Our third summer of coursework showed expanded registration in the Masters in American History and Government (MAHG) program and growing nation-wide awareness and appreciation of the program. There were 345 students taking courses in 2007, compared to 289 last year. Participants came from 34 states. There are now 118 students working toward a Masters in the program, an increase of 46 students over last year.

New students commented on the features of MAHG that attracted them: the focus on history rather than pedagogy; the scheduling of classes during secondary schools' summer break periods; the possibility of completing a course in one intensive week. While initially drawn by these features, many students said they would remain because of the high quality of the courses.

Eighth-grade teacher Rachel Clay of Hinesville, Georgia, said she was gaining important interpretive skills that would improve her teaching. "As an undergraduate you are not taught how to use primary documents," she said. Her experience reading journals and letters for the American Revolution course and seeing the founding generation thinking through the question, "Can we declare independence?" convinced her there is "validity to showing kids this."

Jeanne Blair of Seattle, Washington, said "I really enjoy the program." Commenting on the course on the Founding, taught by Chris Flannery and Melanie Marlowe, Blair praised her professors mastery not only of Constitutional history but also of the larger context. In her teaching and professional development, "I spend a lot of time on the Constitution," she said, and in other programs she had not seen a similar attention to the social and political issues the Founding generation faced. As Flannery and Marlowe lectured on contesting proposals at the Constitutional Convention, they related these not only to the opposition between Nationalists and Federalists but also to the problem of slavery and the settling of the west.

"The curriculum is rigorous," said Shawn Balzotti, a high school teacher in Phoenix, Arizona. He and others agreed that the substantive focus of the program would strengthen him professionally. In his third year of teaching, Balzotti enjoys his work, yet feels the challenge of convincing restless adolescents that the study of American government relates to their own lives. Choosing the kind of language students will understand is critical, he said, but before a teacher can do this he must become "a master of his subject." He commented admiringly on one MAHG professors ability to listen to questions posed, respond appropriately to the student at his current stage of thinking, but then to guide the student "to the next step." It takes not only interpersonal skills but a comprehensive grasp of the subject to do this successfully, Balzotti said.

Angus McDougall of Ohio and Sam Cochenour, Jr., of West Virginia said they enjoyed studying under faculty who taught courses in tandem, since the two professors invariably prompted each other to expand and clarify their arguments. McDougall and Cochenour pointed to the interaction of two professors (Stephen Knott and Robert McDonald) in a course on the Early Republic, one of whom had argued from a Jeffersonian perspective and the other from a Hamiltonian. "That was great," said McDougall. Acknowledging that his work toward a Masters in the MAHG program is challenging as well as absorbing, McDougall said, "This will be the first graduation ceremony I will have gone to because I was proud of it."