The Long History of Contested Freedom in Vietnam
“Vietnam” has been a contested idea for a long time. As an American History teacher, I tend to offer my students a compelling look at the American government’s military intervention in Vietnam from the early 1960s to the mid 1970s. Over the course of two weeks with teacher colleagues from all over the country and with the help of some equally impressive university scholars I came to understand how of part of Southeast Asia known today as Vietnam has a long history as a contested place. I want to now re-evaluate the when in which I teach about Vietnam to my future classes. I selected this image because for me it conveyed what a long process Vietnam went through in order to exist presently. It is a place to me as a teacher that tells a much larger story than simply the American war in Vietnam. It’s a story of process from colonization to revolution that spans many centuries and has several links to different places and peoples. In order to contextualize Vietnam as more than just the site where Americans were sent from 1954-1975 we need to tell the more complicated story of the history of the place, and that’s why I selected this image as my humanities moment.
It’s a great primary source to summarize the different approach that I gained from my time in that seminar. It’s a propaganda poster from “Operation Freedom” which was done by the United States Information Agency in order to convince people from North Vietnam to escape communism by moving below the 17th parallel. Everything about this image to me is a reminder of how contested this land had been. The words themselves, all in the style of the Vietnamese Latin alphabet, can tell a remarkable story of how this country emerged in the cross-currents of South East Asia. The communist flag, the images of a destroyed yet oppressive North, the green, serene wet rice agriculture of the South offer students a lot to unpack. Why was the country divided? When was this produced? What role did the United States have in Vietnam and why would they produce this? Do you think this changed people’s minds? All questions that need to be answered by examining the history of Vietnamese and not of the colonial actors.
The words are also a powerful message telling the viewer in Vietnamese: “Go to the SOUTH to avoid COMMUNISM” and that “The NAM VIỆT compatriots are waiting to welcome their Bắc Việt compatriots with open arms.” What assumptions did the American propaganda designers make? What is different about the country in the North versus the South? There is so much to explore about Vietnam itself through this image rather than doing a unit of the exclusively the American government or military, and forces my students, as well as myself to confront a much different history of Vietnam by including an understanding of how Vietnam was not just something acted on by outsiders, but how it was in itself, a place composed of a number of different ethnicities, religions as people in order to teach a more complete history in my curriculum of how Americans ended up there.
Source: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6949142
A propaganda poster from “Operation Freedom” which was done by the United States Information Agency
July 24th, 2018
Brendon, 30, High School U.S. History Teacher, from Camden, Delaware
the-long-history-of-contested-freedom-in-vietnam
The Liberation of Our Past
The Barbados Museum and Historical Society is located in a former military prison. Its original purpose of control through force and containment is clear and obvious when I entered the present-day museum. Cannons flank the entrance, a symbol of calculated and brutal violence. The façade is imposing, an intimidating tall arch way designed not to invite but to deter entrance. However, today it is a place of education, a site of liberation for the thousands of stories of people and events in the island’s past. That past for Barbados is incredibly complex. Built on coldly calculated and horrific brutality of agricultural production and subsequent cultural diffusion, the island today grapples with economic, political, and social successes, challenges, and the myriad of geographic factors that influence their narrative to the present day.
Education is critical to Barbadians history and culture. Education was restricted from enslaved Africans, planters viewing an education as catalyst for rebellion. Upon becoming a sovereign nation, Barbados made a social and political commitment to education. Across the island, the pride and commitment to education is obvious. It is the theme that many social-historians touch on as a key marker for its rise in development relative to other island countries that make up the Caribbean. Barbadian planters feared the liberating force of education, Barbadians themselves intertwined economic and political independence with education, and today, many Barbadians put high value on education’s ability to promote the freedom of job opportunity and prosperity on or outside of the island.
This literal former prison’s repurposing into a historic museum was itself a catalyst to understanding Barbados, but also the challenge of the humanities as people grapple with their own past, present, and the connections between them. As people, we look to past individuals and stories and attempt to reutilize or repurpose them to educate, improve, or respond to contemporary and future challenges. This museum, and its reutilization of the prison as a place of confinement to that of freedom is symbolic of that process. Barbados’ past is brutal and complex and, rather than imprisoning that narrative, we must learn and use those real and human truths to promote a better future.
June 2018
John Skelton, 30, Teacher, Virginia
the-liberation-of-our-past
The Inca Trail
Sure, I had studied the Incas in school. I knew about Machu Picchu or I thought that I did. "You cannot judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes" from <em>To Kill a Mocking Bird</em> describes my moment. <br /><br />The trail went through the Andes, we were able to interact with local villagers. We were able to see how they lived, in the altitude where food was scare. It was eye opening. We camped along the trail, seeing more stars than I could have imagined. I was able to the see the Southern Cross in the sky, bringing up images of people using the stars as navigation points. The engineering of the trail and Machu Picchu spoke to the Incas' advanced society. That being said, the trail was tougher than anticipated. But worth the trip due to your view of Machu Picchu as you come up to it. It is a spiritual place and when I first saw it I could not move, I just stared at it. <br /><br />Walking throughout the area brought to life for me all that I had studied. We were able to see the terrace farming concept, the temples, all at this altitude, making me wonder about how this was accomplished. The manpower needed. . . This has impacted how I teach the Incas to students. It enables me to tell stories that they might not be able to read about in the class, showing pictures from Machu Picchu. For me when I teach this to students it brings back the memories.
Hiking the Inca Trail, visiting Machu Piccu
March, 2002
Wendell Johnson, 52, Social Studies Teacher
the-inca-trail
The Farewell: Teaching and Talking about Ethnocentrism as an Asian-American
The guiding question for my Humanities Moment pertains to the most recent film that I cannot stop talking about with my peers, friends, family and strangers. As a self-described film aficionado, I typically find myself at the movie theater 2-3 times a week. I definitely appreciate the power and effect films can have on our society, ways of thinking, and learning. The film that has struck me the most this year was <em>The Farewell</em> by Lulu Wang. <br /><br />Without spoiling too much of the picture, the film explores various aspects of traditional Chinese culture in regards to food, family, and grief. This exploration is juxtaposed with a first generation Asian-American protagonist, her upbringing, relationship with her extended family, and her identity as a Chinese-American. The reason I found this story so compelling was because of the well balanced discussion of cultural differences between China and America as well as the cultural clash experienced by first generation Asian-Americans, especially when visiting their families' native country. <br /><br />Viewing the film from an educator's standpoint, I was fascinated and impressed by the honest portrayal of shared grief and its differences between traditional Asian and American families. I couldn't help myself but discuss the film's messages and concepts with other viewers while also making connections to the film and my profession of teaching World History. I questioned to myself how much of my instruction, and curriculum, is taught through a lens of ethnocentrism as well as how I could potentially tackle this issue in my planning. Is it possible to survey various ancient civilizations (or cultures) without having judgment? Or are we cursed to look at history through our own cultural lens?
The source of my Humanities Moment is the recent film The Farewell
Many times throughout this year so far (since mid August)
Binh Tran (26), World History teacher
the-farewell-teaching-and-talking-about-ethnocentrism
The Emancipation Act of 1834 and our Shared Freedom Story
“To be honest, I’m glad my family didn’t go to America. We ended slavery 30 years earlier. What were YOU guys thinking?”
Our Bajan tour guide of St. Nicholas Abbey told us this as we walked through the sugarcane plantation house. She chuckled, and we along with her, albeit awkwardly. She was right, too; the day before, our research group got to actually leaf through the Emancipation Act of 1834, the physical document that started the process of freedom in Barbados. THE original document! We all casually crowded around the pages and touched them with are bare hands. Compare that with the Declaration of Independence, which literally had a whole movie made about how impossible it would be to steal that document.
The concepts of freedom and liberation are remarkable, almost overwhelming to think about. As such I, along with many others, anchor these to our own experiences. I interact with freedom and liberation in an uniquely American way; I talk about the First Amendment with my US History students, and we discuss the Emancipation Proclamation as a seminal moment in the American story. However, sometimes this lens leads me to think that freedom itself is uniquely American. When I hear the word freedom, and mind immediately jumps to the Stars and Stripes. This, of course, is ridiculous. We didn’t invent freedom; in fact, we were pretty late to the party.
The communities we grew up in shape our worldview. Often, they give us a nearsightedness with regards to monumental events and processes. There are freedom stories from all over the world; it is our job, as global citizens, to learn and grow from them. Therefore, we can better understand and appreciate how each of our communities’ narratives fits within a far greater, and far richer, story.
The Emancipation Act of 1834
June 2018
Chris Cantone, 24, US History and World History I teacher at Albemarle High School in Albemarle County, Virginia
the-emancipation-act-of-1834-and-our-shared-freedom-story
The Day I Knew I Was Going to Teach History
In what has become a defining moment of my entire life, my first true humanities moment provided clarity and direction for my future in the midst of all things awkward about being a middle school student.
Doing well in school was a safety net for me. The excitement of learning new things and the validation that came with "good grades" and being a teacher's pet type person were anchors in a time of social and hormonal upheaval and a family move the summer before 8th grade. If I was going to be at a new school, at least I knew I would do well in my classes, (failing math for a grading period, not withstanding, I mean, this isn't my "math moment," it's my humanities moment). My 8th grade US History and language arts teacher, Mrs. Batsford, was young and energetic, and seemed to genuinely like us and think we were fun humans. Now, after teaching 9th graders for 20 years, I know just how special that was. But it was the creativity with which Mrs. Batsford presented content that really created my humanities moment.
One day while studying the Civil War, Mrs. Batsford had us spend an entire class period constructing a "city" out of empty milk cartons. She gave us no context or explanation for this craft project, just set us to work. The next day, our city was complete and laid out on a large table. She came out from behind her desk and I watched in shock as she climbed up on top of the table wearing big laced-up boots with her early 90's long floral dress. Without a word, she began stomping all over our milk carton city with her big giant boots, flattening every single little crafted square while we watching with our mouths hanging open. Her destruction complete, she daintily got back down from the table and said, "that's what happened during Sherman's march to the sea."
I was floored. I couldn't believe a teacher would behave in such a demonstrative manner and do something that seemed so brash, just for the purpose of helping us understand something. In that instant I knew that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to help students learn history with a little drama and a lot of storytelling. I began on a path that day, that has guided my steps from 8th grade to now, a 21 year veteran of teaching history. Later I learned that Mrs. Batsford's dramatized version of razing cities to the ground was not quite the real story of what happened during that episode of the Civil War. That never diminished the importance of this moment and what it showed me about how people can connect with history. She made me want to learn more. And that is certainly a legacy worth striving for.
8th grade US History class
1991
Kim Karayannis, FCPS Social Studies teacher
day-knew-teach-history
The Day I Decided to Major in History
Graduate student Justina Licata explains how a junior high school teacher's passion and influence led her to embrace the study of history as a lifelong vocation.
A teacher's lesson
When I was 12 or 13 in the eighth grade.
Justina Licata, 32 years old, Ph.D. Candidate
day-I-decided-to-major-in-history
The Currency of Emotional Intelligence
<p>Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye is the 28th Chief Justice of the State of California. She recalls her experiences as a student in a humanities class in college, her upbringing in a Filipino community of hardworking women eager to pass on their traditions, and her realization that the humanities teach us to celebrate and respect the stories and uniqueness of people.</p>
<p>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 <a title="California Humanities: We Are the Humanities" href="http://calhum.org/about/we-are-the-humanities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California Humanities: We Are the Humanities</a>.</p>
Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, 28th Chief Justice of the State of California
tani-gorre-cantil-sakauye
The Consequences of War Dissension
The most powerful Humanities Moments for me occurred during William Sturkey’s NEH session entitled “Contested Patriotisms: Dissent and Nationalism on the US Homefront.” One thing that stuck with me was Sturkey’s assertion that “dissention always has consequences.” He then gave Muhammad Ali as an example of how anti-war stance severely affected him on both a personal and professional level.
As someone who was not born during this era- coupled with the fact that I’ve had some pretty crappy history teachers- I have to admit that my initial imagery of Muhammad Ali was centralized around him as the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of all time)- a positive reference to his unquestionable domination within the boxing ring, and one that represents the perception of him towards that latter years of his life. (I actually have a Sonny Liston signed copy of the iconic image referenced with this moment hanging in my guest room.) Though I was familiar with Ali’s refusal to participate in the war, I was not familiar with the extent at which he was forced into vocalizing his views, and the unpleasant consequences of such a stance by a well-known black man in the 1960s.
Immediately I was interested in further research on dissention surrounding the Vietnam War. But not just from the lens of larger-than-life individuals such Muhammad Ali, but of lesser-known individuals that dissented against the war and how they were affected. Furthermore, I also became intrigued to learn how status effected one’s involvement in the war.
One thing I more clearly realized as a result of this session was the extent to which our textbooks focus heavily on the political rhyme or reason of war, and so little on the human impact. This session helped to connect historical puzzle pieces for me that had been left disconnected by my own fragmented historical context. As an educator, it has motivated me to ensure that I focus on the human aspects of any historical events or current issues that I present to my students.
7/23/18 NEH Seminar- William Sturkey Session
Kimberly Perry-Sanderlin, AIG Specialist- Durham Public Schools (NC)
consequence-war-dissension
The Burden of Sugar
Visiting a sugar mill on the coast of Barbados, I wondered how far humans are willing to go for the everyday resources I take for granted. What are we willing to do to the environment or other human beings for sugar, salt, and electricity? In this image, you see the only wind-powered sugar mill still operational on Barbados from the 17th and 18th centuries. These sugar mills once existed by the dozen across the island of Barbados, acting as the technological backbone of the lucrative sugar industry. I focused in on the backside of the windmill because this is where you can see the reasonably advanced technology behind a brutal enterprise. On the tour, our guide pointed to the long wooden rod and noted that six to eight female slaves would have to lift and move this rod until the windmill was most efficiently moving in the wind. Weighing hundreds of pounds, I wondered if a more technologically advanced mechanism would have removed this burden… and if the development of technology would have eventually eliminated the need for slave labor altogether. But in this moment, I thought of Eli Whitney and his cotton gin. Invented with the hope of reducing the demand for slave labor, the cotton gin only made harvesting cotton more urgent. With sugar as one of the main staples in my American diet, I can only imagine that the demand for sugar has increased in recent years. Though my hope is that there is no place in the world today where the life expectancy of a laborer is only three years like that on these plantations… I do feel the need to consider who bears the burden of the resources that support my life. Does technology reduce the burden or simply shift the burden somewhere else? Did the development of the sugar mill reduce the cruelty of the slave trade or make the task more urgent? How far are we willing to go for our resources in modern society?
June 2018
Patricia Garvey, 23, Earth Science and Astronomy teacher
the-burden-of-sugar
The Brightest Star in the Night
My humanities moment took place over a few years. It all started one day when I was in the 4th grade. This was one of my favorite days in elementary school because we had an assembly that day. That meant that after lunch recess we got to do something fun instead of doing math or history or science or something else that was uncolorful and boring. I was really excited to find out that it was an art assemble, which meant that afterwards we would get to paint or draw for the rest of the day. Taped all over the walls of our gym were many colorful, bright, and interesting paintings. When we were all seated on the floor I was able to get a better view of the paintings on my side of the wall. It was very interesting to look back and forth between the different sides of the gym. On the far side the paintings looked just like standard paintings but on the side near to me I could see all the little details. <br /><br />The art teacher went on to explain why the paintings looked different from a distance. These were some of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings and that he used a very unique style and technique. She explained that he is best known for his use of pointillism. This means that he painted using thousands of dots or strokes to create a very detailed and bright picture. My favorite picture that she showed us was of a little town at night. It had blue rolling hills and a swirly starry sky. <br /><br />After learning about his style and looking at more of his paintings we went back to our class and got to try out painting like him. I had so much fun learning about and painting in Van Gogh’s unique style. It was by far my most favorite assembly. In middle school I kept seeing the painting with the swirly night sky and so I decided to look more into Vincent van Gogh’s life. He was born on March 30, 1853 in Zundert, Netherlands to Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Carbentus. Van Gogh was introduced to art very early in life when he worked with his uncle as an art dealer. During his early adulthood he had trouble figuring out his purpose in life. He worked many jobs trying to figure this out; he worked as an art dealer, a bookseller, and even became a preacher at one point. On his preaching mission in Borinage, Belgium, a mining region, he would give Bible readings to the locals. While this was all happening he would write to his brother, Theo, about his journeys. In these letters he would draw little sketches and drawings of what he saw. Which caused Theo to advise him to pursue his passion for art. Van Gogh agreed and soon got art lessons from Anton Mauve. Since Van Gogh didn't have a paying job anymore, Theo would send him money. Later in his painting career, as compensation for Theo taking care of him, he would give Theo some of his paintings to sell. Vincent van Gogh’s mental health fluctuate all throughout his life. He began a relationship with a former prostitute Sien Hoornik. Together they rented a studio where they lived along with her baby and five year old daughter. The relationship broke off and Van Gogh moved to Arles, Paris to focus on his art. There he rented one of his rooms to fellow artist Paul Gauguin. Paul and him had very different art styles and would often get into heated arguments with one another. This along with the stress of his painting career being unsuccessful caused his mental health to deteriorate. At its worst, he cut off his ear then gave it to a prostitute wrapped in a newspaper. After his recovery in the hospital he went back home to paint. Then feeling his mental health declining again he admitted himself to the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. While there he experienced a period of extreme confusion and ate oil paint. It was at this asylum that Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night, the swirly painting that I had liked so much. With everything becoming too much, on July 27, 1890 Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. He was able to walk back to his house and was found, but it was to late for him. Vincent van Gogh died on July 29, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. Over his lifetime he drew over 850 paintings and about 1,300 works on paper. <br /><br />Sadly, it was only after his death that his paintings found any success and popularity. This has influenced me personally because it taught me to not take everything at face value. You might not know what is going on underneath the surface. With Van Gogh his paintings seemed so happy and playful but behind that he was struggling financially and with his mental health. It taught me to be aware of those around me and to remind myself that not everything is pretty. After learning more about Vincent van Gogh’s life and his struggles it made the painting have a deeper meaning. It was both sad and beautiful to learn about the man behind the paintings. I learned that even in the worst situations people can create eternal beauty.
<em>The Starry Night</em> by Vincent van Gogh
2010/2011
Sydnie, 18, Student
the-brightest-star-in-the-night
Such a Short Time to Stay Here
I think that the humanities contributed to my moment in three ways. First, they gave me the philosophical question about the meaning of life that I simply could not solve by looking to anyone else. Second, they gave me the musical source material that inspired me to find my own answer to that incredibly important question. Finally, throughout my life the humanities have given me the means to solve that problem by allowing me to study history, literature, art, music, and philosophy in order to make sense of the world as well as to teach my students about ways they can make their own lives meaningful.
I am not a churchgoer or a believer, and thus, I have always been left with questions about the deeper meaning of life that could not be easily answered through traditional authorities. Instead, I have had to search for ways to make meaning myself. The importance of this quest to make meaning in a chaotic world was first impressed upon me as a young girl when I listened to my father playing traditional bluegrass songs and was almost physically jolted by the power of a single line, "Such a short time to stay here, such a long time to be gone." With that succinct encapsulation of the brevity of life, I suddenly understood how important it would be for me to do as much as I could with the short time on Earth that I was allowed. I could not look for some grand purpose to be provided. I had to do the work of making my life meaningful so that it might be remembered and impactful for the long time that I would no longer exist.
I think that the humanities contributed to my moment in three ways. First, they gave me the philosophical question about the meaning of life that I simply could not solve by looking to anyone else. Second, they gave me the musical source material that inspired me to find my own answer to that incredibly important question. Finally, throughout my life the humanities have given me the means to solve that problem by allowing me to study history, literature, art, music, and philosophy in order to make sense of the world as well as to teach my students about ways they can make their own lives meaningful.
traditional bluegrass song popularized by the Stanley Brothers
"Little Birdie," a traditional bluegrass song popularized by the Stanley Brothers
in the 1980s, during my early childhood
<a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/education-programs/teacher-advisory-council-2017-2018/">Jennifer Snoddy</a>, 42, high school history teacher, TAC member
short-time-to-stay-here
Set On a Path by Socrates
As a college freshman, Thérèse Cory encountered Plato’s Socratic dialogue <em>Euthyphro</em> for the first time. Reading Socrates’ exhortations for Euthyphro—a man bringing charges of murder against his father—to articulate a clear and universal definition of piety, Cory realized the extent to which many of us take key terms and ideas for granted. The story ignited her belief that we must discuss and understand one another’s conceptual perspectives in order to live harmoniously together. This intellectual commitment set Cory on her path to become a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
<a href="https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/meet-the-fellows/therese-scarpelli-cory/">Thérèse Cory</a>, associate professor of philosophy at Notre Dame University
set-on-a-path-by-socrates
Scottish Highlands
I've always loved to travel, and one of my favorite parts is getting to have a connection to the place that in our classrooms we refer to in the abstract. It makes the history more tangible, real, and often provides perspective that we don't get from secondary sources. While travelling in Scotland last summer, I did one of those seemingly cheesy bus tours that carts you around to different scenic and historic locations.
The legacy of English rule and colonization is still very present and visceral to the Scottish people. Hearing the stories being told about the breaking of the clans, the violence towards rebels, and seeing some of those monuments lent a viewpoint that I hadn't really been privy to. This was a topic that I had learned mostly from an English perspective, minus a movie or TV show here and there. Watching "Braveheart" is one thing, but hearing a descendant of a Scottish rebel speak of the events as though he were there is another. Standing in Glencoe valley and hearing of the skirmishes that occurred adds another layer of understanding. To this day, the experience makes me reconsider the phrase "History is written by the victor." What other perspectives are we missing by staying in one place?
A summer trip to Edinburgh, Scotland
July, 2018
Sarah Murphy, Teacher in Virginia
scottish-highlands
Saving the world may just mean saving one person's world
My Humanities Moment starts off years before I became a teacher, but it culminated when I realized what my ultimately mission was as a teacher. When I grew up, I was a very poor student, and there were many reasons why (poverty-level upbringing, broken home, alcoholic parent, mentally-handicapped parent, poorly identified learning disabilities, etc...). most of those reasons led to a nearly functionally-illiterate student through middle school, and that didn't change much through high school. <br /><br />Eventually, after stumbling my way through my formative years, I went into the U.S. Army as a military police officer. I did this very much as a means of escaping my location, the demons from my upbringing, and my poor academic success. Early on in my military career, I was found to be dyslexic, and that was a game-changer for me. It not only gave me an identifier for why I was the way I was (as a student), but it gave me relief in knowing that there was a cure (or at least a fix). Once I tackled that piece of my learning issues, a whole new world opened up to me, and I felt liberated. <br /><br />Fast forward to my first year of teaching: I knew even before I got my first teaching job what kind of teacher I wanted to be. Coming from the home and academic experiences that forged me, I knew full well that I wanted to be the teacher that I never had. I wanted to be the teacher whose mission was to save the world. I wanted to be a safe space for my students, I wanted to be dynamic, and I wanted to open up worlds they didn’t know existed, but most of all, I wanted to save all of them. The problem with that last goal is that a student who needs to be saved looks identical to students who do not need to be saved. In knowing this, I approached (and still do approach) every student as if they are the ones whose world I needed to save. My first year of teaching probably went much like everyone else’s, but my Army and law enforcement background let me master classroom management early, but content and instruction… eh, not so much. In order to make up for that weakness, I focused on being the safe space for my students. <br /><br />Not long after that first year started, our principal read us the following parable: One day an old man was walking along the beach, and he stopped to watch a little boy frantically running to the edge of the water, throwing something, and then running back up the beach away from the surf. As he watched, he realized the boy was frantically trying to save the stranded starfish laying on the beach in the sun (of which there were hundreds). After a while, the old man walked up to the boy, put a calming hand on his shoulder, and said, “son, you can’t possibly save all of them. You just can’t make a difference here. There’s hundreds!” The determined boy, with an offended scowl on his face, shrugged the man’s hand off of his shoulder, bent down and picked up another starfish, ran toward the tide while reaching back as far as he could, and chucked the starfish into the ocean. As he ran back up the beach to grab another, the boy looked at the man and said, “Maybe, but I made a difference for that one.” When I heard that parable being read, I realized that this little boy was me as a teacher. Sure I wasn’t going to be able to save them all, but I would be able to save some of them, and we all know that saving some is far more rewarding than saving none. So, while I save some, I will continue to think of a better way to save them all. That is my Humanities Moment.
A well-known parable known as the starfish story
2007 (my first year of teaching)
Gerald Evans, 43, English Teacher (high school and middle school)
saving-one-persons-world
Sacrifices and the Consequences of Dissent
Muhammad Ali was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1966. Ali did not believe in fighting in the war and he was willing to sacrifice everything based on those principles. “My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America,” he said. “And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. … Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? There are only two kinds of men,” Ali continued, “those who compromise and those who take a stand.” Ali told Pacifica Radio he was “proud to say that I am the first man in the history of all America, athlete and entertainer-wise, who gave up all the white man’s money, looked the white man in the eye, and told him the truth, and stayed with his people." Ali was sentenced to 5 years in jail, fined $10,000, stripped of his title and lost his boxing license for 3 years at the height of his career. In spite of detrimental and pervasive consequences, he sacrificed his way of life to stand strong in his beliefs. The theme of “sacrifice” permeates every aspect of the history of contested territories. All the people involved, no matter what their nationality or culture, made sacrifices related to the contested territory.
June 21, 1967
Melissa Barnhouse, 38, exceptional children's teacher
sacrifice-consequences-of-dissent
Representing Southeast Asia
There’s a game I like to play in class called “Look At.” We practice our close reading skills by gazing at a picture for 3 minutes and then writing down everything we see (or don’t see) about that image by starting each sentence with: “Look at…” When I first looked at Vietnamese American artist Dinh Q. Lê’s woven photo-collage, “Untitled #9 from Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness,” at the Ackland Art Museum (UNC Chapel Hill), I was struck first by my not knowing: what it was, how it was made, what it represented. On-screen, the image resembles 80’s over-pixelated computer graphics, but in person, it’s a traditional prayer mat woven from strips of two separate photographic images. Look at how colonized cultures are represented. These two images, official photographic records of the Khmer Rouge’s S21 prisoners, who are about to be executed, and a bas-relief of a Vishnu incarnation from the ancient Khmer temple of Angkor Wat, offer polarizing visions of how Cambodia is represented in an American imaginary: the Killing Fields or one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The two images echo questions that we’ve discussed in our National Humanities Center seminar: how are nations memorialized? What are the human geographies represented and reproduced? How are these competing representations contested? Look at Vishnu’s vanished face. When I visited Angkor Wat, I was overwhelmed by the spiritual power standing alongside me, at this nexus of religious histories, the fall of an empire, the way this temple’s physical weight changed the geographical landscape. Look at these missing eyes. The artist has razored out eyes from the S21 prisoners’ faces. They look like my parents’ old document pictures that I once found buried in a dresser drawer. When I visited the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh, I literally felt physical distress, panic, anxiety. How can the earth retain emotion and memory? Can trauma leave a residue in the earth itself? Look at the dark spaces woven together. Human meets divine. Official record meets folk tradition. Black and white meets color. Modern technology meets ancient carvings. Vishnu’s arms are outstretched: in pain? In embrace? I leave the NEH Summer Institute on Contested Territory with many more questions than answers, but such compelling questions. What does territory in Southeast Asia mean and who controls its expression? How do humans affect geography? How can we read this image through a diverse set of disciplinary expectations? How do we survive a war? And why is this important? This is why the humanities matter.
Dinh Q. Lê’
"Untitled #9 from Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness" by Dinh Q. Lê’
July 25, 2018
Adrian Khactu, High School English Teacher
representing-southeast-asia
Remembering the Music
I’ve discovered that I often associate different songs or artists with events in my life. Music is such a boon to an old woman’s memories. Some songs connect to events or ideas, such as my sixth grade Christmas pageant. Some songs connect to people, such as how I remember my late uncle from the song we often lip-synced to as we worked together. Music has the power to carry more than just a melody. I remember reading how Glen Campbell had developed Alzheimer’s Disease, but even as he lost the ability to remember the lyrics, he could still play the guitar. Music stays with you long after other things are forgotten, evoking emotions that are connected to the past.
When I was in elementary school I didn’t know anything about racial conflict or even recognize there were racial differences between the kids at my school. My classmates were just friends or people I went to school with. Everyone looked different, some had freckles, some had red hair, and some were darker skinned. That all changed the year of the 6th grade Christmas pageant. The program represented waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve with two students representing a brother and sister. All the other students singing various songs. The student selected to play the brother was white while the student selected to play the sister was African American. I remember being jealous that they were getting so much attention, but I quickly forgot my negative feelings as I prepared and rehearsed my part in the program. Then, the program grew negative as the boy’s mother protested her son being on stage with a non-white sister character. He was pulled from the show. I remember being so confused because I thought this is just a play and everyone knows they aren’t a real brother and sister, so why was this such a big deal. That was the first time I remember learning about racism, and to this day I remember this moment whenever I hear the Christmas carol I sang during that program.<br /><br />I’ve discovered that I often associate different songs or artists with events in my life. Music is such a boon to an old woman’s memories. Some songs connect to events or ideas, such as my sixth grade Christmas pageant. Some songs connect to people, such as how I remember my late uncle from the song we often lip-synced to as we worked together. Music has the power to carry more than just a melody. I remember reading how Glen Campbell had developed Alzheimer’s Disease, but even as he lost the ability to remember the lyrics, he could still play the guitar. Music stays with you long after other things are forgotten, evoking emotions that are connected to the past.
December, 1976
<a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/education-programs/teacher-advisory-council-2017-2018/">Cherry Whipple</a>, 52, Teacher
remembering-the-music
Perspectives on Commemorating the Vietnam War
“There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
The idea of “contested territories”, which we have wrestled with this week, can apply to how the war is remembered and commemorated too. My humanities moment came in a group discussion this week with Quynh, a Vietnamese professor. We were discussing the idea of the Vietnam War Memorial as a teaching tool and I asked her if there was a similar monument in Vietnam. She immediately said yes, there is: Sơn Mỹ. She showed me a picture of a monument that I assumed had the names of Vietnamese soldiers until she handed me a piece of paper with the words “Mỹ Lai Massacre”. I realized this monument contained the names of more than 500 civilians killed by U.S. soldiers in the Sơn Mỹ district in 1968. At first, in my mind, I rejected the idea that this monument could be like the Vietnam War Memorial displaying the names of all the Americans killed in the war. I didn’t want to equate a Vietnamese monument to Mỹ Lai, one of the worst events in the war, with the Wall. But I came to understand that in some ways the monuments are similar. The war made victims of both sides.
July 24, 2018
Laura Wakefield, History Educator
perspectives-on-commemorating-the-vietnam-war
Overlooked Histories
The image of this colorful sign is obviously meant to be “fun” and perhaps even funny. When I took this picture while traveling with fellow teachers and educators in Barbados, it honestly was because I thought the sign was kind of cute. But later on that day, when I thought about the sign and about looking East across the Atlantic Ocean, I had mixed emotions. The image seemed cheerful, but thinking about the sign marking the distance to Africa’s west coast made me feel anything but. All I could think about was that a few hundred years ago, African slaves on that coast were forced onto ships in chains. Those people endured a horrific journey of thousands of miles that lasted for several months, during which they endured most gruesome, horrific, inhumane treatment imaginable. Men, women, and children were separated from their loved ones, herded onto ships like animals, and packed into tight spaces to maximize cargo and profit for their captors. Many died of disease, suffocation, or drowning by throwing themselves overboard because they would rather die on their own terms than face whatever horrors awaited them at the end of their journey. Those that survived were whipped, beaten, starved, and then sold on the island of Barbados to grow sugar cane and face some of the shortest lifespans for slaves anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. These thoughts make me really upset. It’s a mixture of sadness, anger, shame and guilt that I used to push out of my mind when talking about or teaching about slavery or other less-than-cheerful topics in history in order to seem more objective or “removed”, but now I embrace those feelings. I use them to check my privilege, and to fuel the fire in me as a teacher and lifelong learner to learn as much as I can about the events and people in history who are so often underserved or overlooked because they aren’t “pleasant” or nostalgic enough to be “fun” to teach or learn about.
My trip to Barbados was an eye-opening one in many ways (some unexpected). I discovered that some of my own ancestors are buried on that island, and I learned that they were sugar planters and slave owners. This discovery further affirmed my belief that everyone is connected. Those connections might be rooted in the past, but they shape our present in ways that we don’t always fully, consciously acknowledge or understand. I wasn’t surprised by this information, and I also make no effort whatsoever to hide it. I don’t want to hide it. I don’t want to feel neutral or indifferent about it. I don’t want to ignore it or bury it or pretend that it doesn’t matter. It does matter. It matters because my privilege as a white person living in the United States is built on the forced movement and enslavement of African people. My ancestors came to the Americas of their own free will, and profited from slave labor in Barbados before they moved further north to Virginia. Those are the facts. The life that I now live and the comforts that I enjoy are byproducts of slavery, and to deny that fact would be unconscionable.
As a teacher, it is my responsibility to convey to my students that the impact of slavery cannot be underestimated. It is my job as an educator to not only be an objective purveyor of knowledge and information, but to help students contextualize why historical truth matters and how white privilege allows people to feel neutral and indifferent about slavery. Removed or neutral feelings about slavery are artifacts of white supremacy. Slavery isn’t something that should be taught only as a part of a unit on European Exploration and Colonization of the Americas. The Atlantic Slave Trade defines the American experience for all of us. The modern history of this entire hemisphere and of the entire world is defined by it. In my 10th and 11th grade classes, students do have questions about slavery and the slave trade. Unfortunately, they often sound a bit like this: “It happened, it was bad, but should we really worry that much about it? Do we really know what slavery was like? Do we really need to talk about it that much? Does it really affect people living in the 21st century?” This trip to Barbados, and the humanities moment that I had there only reaffirmed my belief that the answer to all of those questions is: YES.
A sign that I photographed while on the Atlantic coast of the island.
Kristen Wilson 30 years old, history teacher in Albemarle County, Virginia
overlooked-histories
My Service in the Navy Sparked a Lifelong Interest in Other Cultures
Teacher Lou Nachman discusses how his experiences overseas in the Navy changed him from an indifferent student to embrace life as a teacher and enthusiastic traveler.<br /><br />For Nachman, works of literature such as <em>Big Fish</em> or <em>To Kill a Mockingbird</em> forge an appreciation of human connections in the midst of apparent differences. In doing so, he says, they urge us to reflect on our own place in the world: how do we think, and how do we <em>want</em> to think?
Novels such as <em>Big Fish</em> and <em>To Kill a Mockingbird</em>
Lou Nachman, Charlotte Mecklenburg School District, NC
navy-other-cultures
Madonna’s Mandorla
While acting as a teaching assistant for a large art appreciation course, Caroline Jones witnessed a student’s curiosity about a painting of the Madonna. Such symbols, so pervasive and recognizable in Western culture, she realized, are not as simple and self-contained as they may seem to some of us. The experience helped her to see that even familiar objects are best considered through multiple frames, and that all parts of the humanities—including art history, religion, and history—are made more robust when put into a dialogue with one another.
<a href="https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/meet-the-fellows/caroline-a-jones/">Caroline A. Jones</a>, professor of art history at MIT
madonnas-mandorla
Looking Beyond Manipulative Rhetoric Toward Deeper Understanding and Insight
Matt Smith is a nationally recognized musician, founder of Six String Ranch, and Music Studio Director of Phoenix Academy Austin, a youth residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility. Here he recounts how, as a young street musician, he came to understand both the importance of deep listening and the power of manipulative rhetoric. In addition to saving him from a potentially dangerous situation as he encountered the California-based People’s Temple cult, these insights have also become foundational to his current work as a musician and teacher.
Matt Smith, musician, founder of <a href="https://www.sixstringranch.com/home">Six String Ranch</a> in Austin, TX
looking-beyond-rhetoric
Learning to Sing Stories
<p>Juan Felipe Herrera, a performance artist, activist, and U.S. poet laureate in 2015, recalls how his third-grade teacher’s compliment on his singing voice led to his lifelong belief in using his voice to encourage the beauty in the voices, stories, and, experiences of others. He goes on to speak about the power of the humanities to warm communities, create peace, and, move hearts.</p>
<p>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 <a href="http://calhum.org/about/we-are-the-humanities" title="California Humanities: We Are the Humanities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California Humanities: We Are the Humanities</a>.</p>
Juan Felipe Herrera, performance artist, activist, and U.S. Poet Laureate in 2015
juan-felipe-herrera
Learning How to Read a Poem
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="http://calhum.org/about/we-are-the-humanities" title="California Humanities: We Are the Humanities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California Humanities: We Are the Humanities</a>.</p>
"Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God" by John Donne; <em>Death Comes for the Archbishop</em> by Willa Cather
Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California
janet-napolitano
Learning By Myself
School was not a challenge for me growing up. I was usually bored and busy talking. It was not until my junior year when my APUSH teacher Mr. Greenfield informed me on day 1 that he was aware that I was smart and that he would be challenging me. He did not allow me to use the textbook. All my learning came from primary resources and outside of the classroom research.
The surprise to me was that I absolutely loved the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment of learning it on my own. This year I am split between teaching US/VA History Honors 11 and English 8 and I can’t stress enough how much my heart sings while guiding my history students in their own explorations for learning. I know Mr. Greenfield would be!
1981
Anonymous
learning-by-myself
J.C. Bach and the Exhaustion of Feeling
I was around 16 years old at the time of my humanities moment. I had been playing the viola for 7 years. As usually occurred, I became bored with practicing the first movement of J.C. Bach's Viola Concerto in C minor that my teacher had given me for an upcoming recital, so I decided to skip to the next movement. The second one was not one that my teacher ever assigned her students, so I hadn't heard it before. After a somewhat cobbled together sight-reading attempt, I decided to look up a recording.
The song was hauntingly beautiful, filled with slow, elongated melodies and fast, anxious lines. I don't know what Casadesus intended to communicate with it, but, for me, it was a song about grief. The slow passages are restrained emotion, how one might feel when they are trying to keep themselves from feeling their sadness. The piece then becomes more anxious, as if unable to stop from considering what's going on. After the climax, it wanes, as if exhausted by the full cycle of the feeling. All of this was clear to me immediately upon listening.
The piece both changed the way that I played music, but also changed the way that I considered music in my life. It was what I turned to play immediately after the passing of a loved one. I played it in my senior recital. I have returned to it over and over ever since. It encouraged me to seek out musical moments in my life, and to consider the emotional and personal significance of humanities works.
J.C. Bach
J.C. Bach's Viola Concerto in C Minor, 2nd Movement
2012
Megan Kitts, 25, Philosophy Ph.D. Student
bach-exhaustion-feeling
It was never about the slingshot
I was selected for a two week institute entitled, Contested Territory, in which we took a deep dive into the multiple understandings and misunderstanding surrounding the Vietnam War (or as the Vietnamese refer to it: The American War). I had a basic understanding of this war in that it was a product of the Cold War. I was taught that the Vietnam War was an avoidable mistake and that it should be a precautionary tale of how not to make that mistake again.
In a lecture given by Pierre Asselin, Professor of History at San Diego State University, I was struck by how my understanding of the Vietnam War, in which the superpowers of the cold war had used Ho Chi Minh and the landscape of Vietnam in a proxy war, was grossly oversimplifying.
In fact, Asselin argued that it was Ho Chi Minh who used Russia, the US and even China to accomplish his real goals: to expel the French, to become an independent nation, to increase civil rights in Vietnam and to produce a strong national, working class led government.
It is Ho Chi Minh who allows the US to train his Viet Minh army to fight the Japanese and then go on to use the same training to fight the French and eventually align with China to fight the US. The communist/nationalist party of Vietnam continually plays both sides of the cold war tensions between the Soviet Union and the US to get aid from both sides and to establish independence. Ho Chi Minh went so far as to model the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence on the US Declaration of Independence at the same time it was meeting with the USSR to align with the world communist struggle and model his government on its principles.
Once Truman declares a policy of containment in regards to communism the Vietnam War is inevitable. No President could survive the political fall out of allowing communism to spread in South East Asia or anywhere else. As a result, small countries become extremely important on the world stage as the US and the USSR engage in a game of RISK. But that game makes the super powers vulnerable. Small countries can now play the US and the USSR against each other to impose power over them. It becomes clear to Ho Chi Minh and others that Vietnam can now threaten to adopt communism unless they gain US support which they can then use to negotiate favor from the USSR. David and Goliath was never about the slingshot; it’s about David manipulating the giant to let down its guard just enough so that he can deliver the kill shot. The United States lost the Vietnam War when it based its foreign policy on ideology. Ho Chi Minh was not a puppet of the cold war, he was an architect.
"You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it."
-Ho Chi Minh
Excerpt from TheDeclaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
"For the people of Vietnam, who were just beginning to recover from five years of ruthless economic exploitation by the Japanese, the end of World War II promised to bring eighty years of French control to a close. As the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi), better known as the Viet Minh, Vietnamese nationalists had fought against the Japanese invaders as well as the defeated French colonial authorities. With the support of rich and poor peasants, workers, businessmen, landlords, students, and intellectuals, the Viet Minh (led by Ho Chi Minh) had expanded throughout northern Vietnam where it established new local governments, redistributed some lands, and opened granaries to alleviate the famine. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh square. The first lines of his speech repeated verbatim the famous second paragraph of America’s 1776 Declaration of Independence.
All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free."
July 24, 2018
Terry Ashkinos, 8th grade Humanities teacher, CA
never-about-the-slingshot
Inspired by Activism
It was my first day of observations at the school I now teach at. The day had progressed as a typical day and I had the chance to observe two World History 1 courses. After those classes my mentor teacher got into a conversation with two administrators about the events they were expecting for later that day. There was a planned student walkout in response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida which had happened a month before.
Students of all ages across the country had coordinated what became the first student-led movement for gun control. I was inspired by the students for elevating their voices and creating a platform to stand up and demand that action be taken. I was also inspired by the teachers and administrators of my school who wore shirts in support, helped to answer questions for confused students, and supported any and all of the students who participated in the walkout.
These students were willing to stand up and say they have seen enough and can not sit idly by as more and more of these tragedies occur. The reason I got into teaching was to work with students like this and I hope to be able to inspire some of them. Everyday I get more and more inspired by these students.
Student Protest
March 14, 2018
Josh Britton, 25, High School Teacher
inspired-activism
Inspirational Literature
In this video Marlene Daut describes how teaching literature to college students enables them to both understand their lives and history better, as well as be inspired regarding their possible futures.
<a href="http://www.haitianrevolutionaryfictions.com/">Marlene Daut</a>, Associate Professor of African Diaspora Studies, University of Virginia
marlene-daut-inspirational-literature