Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America

Bruce Cole

“Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America” is one of the newest teacher workshops in our We the People initiative’s Landmarks of American History and Culture program. For the last three years, the NEH has brought teachers to America’s most important historic sites. There they have studied with outstanding scholars, exchanged ideas on the most effective practices in history education, and in turn, brought rich new materials back to their own classrooms. By the end of this summer, Landmarks workshops will have hosted nearly six thousand educators.

These are places where our nation’s story was shaped—hallowed ground like Pearl Harbor, Andrew Jackson’s The Hermitage, and Mount Vernon. Teachers this summer are traveling to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to learn about silver mining in the West. They’re going to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, to see for themselves the places where the Underground Railroad tested the values and character of America.

And in Philadelphia, they’re getting an extraordinary perspective on Franklin in all of his complex—and controversial—genius. Reading lists are extensive and focused on Franklin’s own words—The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, the Silence Dogood letters, the Albany Plan, and various essays and speeches by Franklin. They read Franklin’s “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania,” and see his blueprint for the future of public schooling. They explore his discoveries in the fields of science, and see the foundations of modern technologies. They analyze his work in statecraft and common sense, and witness the birth of American diplomacy and civic character. In this intensive week of study, they come to understand how complex and courageous was the genius of Ben Franklin and how timely his insights into the need for moderation, prudence, and compromise remain for our civic society.

This extraordinary workshop was made possible through the generosity of our funding partner, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the energetic sponsorship of Villanova University, and the leadership and vision of its codirectors Professors Colleen Sheehan and Catherine Wilson, from Villanova’s Core Humanities Program. Each of these partners recognizes the importance of place to the learning of history and culture. Having context, seeing for oneself the building blocks of democracy, working beyond the black and white of textbook pages—these are what the programs of We the People have been about. The results are teachers that return to their classrooms refreshed, with lesson plans that spark discussion, kindle curiosity, and inspire the best in citizenship.

Still, place is but one facet of these workshops. It takes scholars to illuminate, engage, and oftentimes unlock many of the invaluable lessons these sites hold. As with our other Landmarks workshops, the Franklin seminars bring together some of the nation’s most distinguished scholars and authors as guest presenters. I visited this workshop just after Independence Day, when Harvard University professor Harvey Mansfield delivered a masterful lecture on Franklin’s insights into the nature of greatness in the new democratic society of this nation. Earlier, University of Chicago’s Ralph Lerner discussed how Franklin’s irony in characters like Silence Dogood and Historicus hold up a mirror to let people see the flaws in their policies and principles. Other distinguished scholars of political history and theory included William Allen of Michigan State University, Lorraine Pangle of the University of Texas at Austin, and Cecilia Brauer, who gave a lecture and concert on the glass harmonica that Ben Franklin invented.

These lectures opened eyes and provoked vigorous discussion. Even more heartening, however, was the interaction between teachers and scholars—the informed and insightful questions the teachers brought with them, anxious, themselves, to bring the material alive for their own students. This is the core of a great teacher seminar, and it is a delight to watch. This interaction is not just limited to teachers and scholars, either. Thanks to the NEH’s unique partnership with Pew, many of these lectures were open to the general public, as well.

Over the last twenty-five years, the NEH has awarded almost $4.3 million to projects studying the life and work of Benjamin Franklin, from seminars and fellowships, to Yale University’s outstanding work on the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, and a PBS documentary.

As Franklin exited the Constitutional Convention in 1787, an onlooker famously asked him what the end result would be: a Republic or a Monarchy. “A Republic if you can keep it,” he replied. As history scores lag in schools, and we see an increasing ambivalence among young people about their nation’s founding principles, these projects and this workshop crystallize what all of us as educators must labor to make our task: to carry out Franklin’s charge, to share our love of history and culture with others, and to make the treasures of our nation’s past as accessible as possible to all Americans.