October 28, 2009

Twenty-three of twenty-four participants in our 2008 institute submitted anonymous, online evaluations on the NEH website. Here are excerpts from their comments. You can read about their experiences in an excerpt from The Churchill Centre’s periodical newsletter, Chartwell Bulletin.

Rigorous engagement with facts and ideas.

Lectures and discussions reflected goal of free inquiry into Churchill’s historical role and relevance and admitted of differences of opinion on him.

Overall, one of the most personally and professionally gratifying experiences in which I have had the privilege to participate since beginning my career as an educator.

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While I expected to learn a great deal about Winston Churchill, I also come away with a deeper understanding of the British Parliamentary system, the history of Great Britain and of the world in the 20th Century.

I thought that the director and all of the speakers were well prepared, made interesting presentations, and made themselves accessible to participants during breaks and meals.

Allen Packwood’s great effort to make research in the Churchill Archive Centre as efficient and exciting as possible was a great highlight of the trip.

The Director, Jim Muller, is a very kind and thoughtful person . . . [he] was extremely knowledgeable and very generous with his time in helping explain any aspect we wanted further clarification on.

The guest lecturers were most impressive, having firmly established credentials and accomplishments in the subject of Winston Churchill, and all delivered polished and interesting lectures.

The institute combined an excellent mix of classroom discussion/presentation, archival research and site visits that provided an in-depth view of Churchill. My teaching will be impacted by the wide range of scholarly opinions that were expressed, combined with original documents, and using those documents in the classroom.

The facilities were excellent. Both colleges were clean and friendly, and went out of their way to assist us.

The extensive reading and constant discussion with all the participants has been an academic milestone in my life.

This was the best institute I have attended. I was able to take away many and varied ideas for implementing what I learned at the institute and incorporating those ideas into my classroom.

The visiting faculty was a diverse group. There was some disagreement among the participants about the positions taken by the faculty but what good would it be if only one side of Churchill and his times was presented?

Indeed, we approached Churchill from every angle except perhaps interpretive dance since we worked with documents, heard lectures, worked with archives, saw film, sang songs, presented material of our own, visited important sites.