THE HARVARD CASE METHOD
As part of its mission to expand civic awareness and participation of young voters and community members, Orange County League of Women Voters in partnership with Orange County Schools is offering our first Harvard Case Study Community Session. The Case is James Madison, The Federal Negative, and the Making of the Constitution (1787)
The Harvard Civics Project is an initiative formed (1) to bring case method teaching to high schools and (2) to use this methodology to deepen students’ and community understanding of American Democracy.
Based on the highly successful experience of Harvard Business School and other graduate and professional programs, the case method strengthens civic education by ensuring a more exciting, relevant, and effective experience across a range of subjects. The case method is especially effective at engaging participants with topics in history and democracy. It presents a unique opportunity to stem the decline in civic education and civic engagement in the United States.
Project cases are based on those outlined in Harvard Business School Professor David Moss’s book, Democracy: A Case Study.
Click on this photo for access to the Harvard Case Method Project website:
We are bringing the Harvard Case Method Project here to Orange County with two of our outstanding teachers who traveled to Harvard: Eric Saegebarth, Juvenile Offenders Program, and Nicole Larson, Timber Creek High School. The Project provided an all-expenses-paid professional development workshop in August 2019 that focused on preparing these teachers to deliver the History of American Democracy case-method curriculum in their classrooms. 90 teachers sponsored by 50 League of Women Voters’ chapters from 21 states attended this historic Harvard training this summer. Palm Beach and Seminole Leagues will join us in representing Florida to improve civics education in our state. As a satisfied student remarked about the History of American Democracy case-method course, “If this class didn’t make every student in it a better citizen, I don’t know what class would.”