Photo: Students from Bard High School Early College on a courthouse tour.
In the early 2010s, the Society partnered with Bard High School Early College (BHSEC), a public school with campuses in Manhattan and Queens which is operated with Bard College, to prepare curricula for both middle school students at Bard Early College Academy (BECA) and high school students at BHSEC. The curricula aim to teach students about the role of the courts in society, the importance of both state and federal constitutions, and how the courts, judges, and lawyers contribute to the administration of justice.
The initial partnership between the Society and BHSEC blossomed and grew to feature a variety of courses within a central theme of bringing concepts of justice and the law into the classroom. We currently have nine courses and counting! Each instructor prepares syllabi, lesson plans, and/or course materials which we then share on our website to help other educators get ideas and concrete ways to incorporate legal history into their lessons.
In 2015, the Society and BHSEC took the partnership a step further with the establishment of the Judith S. Kaye Teaching Fellowship, honoring the founder of the Historical Society. The Fellowship provides for the hiring of a faculty member or visiting scholar who will develop and teach a semester-long elective on the themes that include justice and the courts, legal history in New York State, New York State constitutional law, or a topic that relates more broadly to the role of the courts in establishing and maintaining democracy in New York State and the United States.