BLACKSBURG, July 22, 2003 -- Social studies and history teachers from across the country will learn the ins and outs of teaching Civil War history during the Second Annual Civil War Preservation Trust Teachers' Institute, which will be held July 25-27 on the Virginia Tech campus.
The event is offered free to the teachers, courtesy of a partnership formed by the university's Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) to host the institute.
The teachers will hear Virginia Tech's noted Civil War historians and authors James I. Robertson Jr. and William C. "Jack" Davis, executive director and program director, respectively, of the Civil War center and directors of the institute, and Al Neale and Andy Talkov of the Pamplin Historican Park in Petersburg, Va. Instructors and entertainers from the Victorian Dance Ensemble and the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Penn., will also help lead the institute's sessions.
According to Robertson, participants will discover hands-on and practical cross-curriculum ideas for the classroom and how to teach the history of the period more effectively.
In addition to sessions on teaching the war, the institute will offer a tour of the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain in Pulaski County and living history demonstrations at Pamplin Park.
CWPT is the America's largest non-profit organization devoted to preserving the nation's endangered Civil War battlefields. It also promotes educational programs and heritage tourism initiatives to inform the public about the war.
Virginia Tech's Virginia Center for Civil War Studies was founded in 1999 to educate the young about the war and its importance in the development of the nation. The center initiates, organizes, and conducts a rich diversity of public and scholarly programs revolving around the Civil War and provides focus to research and study of the period.
