TAMT Offers State Bar Webinars

A&M-Texarkana Texas Offers State Bar Webinars on U.S. Founding

TEXARKANA, Texas – Texas A&M University-Texarkana is hosting Texas State Bar’s virtual workshops about the U.S. founding, June 29–30. The webinars are free and open to anyone. Participants will receive a certificate upon completion. 

As part of the State Bar’s professional development series, the “Founding Documents” covers how to teach about the U.S. founding. The workshops review America’s prominent founding documents, history, and ideas. It provides participants the chance to work with well-established scholars to learn about the founding period. Scholars will cover several topics, including the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist debate, and the Constitution’s text. 

The sessions are live webinars, which registered participants watch remotely on their devices. Each day will have two 1½ hour sessions, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. 

The online training includes valuable resources and activities useful for teaching about the U.S. founding. The professors will be available throughout the summer for consultation. Participants will have access to several instructional support as well.  

The Texas State Bar’s website explains that “the Law-Related Education (LRE) Department of the State Bar of Texas catalyzes advancing law-related and civic education programs throughout the state through curriculum development and educator training. Working with the legal community, public and private school districts, universities, and Regional Educational Service Centers, the department administers numerous programs designed to improve the administration of justice and promote civic education and participation.”

Political Science Professor Gary Bugh, A&M-Texarkana’s Pre-Law Advisor, worked closely with the Texas State Bar to bring the training to Texarkana. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for anyone interested in learning more about the American founding,” he said. “I know that several of our political science students plan on attending to enrich what they’ve been learning in our classes.” 

Del Doughty, Dean of the College of Arts Science & Education, says, “the workshop builds on the momentum that we’ve seen in our pre-law and education programs of late and of course we are delighted to be able to connect with the Texas State Bar and its Law-Related Education Department.”

For Assistant Professor of Education and Chair of Teacher Education Abbie Strunc, the webinars are “a real way for future educators to learn some of the tricks of the trade for teaching the basics about the framers’ arguments and the documents they produced that remain relevant to this day.” 

Those interested can register for the virtual workshops at https://texasbar.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TGH0zW1gQm6Pzp51X3CBag.