The following lessons were developed and tested by Mount Vernon's Education Department and contributing teachers in the field, including graduates of our summer George Washington Teachers' Institutes, and have been recently revised and expanded. They are standards-aligned, incorporate research, historical thinking, and the use of primary sources, and may be adapted for use across elementary and middle school grades.
Lesson titles and descriptions are listed below. Please note that all lessons may be downloaded from the "Related Files" links at the bottom of this page.
Manners and Mores of Washington's America (Upper Elementary/Middle): It is doubtful that the 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation that George Washington hand-copied sometime before the age of sixteen actually represents his own original list of decorum rules. The list was likely a school curriculum staple, and copying it may have been nothing more than a way to practice penmanship. But whether it was his personal list or a standard “recipe” of general rules for civil behavior that many children learned, the Rules can provide a window into the ethics and manners of Washington’s times. Students will examine the Rules, classify and categorize the concerns addressed, discuss what it would be like to live in a world imbued with such guidelines, analyze what expectations govern their own behavior, and generate a list of Rules covering the same categories they identified in Washington’s list.
George Washington and Civic Virtue: The Necessary Elements of the Republic (Upper Elementary/Middle): Students will analyze Washington-related primary source documents, including the Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior, his First Inaugural Address, and his Farewell Address, examine the concepts of character and civic virtue as written about and exemplified by George Washington, and discuss the connections between these basic principles and the task of founding, fostering, and preserving a strong constitutional democracy.
More lesson plans coming soon!
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