The Kate Kennedy Social Studies Institute
for Teachers
“ Land is not wealth, my friends, it is not the production
of human beings. Land is a gift of Nature to all people. Its possession,
however, gives to an individual the power to seize the produce
of the labor exerted upon it, and our laws allow him to call that
his property.” Kate Kennedy in Short Sermons to Working Men.
Enroll in the Institute’s three-day retreats at Camp
Hank.
This program is free for teachers and includes hikes, boating and
class time. The 2004 schedule will include seven summer retreats
and three fall weekends, TBA.
Enroll in a Saturday afternoon workshop in San Francisco. You’ll
get some lesson plans and an introduction to the Institute’s
curriculum. Every last Saturday of the month. Call or e-mail to
enroll.
Join our six-week reading group, meeting once a week on Tuesday
evenings. Begins on Tuesday, January 20, 2004, and again on Tuesday,
March 9, 2004. Free.
The Kate Kennedy Social Studies Institute for Teachers opens up
history and current events like no other approach to these subjects.
Just once present to your students that control of place is the
beginning and end of domination of others, and their ears will
prick up and their fingers will click across the keyboard writing
reports. For eighth-graders and up, what is school, after all,
but the PLACE kids have to be, getting the INFORMATION adults want
them to get? When the matter of liberty is fairly addressed, the
students who now participate in class will soar to new heights
of intellectual insight, while those who think school and most
adults phoney will do a double-take.
History and current events are mostly about somebody taking advantage
of somebody else. Kids get that. Kate Kennedy Institute training
provides you with the tools to present your students with a solutions-based
approach to social studies. They become advocates of justice, not
mere reciters of circumstance.
The Institute is named for a 19th Century San Francisco teacher
and principal who led the successful drive for legislation giving
women teachers equal pay with men. She was the first woman to run
for public office in California (State Supertintendent of Public
Schools), and her test case of 1890 set State tenure law for civil
service workers. There’s a school named for her in San Francisco.
