Focus on the Fellows 

Laura Wakefield, '00 (FL)

Teaching was not my first career - I had worked in politics and served as an army officer before I began teaching middle school. In 2000, when my oldest child started college, I received a Madison Fellowship.

My experience as a Madison Fellow has had a significant impact on me personally and professionally. I became a better scholar, writer, and historian. My master's thesis was published in the Spring 2003 Florida Historical Quarterly ("'Set a Light in a Dark Place': Teachers of Freedmen in Florida 1864-1874"), and I have since had articles published in several pedagogical publications.

In 2003, I presented a workshop at the National Council for History Education (NCHE) annual conference. This led to opportunities to serve as a Master Teacher presenter at American history colloquia for the NCHE.  I have collaborated with dozens of eminent historians; shared ideas with teachers all over the country; and learned from both groups of professionals. I am currently serving a second term on the NCHE Board of Trustees, working with my colleagues to build bridges among all who share a common passion for teaching history.

In 2005, I began teaching history at Florida Virtual School (FLVS), the country's first state-wide Internet-based public school. I served as the FLVS social studies curriculum specialist and authored the first Teaching American History Grant ever awarded to an online school. I currently coordinate this program for FLVS.

I regularly encourage teachers to apply for the fellowship because the experience so inspired me and stretched me as a teacher and a student. I tell them not to wait as long as I did to apply because receiving a Madison fellowship is life-changing.

Let us hear what you have been up to since receiving your Fellowship.  Submit a brief article (150-200 words) along with a high-resolution photo to cgriffin@jamesmadison.com for possible inclusion in future newsletters.

On Nov. 22, 1787, James Madison published, in the New York Daily Advertiser, what would become arguably his best known work--the much celebrated 10th Federalist essay. Among the advantages promised by "a well constructed union," Madison wrote, "none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction." By 1787, faction or party--the terms were interchangeable in 18th-century English--had reduced politics in the states and the nation to near chaos. The national government, the Continental Congress, in particular had become a byword for incompetence and impotence. Madison accordingly sought "a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government."

The young Virginian did not propose to accomplish his goal by eliminating faction or party. That, he believed, would be impossible and undesirable--impossible because the causes of faction were "sown in the nature of man" and undesirable because faction could not be suppressed without destroying liberty itself. Instead, he proposed to construct a government that would fairly represent all the various factions and interest groups in American society, in part in the hope that none would then be able to gain an undue ascendancy over the others.

But, more important, Madison did not assume that extending "the sphere of government," as he described it, would become a formula for factional or partisan gridlock. That state of affairs could be avoided by devising systems of representation that would elect men of discernment and reputation to public office--and in those days they would all be men--and make them responsible, in the manner that an umpire calls balls and strikes, for framing wise and impartial laws to safeguard the "more perfect union" that had been established by the Federal Constitution.

At this point, some two and a quarter centuries later, we might ask how well Madison's carefully crafted union is doing and what the "Father of the Constitution" himself might make of it. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he could only be sorely disappointed--for the all-too-obvious reason that the American political system is now clearly failing to break or control "the violence of faction." . . .

Click here for the balance of this essay, originally printed in the January 15, 2012 edition of the Free Lance Star (Fredericksburg, VA.)

J.C.A. Stagg recently completed a term as a Board Member of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation. He is professor of history and editor in chief of the Papers of James Madison at the University of Virginia. In March, Cambridge University Press will publish his book,The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent. 

The mission of Franklin's Opus is to promote the teaching of substantive American history to students from kindergarten to college and on through adulthood.  This is an online community  where students, teachers, museums, historical organizations, and universities can gather to discuss their historical interests. Visit the website to find out more about the National Heroes Day Contest.

The Civil War Trust conducts an annual Summer Institute for teachers.  Click here for more information.