friday July 11 | 9:30am – Noon CT
Remote via Zoom
Although it is conventional wisdom that the U.S. Framers were influenced by the Greek and Roman classics, it is rarely asked exactly how they were, to what extent, and whether it should matter to us today. How—precisely—were the classics relevant for the American experiment? Part of the problem is the interdisciplinary nature of the question, there being no fields that train researchers both to study the ancients in context and in the original languages and also the U.S. Founding Documents and associated corpus of writings in their own respective historical contexts. In this course, we will straddle this disciplinary boundary to learn how well the Framers knew the ancients, and the uses to which they put their knowledge. Readings will include primary sources: Aristotle, Polybius, Cicero, Hobbes, Locke, Franklin, the Federalist Papers and other Founding Documents, John Adams’s neglected Defense of the Constitutions, and works of contemporary scholarship.
Kendall Sharp
Basic Program Instructor
Tuition & Fees
Thanks to generous support from the Jack Miller Center, participants in Summer 2025 cohort of the Excellence in Civic Education Teacher Development Program will be awarded full tuition scholarships.
While the Jack Miller Center will cover course tuition, participants will be responsible for books and will also be required to pay a one-time $100 lifetime transcript fee.
Application
Interested teachers should email Tim Murphy to reserve their spot and receive application instructions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible to apply for this program?
High school and middle school educators teaching American History, Government, or Civics are eligible to apply.
How do I apply for this course?
Email Tim Murphy to receive application instructions and learn more about the program.
Am I able to enroll in both offerings?
Yes, individuals in the program are allowed to enroll in both offerings, if they desire.
Is the program online or in person?
The Summer 2025 courses will be held online via Zoom.
How much does the program cost?
Tuition is fully covered by a scholarship from the Jack Miller Center. Participants only pay for books and a one-time $100 lifetime transcript fee.