"Dublin Core:Title","Dublin Core:Subject","Dublin Core:Description","Dublin Core:Creator","Dublin Core:Source","Dublin Core:Publisher","Dublin Core:Date","Dublin Core:Contributor","Dublin Core:Rights","Dublin Core:Relation","Dublin Core:Format","Dublin Core:Language","Dublin Core:Type","Dublin Core:Identifier","Dublin Core:Coverage","Item Type Metadata:Text","Item Type Metadata:Interviewer","Item Type Metadata:Interviewee","Item Type Metadata:Location","Item Type Metadata:Transcription","Item Type Metadata:Local URL","Item Type Metadata:Original Format","Item Type Metadata:Physical Dimensions","Item Type Metadata:Duration","Item Type Metadata:Compression","Item Type Metadata:Producer","Item Type Metadata:Director","Item Type Metadata:Bit Rate/Frequency","Item Type Metadata:Time Summary","Item Type Metadata:Email Body","Item Type Metadata:Subject Line","Item Type Metadata:From","Item Type Metadata:To","Item Type Metadata:CC","Item Type Metadata:BCC","Item Type Metadata:Number of Attachments","Item Type Metadata:Standards","Item Type Metadata:Objectives","Item Type Metadata:Materials","Item Type Metadata:Lesson Plan Text","Item Type Metadata:URL","Item Type Metadata:Event Type","Item Type Metadata:Participants","Item Type Metadata:Birth Date","Item Type Metadata:Birthplace","Item Type Metadata:Death Date","Item Type Metadata:Occupation","Item Type Metadata:Biographical Text","Item Type Metadata:Bibliography","Item Type Metadata:Player","Item Type Metadata:Imported Thumbnail","Item Type Metadata:Referrer",tags,file,itemType,collection,public,featured "The Pledge of Barbados",,"Standing on Chamberlain Bridge and looking at Independence Arch, I began reading the Barbadian Pledge. Instantly my brain goes to each school morning when students stand and say the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. Both symbolize a promise of loyalty to a nation represented by a flag, but why do humans feel the need to align to a specific political entity and profess this allegiance to others? I have come to the conclusion that it is a mixture of pride, identity, and competition. Barbados and the United States achieved independence from Great Britain, and the pledge shows the pride in being a separate nation. It was a way for citizens to define themselves different from the previous identity connected to Europe. Even though neither pledge was written or established in the immediate time after independence, both wanted to create an identity that links the people of their nation within a very connected world. Humans are also innately competitive, and whenever there is a competition one team/nation links themselves to symbols. Both the flag design and pledge of Barbados were even created as part of competitions. Pride and identity represented in the pledge and flag carry over to the numerous international competitions such as the Olympics and the World Cup. The emotion seen at sporting events of the 21st century are intense. Some may see this competition as divisive among people, but I feel the pride for a nation shown through say the pledge or waving a flag as a human trait carried throughout the world. There is disagreement over when to say a pledge or if a person should say the pledge at all, but this belief in choosing an identity to be proud of is one shared by humankind. ",,"The Pledge of Barbados",,"June 18, 2018","Elizabeth Mulcahy, Social Studies Teacher",,,,,,the-pledge-of-barbados,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Andy Mink","Barbados,Chamberlain Bridge,Citizenship,Colonialism,History,Nationalism,Teachers & Teaching",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/12/190/barbados_flag.png,Text,"Virginia Geographic Alliance West Indies Teacher Institute",1,0 "Where Dreams Were Made and Humanistic Visions Forged",,"Throughout their son’s childhood, Stephen Hall’s parents, both children of sharecroppers, crafted a “deeply humanistic perch” from which he could “view the world.” Though possessing none of the benefits of class or race privilege, they harnessed the power of the book, searching for what historian Isabel Wilkerson has called “the light of other suns” in the “recesses of their minds.” Their personal library—including the Bible, Encyclopedia Britannica, and the Great Books—stoked young Hall’s imagination. The harmonies of musicians, such as Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, played alongside images of athletes like Muhammad Ali. The ritual of accompanying his parents to vote in local, state, and national elections deepened a conviction: being humanistic entails civic engagement.",,,,,"Stephen G. Hall, Alcorn State University",,,,,,hall-humanistic-visions,,,,,,"
It seems from my early consciousness, the humanities were an ever-present part of my being. The son of sharecropper's children, neither which possessed a high school education, they crafted a deeply humanistic perch from which I could view the world. From Durham and Salzburg, North Carolina, respectfully, the search for what Isabel Wilkerson has called the ""light of the suns"" resided in the conscious and unconscious recesses of their mind.
Possessing none of the benefits of class, race, and gender privilege, my mother harnessed the power of a book. A small library composed of encyclopedias, great books, contemporary literature and magazines, nestled in the study between the living room and master bedroom.
In the den, this middle space, where I did my homework daily, was where dreams were made and humanistic visions forged. It seems that all that would come was previewed there. A close reading of the Bible, deep droughts from the wells of encyclopedia Britannica, the great books and great performances, from Bach to Berlin.
My father cultivated in me his love of politics and sport. In the basement, he regaled us with Isaac Hayes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Whisperers on 8-track tapes. As we basked in the melodic cadences of the songs, Mohammed Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, James Foreman, or Tommy Hickman Herms, or Leonard Spinx could be seen on the console television, weaving their pugilistic magic in the ring.
If the basement and study, upper and lower rooms, represented two distinct poles of reality, then the kitchen served as the temple to politics. There my father read the newspaper and watched the nightly news. It was his insistence that politics mattered, which fueled my subsequent interest in political conventions. I watched my first political convention in 1976, and I continue to do so up to the present day.
Convinced that being humanistic entailed civic engagement, my parents always took my brother and I with them to vote in local, state and national elections. It was a ritual of sorts. We obligingly piled into our old 1968 Pontiac Bonneville, arriving at Campville Elementary School, our neighborhood polling place in Baltimore County, Maryland. Once there, they would park the car on the road, and we would watch them make their way through a gauntlet of poll workers, who showered them with campaign literature of one sort or another. Undaunted, they proceeded into the polling place, and stayed for what seemed an eternity. Emerging together as if they had crossed the finish line of a marathon, we could see the exhilaration and the importance of this act.
It was a logical extension of the humanistic constructs in our home. Contact in eventful and uneventful ways, my upbringing among organic intellectuals, a Gramscian designation would surely apply to my parents, shaped my interests in direct and indirect ways.
By the mid-80s, armed with a deeper and more informed sense of my racial sense and my humanistic responsibility, I too became involved in political campaign. As election day approached, we received our poll assignments. My assignment was none other than Campville Elementary School. I arrived early to my post on election day. A lean, lanky boy of 17, I was wise in the arts of politics, canvassing and poll work. The voters came slowly, and then steadily, through the gauntlet of poll workers who handed them literature, and generally cajoled and prodded them to vote for one candidate or the other. All the faces seemed to blur, until I looked across the yard and saw my parents, parking in their familiar place and proceeding to the gauntlet. As my parents proceeded, I felt the weight of the years passing before me, remembering my passive position watching my parents, and present one as an active participant. Now, in our reverse roles, all was clear. As they approached, I beamed with pride. I hugged them, and gleefully announced and introduced them to the assembled throng as my parents.
I knew in that moment all the years of watching, listening, engaging, thinking in our den and basement and kitchen had prepared me for this moment. A moment electric with the preparation of the past, the participatory urgency of the present, and the humanistic possibilities of the future.
",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Ali, Muhammad,Bach, Johann Sebastian,Baltimore County, Maryland,Berlin, Irving,Black History,Books & Reading,Citizenship,Gaye, Marvin,Hayes, Isaac,Hearn, Thomas ""Tommy"",Leonard, ""Sugar"" Ray,Literature,Music,Parent & Child,Professors,Ross, Diana,The Bible,Voting,Wonder, Stevie",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/8/170/African_American_voter_registration_1960s.jpg,Sound,"National Humanities Center Fellows",1,0 "Learning How to Read a Poem",,"Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California, reflects on her life growing up in New Mexico and how a low grade on a poetry analysis assignment in college encouraged her to master the craft of writing. She notes how her writing abilities and exposure to the humanities served her well in a career in government and higher education.
To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit California Humanities: We Are the Humanities.
",,"""Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God"" by John Donne; Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather",,,"Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California",,,,,,janet-napolitano,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Analytical Skills,Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God,Cather, Willa,Citizenship,College Teachers,Cultural History,Death Comes for the Archbishop,Donne, John,Humanities Education,Literature,Music,New Mexico,Oakland, California,Santa Clara University,Santa Clara, California,Science & the Humanities,Teachers & Teaching,University of California,Writing",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/5/147/Willa_Cather_1912.jpeg,"Moving Image","California Humanities: “We Are the Humanities”",1,0 "How to Get U.S. Citizenship and the American Dream",,"When I was 8 years old, I found hidden in a drawer a little, brown book. It was a well-worn copy of, ""How to Get U.S. Citizenship,"" which my mother had used to prepare for her U.S. citizenship exam. When I asked her about it, she explained that it was one of the items packed into her small suitcase along with a few articles of carefully selected clothing, photographs, and jewelry that would be the only things that would remind her of the life she had lived in Korea. As I glanced through the pages, I thought about my mother as a young woman dreaming of a life in America - a place where she believed the streets were lined with gold. In 1973, my mother, alone and without knowing a word of English, left all that was familiar to her for a life in the United States. She joined my father who had emigrated years earlier with his sister, the wife of an American GI. Her friends and family told her she was bound for an easy life where she would live in a big, American house. Caring for her children would be her primary concern. But when she arrived, she settled into a cramped, 3-bedroom house in Westland, Michigan with my father, his mother, his brother, sister-in-law and their young daughter. After my brother and I were born, it became apparent that my father’s low-wage job in a warehouse would not support our family of four, so mom decided to look for work. Despite her very limited English, she was hired to work on the assembly line at General Motors and became our household’s primary wage earner. Her job eventually allowed us to move out of Westland and into a nice, middle class neighborhood with good schools. Her work was difficult, but life was definitely taking an upswing. About 7 years in, Mom was laid off from GM and was forced to take odd jobs in Chinese restaurants or flea market jewelry shops in Detroit. At times, Mom held two or three jobs at a time, just to keep us afloat. She worked hard to ensure we could remain in that middle class lifestyle. Mom scrimped and saved to make sure her two children had enough to eat, decent clothes, and the opportunity to attend universities to pursue careers that would ensure they’d never have to work as hard as she did. General Motors called mom back after a few years. One of her jobs was a welder on the night shift. Her tired 5 foot 4 frame would come home smelling of exhaust. And her shirts were covered in tiny holes from stray sparks. Though it was difficult work, she never complained. Instead she regularly encouraged us to do well in school so we’d never have to work so hard as she did. Mom ended up working for almost 30 years and is now enjoying a much needed retirement. The significance of this little book is that it is an important bookend to the immigration story of my family to the United States. When she arrived, mom was full of great expectations for herself, but having found the reality of life much different than expected, she modified her dreams to encompass something more tangible. In 1978 she applied for and received her U.S. citizenship. One of the annotated pages in this little book pertains to why she, the applicant, wanted to obtain US citizenship? Mom underlined this answer, “I wish to work for the benefit of this country and to protect the happiness of our children.” If you’d ask her today, my mom would proudly affirm that she had achieved the American dream-a better life for herself and for her family. It allowed her the ability to have an American dream for her children to attend college and live securely in the comfort that they could provide for their families. Achieving this was our way of being able to honor our mom’s hard work and sacrifice. ","C.H. Kang","How to Get U.S. Citizenship (2nd Edition)",,1973-present,"Teresa Kim, History teacher in Vista, California",,,,,,citizenship-american-dream,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"American Dream,Books & Reading,Citizenship,Emigration & Immigration,Families,How to Get U.S. Citizenship,Kang, C.H.,Korea,Marginalia,Mothers & Daughters,Teachers & Teaching,Westland, Michigan",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/131/us-citizenship.jpg,Text,,1,0 "9/11 Shaped My Career","I continued as an education major and eventually graduated in 2007 with my degree. By the time I graduated, I knew that loved teaching. I discovered during my different experiences in the classroom in college that this was my calling. 9/11 taught me that service is important, but it also taught me that knowledge is power and knowing about the world outside of my little bubble is extremely important. I try to do this with my students in my classes everyday. I want them to be educated citizens who can see the many sides of an issue and are curious about the world they live in. ","I was a brand new college freshman getting ready to attend my Political Science class that started at 8:45am on September 11, 2001. I heard the news on the radio when I first woke up and I thought it wasn't real. I turned on the TV and still couldn't believe it was real. I didn't know what else to do except go to class and so I did. My professor came in the room sobbing and she told us all to go home and be with our families. We all walked out of the lecture hall, scattering across the green, going our different directions. I began walking to my car but my mind was focused on one thing, I wanted to go volunteer for military service. My dad had served during Vietnam and I felt like it was my duty. So I called my dad and told him my plan and he said to me (in probably the first adult conversation we would have), ""You don't need to serve in the military because I served for you. If you really want to make a difference in this world, start thinking about how you can give back to your community through your career or volunteer service."" At that point, I was a communications major and I had aspirations of being a sport journalist. I stuck it out for another year in the major, but what my dad had said to me on that day kept coming back around. At the end of my freshman year, I switched my major to history with a secondary education emphasis. I loved history, that I knew, did I love teaching? I did not know, but I knew this would be a chance to service my community and country. I continued as an education major and eventually graduated in 2007 with my degree. By the time I graduated, I knew that loved teaching. I discovered during my different experiences in the classroom in college that this was my calling. 9/11 taught me that service is important, but it also taught me that knowledge is power and knowing about the world outside of my little bubble is extremely important. I try to do this with my students in my classes everyday. I want them to be educated citizens who can see the many sides of an issue and are curious about the world they live in. ",,,,9/11/2001,"Carly Hill, 34, teacher",,,,,,9-11-shaped-my-career,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Citizenship,College Students,History,New York, New York,September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001,Teachers & Teaching,Vocation,World Trade Center",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/106/9-11.jpeg,Text,"Teacher Advisory Council",1,0