Founding of a Nation program
Can you learn to be a chef from a cookbook? Can you prepare a meal without going into the kitchen?
Middle school Civics classes certainly have “cookbooks” and students learn the basics of government in class. The Close Up Foundation in Washington, D.C. says, “Let’s take those students into the kitchen.”
From April 13-17, 120 eighth grade students were brought by Close Up into the kitchen of America’s founding by travelling to Colonial Williamsburg, Philadelphia, Gettysburg Battlefield, Mt. Vernon, and Washington, DC.
Within the excellent structure of Close Up, our students entered into the struggle for American independence, the birth certificate of the USA, the Supreme Law of the Land, the organization of the federal government, and the only civil war in American history. Never again would these students simply read the Declaration of Independence or the Gettysburg Address. We stood in the honored grounds of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Gettysburg Battlefield and the site where President Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address.
The Close Up Foundation and Belen entered into a partnership four years ago to help foster civic education in the middle school. What better way to advance that education than to travel within the Belen community directly into the kitchen of American civic education.
The Founding of a Nation is available each year to eighth graders who meet academic requirements and personal conduct expectations. See the Civics teachers (Mr. Jordan, Mr. Cabada and Mr. Pena) for additional information about the Founding of a Nation program or email me directly at pcollins@belenjesuit.org.
Click here to view the online photo album.
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the School property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit sits on a 30-acre site in western Dade County, only minutes away from downtown Miami.