Illinois Humanities Council Receives $26,000 Grant from The Boeing Company for Program for Illinois Teachers Qualifying Illinois educators will attend all-expenses paid “True Learning, True Teaching” Seminar July 11—16, 2004

CHICAGO – The Illinois Humanities Council is pleased to announce a new partnership with The Boeing Company for the development of a week-long seminar for Illinois K-12 teachers entitled, “Cosmology and Humanity: How Astronomical Theories Have Shaped Views of Human Nature.” Dr. Dennis Temple, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Roosevelt University, will lead the seminar. The seminar will take place July 11-16, 2004 at the Conference Center at University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois.

“Cosmology and Humanity” is offered as part of the Illinois Humanities Council’s established “True Learning, True Teaching” series of professional development seminars for Illinois educators. Teachers participating in this seminar will learn the history of various cosmologies then will read representative literature on human nature derived from each of them, including works by Plato, Dante, Descartes, and Tom Stoppard. An essential aspect of this seminar is bridging the gulf between the sciences and the humanities and fostering an appreciation of each discipline through discussion about a subject of common interest. This partnership grows out of The Boeing Company’s on-going strategic community investment efforts in Chicago, which focus the company’s resources to help math and science teachers be more effective in the classroom.

“The support of The Boeing Company is invaluable to this exploration of the relationship between science and the humanities by Illinois teachers,” explains Kristina Valaitis, Executive Director of the Illinois Humanities Council. “Our underlying intention is to consider scientific endeavors as complementary and interdependent ways of understanding our history and culture.”

For more information about the IHC’s “True Learning, True Teaching” seminars please call (312) 422-5580 or visit the IHC website at www.prairie.org and click on “Teacher Seminars” under “Programs.”

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