Common Sense Society (CSS) fellowships offer recent graduates, graduate students, young professionals, and educators the opportunity to study the principles of liberty, prosperity, and beauty with leading scholars in social, respectful environments. In addition to general fellowships, we also offer specialized fellowships on subjects such as civics education and foreign policy.
From June to September of 2022, seventy educators from across the U.S. joined us for our three-day intensive Teacher Seminars. Additionally, seventy-one fellows became CSS alumni, representing fifteen countries, twenty-seven educational institutions, and fourteen professional fields.
Join us as we look back at a few highlights from this fellowship season.
What did we discuss?
Our fellowship season kicked off on June 5-9 with the Founders’ Foreign Policy Fellowship, which was convened in various locations of significance to the Founders, including Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier, New York, and Boston. Fellows and faculty discussed what the Founding Fathers envisioned as the role of America in the world, and connected that timeliness vision to contemporary national security, commercial, and human rights policy issues. They wrestled with the dilemmas of statecraft alongside distinguished faculty while treading the same ground as Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Adams.
From July 17-22, we gathered educators, school administrators, and homeschool parents in Boca Raton, Florida for intensive seminars designed to cultivate higher levels of civic literacy as a means to foster patriotic and engaged citizenry. We shared best practices from seasoned educators, shared civics resources, and discussed why only free market democracy is consistent with advancing freedom. Every participant went home with a robust packet of educational resources, adding to the thirty-thousand parents and teachers who already use CSS’s tools to teach civic literacy.
Each of our general fellowships, held July 31-September 9, provided fellows with an opportunity to explore liberty, prosperity, and beauty within the context of local culture and our shared civilization. Diverse faculty members led our Carolina, Europa, and Britannia fellows through discussions on civic engagement, constitutionalism, human rights, free enterprise, international affairs, architecture, art, conservation, leadership virtues, and more. In the spirit of deliberate, civil, and reasoned discussion, each cohort participated in formal debate on the motion, “the state should support art and culture.” Fellows and faculty also had the chance to experience beauty directly, including an exploration of Palmetto Bluff’s conservation efforts, a carriage ride and hike through the forest surrounding Károlyi Castle, and an opera performance dedicated to the late Queen in the halls of the Bowood House.
Testimonials
“Our children that we teach do not know the history of America, nor their civic duty. The [Teacher Seminar] will connect these ideas so you can return to your classroom and really incorporate what you have learned. I just loved it, and I know you will too.”
— Zonia, Middle School Educator, Miami, FL
