This program, which complements the video entitled Teaching On Common Ground, provides a narrative account of the annual seminar process in the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. That process begins with the planning of seminars (in October and November) and the applications of teachers (in January and February), continues through the seminar meetings and the writing, testing, and revision of curriculum units (from March through July), and concludes with the classroom use of those units during the following year. The account includes moments from a meeting of School Representatives, a talk to the Fellows, meetings of several seminars, conferences between Fellows and Seminar Leaders, classroom experimentation with a curriculum unit, a faculty meeting of the Director and Seminar Leaders, and the final classroom use of several units.

The program also includes comment on the Institute process and its results by a wide range of participants and observers: students, teachers, and administrators in the New Haven school system; members of the Yale University faculty; and persons active in the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Educational Testing Service, the College Board, and the Council of Chief State School Officers.