Is Thrift an idea that defines American qualities, or just an old fashioned concept that has no place in modern America?
In July 2012, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania hosted a residential teacher institute in consultation with the Institute for American Values and Sally Flaherty of Pennsylvania's Department of Education. David Blankenhorn and Barbara Defoe Whitehead as scholars-in-residence led 15 teachers from around Pennsylvania in exploring these questions. Experts in the fields of thrift, historic document and artifact interpretation, and standards aligned system curriculum writing worked with the teachers to define thrift and think about its place in education today. Teachers learned how to use primary documents incorporating Common Core standards with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards and created lesson plans.
Click on the main photo to view the various activities of the Institute.
![](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/img_3106_0.jpg)
![Teachers get their first chance to see original documents from the School Savings Banks movement.](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/img_3106_0.jpg)
![Dr. John Templeton provides thought-provoking ideas on the need for thrift today.](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/img_3129_0.jpg)
![Teachers enjoy classroom discussions,](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/img_3152.jpg)
![chance to do their own research,](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/img_3155.jpg)
![and outside speakers. Here Princeton historian Sheldon Garon and Rutgers historian James Livingston join David Blankenhorn.](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/img_3168_0.jpg)
![Sally Flaherty of PDE instructs us how to use SAS (Standards Aligned System)](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/img_3194_0.jpg)
![to create lesson plans. (Read Bernadette's in the 2012 Legacies.)](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/img_3155_0.jpg)
![The proud 2012 Institute class on the final day.](https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/img_3201.jpg)