Madeira students don’t just read about history. They experience it. Influence it. Madeira students make history.
Not Your Average CAPITOL HILL IS MADEIRA’S “LIVING CLASSROOM”
Imagine a high school course that not only offers classroom learning, but integrates practical workplace experience as well. Madeira offers this extraordinary combination as part of its history curriculum, leveraging Madeira’s signature Co-Curriculum internship program and the School’s proximity to Washington, DC. US History lessons and the Co-Curriculum experience are natural partners because working in the “living classroom” of Capitol Hill as interns for members of Congress— with direct exposure to the legislative process—is a hallmark of junior year at Madeira. An example of a Madeira student influencing legislation is Caroline McCullers ’19, who used her junior year Capitol Hill internship with Congressman José E. Serrano to directly affect national policy. Caroline researched and presented a bill on student loan debt to Congressman Serrano and convinced him to co-sponsor the bill, known as H.R. 3572—“Making College More Affordable Act.”
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MADEIRA TODAY WINTER 2019
COURSE COMBINES HISTORY LESSONS WITH CURRENT EVENTS
“One of the goals we have at Madeira is that Co-Curriculum should not just be ‘Co’ but actually embedded with and part of a student’s regular curriculum,” notes History Teacher Larry Pratt. Here is how the course works. Juniors spend one five-week “module” interning on Capitol Hill, experiencing the US government firsthand. They take a US History course the same year. With these requirements in mind, the course seeks to (1) combine standard US history lessons with current events, analyzing how these lessons apply to the world today; (2) prepare the students for their Capitol Hill internships by teaching them about the government and how the legislative process works.
Pratt continues: “The students learn about the American Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution. Then, instead of continuing like a traditional history class would, we evaluate how the Constitution functions today, with a legislative focus in mind. The students learn what the role of government is, what the branches do, and how the system works together. It is important that the students understand the full picture and comprehend what their member of Congress is doing.”
