Workplace of the Governor | ICYMI: Ken Burns Joins More Than 1,000 New Jersey Students on Constitution Day to Talk about the American Revolution

NEWARK – The filmmaker Ken Burns at present joined 1,000-plus college students from throughout the state of New Jersey to commemorate Constitution Day and to debate the significance of New Jersey to the bigger story of America’s founding, as a part of a nationwide tour main as much as the printed of his new movie, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. The movie, co-directed by Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, will air and stream on PBS starting November 16, 2025.

“New Jersey was ground zero for the American Revolution,” mentioned Ken Burns. “Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth were just a few of the places that saw brutal battles. There were additional skirmishes across the state, as well as encampments in Morristown, Bernardsville and other towns and cities that we still frequent today. We’re thrilled to join RevolutionNJ, the NJ Department of Education and so many young people to discuss the importance of this history to the state and our country, as well as its meaning today.”

As a part of the day-long occasion, Burns, alongside along with his co-director Sarah Botstein and the historian Christopher Brown, who was an advisor to and seems within the movie, will go to with academics and college students concerned in historical past training workshops at Newark Public Library and Newark NJPAC. They may also attend a press convention with New Jersey Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way and Kevin Dehmer, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education, and take part in a screening at Newark NJPAC hosted by Governor Phil Murphy for the scholars and different attendees. The screening shall be moderated by the journalist Brian Williams. 

“New Jersey has been, and remains, a state of revolutionary possibilities,” mentioned Governor Murphy. “From Washington’s daring crossing of the Delaware to the turning-point victories at Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth, more battles and skirmishes were fought here than in any other state during the Revolutionary War. We are proud of this history and thrilled to welcome renowned documentarian Ken Burns to the Garden State as we explore New Jersey’s unique and enduring place in our nation’s founding and its future.”

“RevolutionNJ is New Jersey’s official statewide initiative to plan the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America,” mentioned Lieutenant Governor Way, who oversees RevolutionNJ in her capability as New Jersey Secretary of State. “Commemoration activities range from public art series to 5K races through our state’s historic parks to a history-mystery podcast, but we are particularly proud of our educational initiatives. By bringing the legacy of the American Revolution into our classrooms, we can empower the next generation to become better neighbors, citizens, and leaders in the present.”

“Constitution Day is an annual opportunity for all of our students to learn about our shared history, and this year New Jersey students were reminded just how central New Jersey was to the events surrounding the nation’s founding,” mentioned Department of Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer. “Through the Revolutionary Schools initiative, the Department is proud to partner with RevolutionNJ to give schools new and innovative ways to bring history to life – helping students to connect with the history that unfolded right in their backyard. These opportunities make the story of our nation’s founding tangible for students, and they help them see their own role in shaping the future.”

The filmmakers may also be joined by representatives of PBS LearningMedia, PBS’ flagship digital platform for the classroom, to launch the primary set of classroom sources that can accompany the movie and co-facilitate a instructor workshop with New Jersey’s public media community, NJ PBS, and Revolution NJ. 

PBS LearningMedia creates distinctive collections of media-centric, curriculum-aligned instructing sources and experiences for all of Burns’s movies, supplied throughout the Ken Burns in the Classroom hub on the platform. For THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, PBS LearningMedia will provide probably the most sturdy initiative thus far, thanks partly to a grant from the Kern Family Foundation, to broaden classroom outreach across the movie and the themes lined, within the lead as much as the United States’ 250th anniversary in 2026.

The classroom sources, that are being developed in session with educators from across the nation and with main students, together with University of Virginia History Professor Emeritus Alan Taylor, and chief scholar on the National Constitution Center, Tom Donnelly, will pose thought-provoking questions for college kids and introduce new concepts, views, and first sources in regards to the Revolutionary period. Additional classroom sources specializing in George Washington’s life and management shall be co-created by PBS LearningMedia and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. 

“We are excited to preview our new classroom resources collection on Constitution Day in New Jersey, a state so central to the American Revolution,” mentioned Lori Brittain, VP of PBS LearningMedia. ”These media-rich sources are designed to deliver our shared historical past to life in new methods for college kids and academics nationwide, and we’re delighted to have the chance to debut them with academics and college students becoming a member of the workshops and movie screening hosted by RevolutionNJ and the New Jersey Department of Education.”

PBS LearningMedia is growing greater than 35 classroom sources for academics and their college students in grades 3-12 drawing on content material from the movie and arranged by generally taught subjects: life within the colonies, causes of the battle, key figures and occasions, and penalties and legacies of the Revolutionary period. Classroom sources will deal with themes raised within the movie, together with freedom, alternative, democracy, and the worldwide nature of the battle, and are designed to construct college students’ important considering abilities, their capacity to assume by way of trigger and impact, and their capacity to research main sources. Resources incorporate video clips from the movie, and are supported by instructing ideas, dialogue questions, exercise strategies, scholar handouts, and background readings. The assortment will embody student-facing interactives that use private narratives from younger folks of the time to attach college students with totally different wartime experiences, and an interactive map that can permit college students to discover main battles, together with two in New Jersey, the Battle of Trenton and the Battle of Monmouth.  

Starting at present, 4 of those classroom sources are actually out there to present academics a preview of the gathering. Topics embody the Coercive Acts, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, and navy leaders Nathanael Greene and Joseph Brant, also called Thayendanegea. These sources will be present in THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Collection on PBS LearningMedia at pbslearningmedia.org/americanrevolution. The full assortment of classroom sources shall be launched on November 10, simply forward of the movie broadcast premiere on November 16. Later this 12 months and subsequent, PBS member stations may also create associated classroom sources that emphasize their native histories, native peoples, and enduring questions from the American Revolution.  

To additional have interaction college students within the Revolutionary period, PBS LearningMedia and PBS member station KQED are co-hosting a nationwide Youth Media Challenge centered round themes drawn from the movie. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Youth Media Challenge invitations academics to discover foundational American rules, akin to liberty, self-governance, and democracy by way of media-making with their center or highschool college students. Students will make audio, video or graphics initiatives to share their data, concepts, and understanding of vital revolutionary beliefs, and historic occasions. Teachers can combine the problem into their curricula at any level within the college 12 months and work with their college students to publish their media to a devoted on-line Challenge Showcase. 

Continuing from fall 2025 by way of the semiquincentennial in 2026 and back-to-school in fall 2026, PBS LearningMedia and member stations will current a number of in-person and digital skilled studying classes with companions, movie students, and academics designed to reinforce instructor data, abilities, and dynamic pedagogical approaches to the American Revolution. Upcoming occasions embody “THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: Connecting Students to Our Shared History, A Live Conversation with Filmmakers,” on November 18, 2025; a workshop on January 13, 2026, “How to Bring THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Youth Media Challenge Into Your Classroom;” and a springtime digital occasion exploring the usage of materials tradition and private narratives to show the American Revolution, co-hosted by PBS LearningMedia and The Museum of the American Revolution. Professional studying alternatives and details about all instructional actions will be discovered at pbslearningmedia.org/pbsteach250.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION shall be out there to stream on all station-branded PBS platforms together with PBS.org and the PBS App, out there on iOS, Android, Roku streaming gadgets, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. The collection may also be out there to stream on PBS Passport and the “PBS Documentaries Prime VideoChannel.” PBS station members can view the documentary by way of PBS Passport as a part of a full assortment of Ken Burns movies. For extra details about PBS Passport, go to the PBS Passport FAQ web site. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION shall be distributed internationally by PBS International. 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION is a manufacturing of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, D.C. Directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward. Produced by Sarah Botstein, David Schmidt, Salimah El-Amin and Ken Burns. Edited by Tricia Reidy, Maya Mumma, Charles E. Horton, and Craig Mellish. Co-Produced by Megan Ruffe and Mike Welt. Cinematography by Buddy Squires. Narrated by Peter Coyote. The government in cost for WETA was John F. Wilson (who handed away in November of 2024). Executive producer is Ken Burns. 

Corporate funding for The American Revolution was supplied by Bank of America. Major funding was supplied by The Better Angels Society and its members Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine with the Crimson Lion Foundation; and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Major funding was additionally supplied by David M. Rubenstein; The Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Family Foundation; Lilly Endowment Inc.; and the next Better Angels Society members: Eric and Wendy Schmidt; Stephen A. Schwarzman; and Kenneth C. Griffin with Griffin Catalyst. Additional assist for The American Revolution was supplied by: The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; The Pew Charitable Trusts; Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling; Park Foundation; and the next Better Angels Society members: Gilchrist and Amy Berg; Perry and Donna Golkin; The Michelson Foundation; Jacqueline B. Mars; Kissick Family Foundation; Diane and Hal Brierley; John H. N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell; John and Catherine Debs; The Fullerton Family Charitable Fund; Philip I. Kent; Gail Elden; Deborah and Jon Dawson; David and Susan Kreisman; The McCloskey Family Charitable Trust; Becky and Jim Morgan; Carol and Ned Spieker; Mark A. Tracy; and Paul and Shelley Whyte. The American Revolution was made doable, partly, with assist from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

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