Social studies teacher Kathryn Peterson was selected to participate in summer program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

April 23, 2009 - Social studies teacher Kathryn Peterson will spend a week in the Mississippi Delta this summer learning about the region's history and culture.

Peterson will participate in a workshop titled "The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta," which will explore the history of the Blues, civil rights, political leadership and agriculture of the Mississippi Delta.

The workshop is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and will be held at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., and will include travel to Memphis, Tenn. It will be directed by Dr. Luther Brown, founding director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning.

Peterson was one of 80 teachers from across the county who were selected to participate in the workshop; almost 300 teachers applied. Each teacher selected will receive a stipend to help cover their travel, study, and living expenses.

Previously Peterson participated in a summer 2008 workshop sponsored by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y.

The National Endowment for the Humanities is a federal agency that supports research, education, preservation and public programs related to the humanities. Each summer, the agency sponsors its "Landmarks of American History and Culture" workshops, which provide teachers with the opportunity to study with experts in various humanities disciplines.

Other workshops that will be offered through the National Endowment this summer will focus on topics such as George Washington, Emily Dickinson, the Civil Rights movement, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, the U.S. Constitution, Civil War Nashville, Fort Niagara, the Underground Railroad, Benjamin Franklin, the Industrial Revolution, Zora Neale Hurston, Ellis Island, the Alamo, and women’s suffrage in the West.
 

Approximately 1,600 teachers will participate in the workshops and will teach more than 50,000 American students the following year.