While living at the Cottage, Lincoln wrestled with the biggest challenges of his presidency– including the development of the Emancipation Proclamation. The Open Field Project provides inspiration for students to reflect on their own civic priorities and take action on issues that are important to them.

In this virtual program, students bring Lincoln’s work into their learning spaces and plant an idea garden with their seeds of their own ideas. Guided by a museum facilitator and using their fully-stocked idea garden kit – sent in advance of the program – students learn about Lincoln’s thought process and record their own bold ideas on seed paper, plant them in soil from the Cottage’s own grounds, and watch them grow.

Students will connect with staff from the education department at President Lincoln’s Cottage via videoconference to learn more about the place where Abraham Lincoln spent a quarter of his presidency and developed the Emancipation Proclamation and have their questions answered about the nation’s 16th President, the Cottage itself, and Lincoln’s brave ideas.

Abraham Lincoln’s presidency was marked by the development of big ideas and nation-changing actions. A key element of Lincoln’s collaborative process was to consult the ideas of those around him while leading the country through turmoil toward a new birth of freedom. Lincoln’s approach provides a model for students to develop their own decision-making skills as they strive to understand the value of conflicting ideas, building support to achieve positive change in modern society, and their own responsibility and power within their communities. In the adapted virtual version of Lincoln’s Toughest Decisions: Debating Emancipation—an award-winning program that exposes students to the different perspectives of President Lincoln’s adversaries, allies, and friends— students work in small groups to explore historical documents and recreate the heated discussions that President Lincoln had over emancipation.

Lincoln used his daily commute through the heart of Civil War Washington as an opportunity to reflect on the challenges of his presidency and to learn from those he encountered along the way. In the Seventh Street Challenge, students trace Lincoln’s route from the White House, up the 7th Street Turnpike, and home to the Cottage – participating in scavenger-hunt-style challenges to find thematic objects within their own homes as they go – and build their own capacity for meaningful daily problem-solving.