1
30
11
-
https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/528/woman-1283009_640.jpg
41f737529de82f030230b69af58e54bd
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Visiting the Art Museum
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visiting-art-museum
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Educators
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This collection features contributions by teachers, education administrators and others involved in teaching at levels K-16.
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educators-humanities-moments
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Social Studies Cohort
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G. Lee, 33, Social Studies Teacher
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July 17, 2021
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Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Description
An account of the resource
Recently, I've found myself longing to take advantage of the Smithsonian Museums that are so conveniently located ten miles northeast of my home- maybe it's because such destinations were closed for a long period of time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I figured that I might as well take advantage of these attractions re-opening and welcoming guests. Only a select few Smithsonian venues have opened their doors and so I decided to visit one that I've always enjoyed in the past, the Freer Gallery of Art. The Freer Gallery of Art boasts an impressive collection of art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, and the Middle East. The collections range from the late Neolithic period to the modern era- there is certainly plenty to see. One of the main attractions located in the Freer Gallery is the <em>Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room</em>. This is a beautifully decorated room that serves as a lasting example of aestheticism. Despite the beauty and enveloping nature of the Peacock Room, I found my humanities moment in other places within the museum. <br /><br />My humanities moment came to me while viewing pottery, porcelain, ceramics, paintings, and sculptures from East Asia and South Asia. The connections to be made between cultures in India, China, and Korea, simply by identifying the similarities and trends in the artifacts seemed endless. Whether it was a ceramic-making technique or the spread and artistic display of Buddhism that could be traced across civilizations- regional interaction was present. Part of being a Social Studies teacher is facilitating the process of students making connections through the examination of regional interactions across time. Making those connections helps students be more globally-minded citizens.
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Artifacts at the Museum
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artifacts-museum
Art Museums
Connection
Cultural Awareness
History Education
Teachers & Teaching
-
https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/524/miniature-3589682_640.jpg
f695f64b9538c81641d843818f6ea156
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Miniature City
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Pixabay
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miniature-city
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Educators
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This collection features contributions by teachers, education administrators and others involved in teaching at levels K-16.
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educators-humanities-moments
Text
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FCPS Summer Curriculum Development project work
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Kim Karayannis, FCPS Social Studies teacher
Date
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1991
Source
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8th grade US History class
Description
An account of the resource
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.
Title
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The Day I Knew I Was Going to Teach History
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day-knew-teach-history
Connection
History Education
Teachers & Teaching
U.S. Civil War (1861-1865)
U.S. History
-
https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/516/kz-2063348_640.jpg
d2cda1ebdd1f19934acab2c1e6bd5870
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Dachau
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Pixabay
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dachau
Dublin Core
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Educators
Description
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This collection features contributions by teachers, education administrators and others involved in teaching at levels K-16.
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educators-humanities-moments
Text
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Natalie Glees, 25, teacher
Date
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July 2021
Source
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Third Reich Tour in Munich
Description
An account of the resource
I recently returned from a two week mini "Grand Tour" of Europe. The last stop on our itinerary was the Bavarian capital, Munich. As a World History teacher, I had to sign up for the Third Reich walking tour of the city. Along the two hour walk, we saw many significant sites like the Nazi Headquarters, Dodger’s Alley, and Hofbrauhaus. However, the most remarkable moment for me was actually the very end of the tour.
As we stood in Marienplatz, the last stop on our journey, our guide asked if we had any questions. The ten of us looked around at each other and remained silent, except for one man who asked, “How is Nazi history taught in German schools?” Our tour guide explained that when he was in high school in the 1980s, he learned about Nazi history for about two weeks. After a tumultuous year, teaching online during the pandemic, I only had about two weeks to teach most units which spanned hundreds of years, rather than a few decades. He added that his children who are currently in school spend about two months learning about the Nazi period. Additionally, every student in Bavaria is required to visit Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp in Germany.
I was in awe listening to how the German education system teaches the darkest period in the country’s history. I thought about how I learned about slavery in the US when I was a student. I grew up in Northern Virginia, an area rich in Civil War sites and mansions owned by slaveholders. However, our field trip to Mount Vernon in 1st grade and trip to a Civil War era mansion in 4th grade completely ignored the lives of the enslaved people who lived and worked on the grounds. Then I considered how controversial teaching accurate history in the US has become, especially the last few years. I reflected on how I taught. I try to provide students with a more detailed understanding of often oversimplified topics like slavery, colonialism, and imperialism but was I doing enough? What perspectives was I missing?
Germany’s commitment to providing a thorough and accurate understanding of one the most inhumane and difficult topics to teach motivated me to improve upon my instruction for the upcoming school year. I hope to reframe many units to highlight the experience of the oppressed and those who tried to enact change, rather than focusing on the elite who fought to maintain control.
Title
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Facing History is Not a Walk in the Park
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facing-history-not-walk-park
Europe
History Education
Holocaust
Teachers & Teaching
World History
-
https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/512/Auschwitz.png
36b3932ee9dfcaf970464a5cf01132cb
Dublin Core
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Auschwitz-Birkenau
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auschwitz-birkenau
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Rebecca Watt
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Educators
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This collection features contributions by teachers, education administrators and others involved in teaching at levels K-16.
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educators-humanities-moments
Text
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professional development
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Rebecca Watt, Social Studies Teacher and avid traveler
Date
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2008
Source
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Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
Description
An account of the resource
We (my mother, father, sister, and I) were travelling in Poland (where my mother's family is from). One of the places we visited was Auschwitz.
Every year I teach about World War II including the Holocaust. I share photos from my travels with my students throughout the school year, but it is something I was not able to photograph that chokes me up every year. The shoes. There is a large room, really more of a warehouse, with what looks like a large aquarium along one side (glass floor to ceiling). It is mostly (and used to be) full of shoes. Over time the shoes have begun to disintegrate and settled, making the number look smaller than what they represent. Knowing that it was common for individuals to have only one pair, maybe two pairs, of shoes means that every pair represents a person. You can talk about the sheer number of people who died in the Holocaust, in World War II, but those are abstract and sometimes too large to comprehend. But the shoes make those numbers real - real people, real families, real lives lost...maybe people my mother's family knew or lived near or went to school with. People who were removed from their homes, put on trains, sorted when they disembarked, stripped of their possessions and identities and murdered. Every year when I talk about this with my students, I have to pause and collect myself. And every year I hope that I am providing a sense of the personal into our history class so they don't ask the question "why are we learning about this?"
Title
A name given to the resource
The Shoes
History Education
Holocaust
Teachers & Teaching
World War II (1939-1945)
-
https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/511/arch-4297400_640.jpg
2696afd103588bad71de235fa4c3fa74
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St. Louis Arch
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Pixabay
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st-louis-arch
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Educators
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This collection features contributions by teachers, education administrators and others involved in teaching at levels K-16.
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educators-humanities-moments
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My school district's curriculum design project
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Michelle Lukacs, 30, Social Studies Secondary Teacher
Date
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Fall 2017
Source
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<em>Facing East from Indian Country</em>
Description
An account of the resource
In my first semester as a history grad student, I remember reading an assigned book that changed my perspective on history forever. Prior to grad school, I had a very basic and foundation building education at that point. Looking back to my undergraduate years in a history program, I realized now how traditional the views and sources were. It wasn't until I entered my grad school program that I realized how much more open the field of history has been in recent history with its intersectionality and fresh perspectives in modern scholarship. <br /><br />I had a moment that completely deconstructed my idea of U.S. History when I was participating in our class discussion on Daniel K. Richter's <em>Facing East from Indian Country</em>. In the book's introduction, Richter shares a narrative of a moment he had in a St. Louis hotel room overlooking the famous Arch structure and thought to himself what if we viewed U.S. history facing east instead of facing west? That simple perspective shift upended my grade school education and historical upbringing as a young student. No longer was the story driven and told simply from the powerful and oppressive sources. The victims of the powerful were now being told that there was value to their stories and provide a fuller understanding of history. <br /><br />Richter shares the historical problem of the lack of primary sources from American Indians but still attempts to share a narrative with their perspectives at the center. He uses an unconventional method of sourcing to achieve his goals and provides an alternative history that highlights the pain and brokenness that European colonization has caused in North America. As an educator and historian, I am inspired by Richter's work and methodology and I hope to create learning experiences for my students that will not only inform them of the traditionally missing voices in history but also share with them the new ways that the field of history has been trying to create a fuller, more accurate and balanced history that will hopefully inspire them to do the same in their futures.
Title
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The Power of a Perspective Change
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Daniel K. Richter
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power-perspective-change
History Education
Marginalized Voices
Richter, Daniel K.
Teachers & Teaching
U.S. History
-
https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/433/syn-ecc_NotreDame1-296x300.png
9cafdf803f9821cbc30c651c1cc9b069
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Statues
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statues
Text
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From one of my graduate students at Penn State (Morgane Haesen, whose "Moment" you published)
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Willa Z. Silverman, 62, Malvin E. and Lea P. Bank Professor of French and Jewish Studies, Penn State University
Date
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Spring 2021
Source
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<em>Night and Fog </em>(1955)
Description
An account of the resource
“Nothing distinguished the gas chamber from an ordinary blockhouse,” writes Jean Cayrol in the screenplay for Alain Resnais’ iconic filmic meditation on the Shoah, Night and Fog (1956). “Inside, a fake shower room welcomed newcomers. The doors were closed. The newcomers were observed. The only sign – but you must know this (il faut le savoir) – is the ceiling worked over by fingernails. Even the concrete was torn.” At this point in the film, like an insistent investigative eye, the camera pans to the ceiling of the gas chamber, revealing the telltale scratch marks. The image of fingernails clawing into concrete in a desperate attempt for survival recurs in another work about Holocaust memory that we read this semester, Georges Perec’s W, or the Memory of Childhood (1975). Recalling an exhibit he had visited with his aunt shortly after the war – the same one, in fact, that led producers to ask Alain Resnais to create the film that would become Night and Fog -- the child survivor narrator writes: “I remember photos showing the walls of the ovens, lacerated by the fingernails of those who had been gassed.”
Il faut le savoir. The phrase has haunted me throughout the semester. You must know this. Because it happened. Because many would deny that it did, depriving the victims of dignity and history of truth. Fingernail scratches in the crematoria walls of Auschwitz, asks the neo-Nazi website The Stormer? “Jewish mythology says ‘yes.’ Science says ‘no.’” You must know this, because soon there will be no more survivors, and those still alive often find it too painful, or shameful, to share their testimony, or else they have learned to suppress it so as not to trouble others. “No one wanted my memories,” writes Birkenau survivor Marceline Loridan-Ivens in But You Did Not Come Back. You must know this, because 2/3 of young Americans, according to a 2020 national poll, lack a rudimentary understanding of the Holocaust. “Where did the Holocaust happen?” educator Rhonda Fink-Whitman asks a Penn State student in her 2012 documentary, 94 Maidens. “I have no idea.” You must know this, as Cayrol writes in Night and Fog, because “war is sleeping, but with one eye always open.” As I write, genocide continues to be perpetuated against the Muslim Rohingya people by the military in Myanmar. “Who among us keeps watch from this strange watchtower to warn of the arrival of our new executioners?”
But to know – and this is a second meaning of il faut le savoir -- one must be ‘in the know,’ know where to look, how to be on the lookout, how to decode the signs. You have to be tipped off to find the “Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation” (1962) tucked in a small square behind the behemoth of Notre-Dame Cathedral, just as you must be ‘in the know’ to be disturbed by the memorial’s identification of those deported from France as willing “martyrs” to a cause rather than victims of state persecution by both the Nazis and the Vichy regime. The French State headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain is nowhere mentioned in this memorial monument, yet it deported over 75.000 Jews from France to their deaths, along with, in smaller numbers, Roma, the disabled, Jehovah’s witnesses, gay men and lesbians, and other ‘undesirables.’ Stroll around to the main façade of Notre-Dame to contemplate the two female allegorical figures framing it; only if you’re ‘in the know’ about the anti-Semitic underpinnings of European Christianity through the mid-20th century will you understand that one figure represents the Church triumphant, while the other, with downward cast, blindfolded gaze and broken Torah tablets at her feet, symbolizes the Synagogue. As only one photograph of this event remains, you need to be on the lookout for the tiny plaque at the foot of a bustling Parisian office building marking the site of the former Vélodrome d’hiver, an indoor bicycle track where over 11,000 Jews, including over 4,000 children, were packed for several sweltering days in July 1942 before being herded to their deaths. “A peaceful landscape,” writes Cayrol, “An ordinary field with flights of crows, harvests, grass fires. An ordinary road where cars and peasants and lovers pass. An ordinary village for vacationers – with a marketplace and a steeple – Can lead all too easily to a concentration camp.” Il faut le savoir.
“Every hour of every day,” writes Hélène Berr, a young upper-class French Jewish woman who survived a year in deportation before being beaten to death in Bergen-Belsen, “there is another painful realization that other folk do not know, do not even imagine, the suffering of other men, the evil that some of them inflict. And I am still trying to make the painful effort to tell the story. Because it is a duty, it is maybe the only one I can fulfill. There are men wo know and who close their eyes, and I’ll never manage to convince people of that kind, because they are hard and selfish, and I have no authority. But people who do not know and who might have sufficient heart to understand – on those people I must have an effect.” Let us – we who in Primo Levi’s words “live safe in [our] warm houses,” armed with all we have learned this semester, make the “painful effort to the tell the story” to all those who will listen, “those with sufficient heart to understand.” Because the world must know. Yes, il faut le savoir.
Title
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“Il faut le savoir:” Reflecting on France’s Holocaust History and Memory
Creator
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Jean Cayrol, Alain Resnais
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il-faut-le-savoir
Documentary Films
Emotional Experience
Film and Movies
Historical Memory
History
History Education
Holocaust
Memorials
Memory
Teachers & Teaching
War
-
https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/335/HM_Calming_the_Waters.jpg
203b702ab17614f4ff93eff22120be93
Dublin Core
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Title
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Fighter Jet Missile
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fighter-jet-missile
Text
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FCPS Social Studies (High School) lead
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Paul Haynes, history teacher, Navy veteran, and former government employee, 59
Description
An account of the resource
My Humanities Moment came earlier this year as I watched the news reporting on North Korea's recent test launch of a ballistic missile coming on the heels of Iran shooting down a drone and possibly attacking oil fields and facilities in Saudi Arabia. Having spent twenty years in the military and ten more working for the ballistic missile defense agency I saw firsthand the importance of leadership and having an understanding of current events. Such events can be impacted by decisions made in the heat of the moment without having time to think about the factors under consideration. <br /><br />Studying history to understand previous events and thinking through alternative scenarios, as pointed out by Clausewitz in his book <em>On War</em> is the only way for military and top government personal to work through issues before the fact. The opportunities are limited, thankfully, but when they do come up, only by thinking ahead can the person be ready. <br /><br />Looking at the current events taking place I can see there is a likely opportunity for senior government leaders, military or civilian, to be in a fast moving environment where the wrong decision could lead to a catasrophe and I am wondering about how much time they have spent preparing for the moment and if our high school history programs put enough emphasis on developing decision processes in our students. If not, what can I do in my classroom to encourage students to develop their decision making process and how they can practice it in the classroom while doing their assignments?
Title
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Calming the Waters or Facing the Consequences
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calming-the-waters-or-facing-the-consequences
Clausewitz, Carl von
History Education
International Relations
Military Service
On War
-
https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/230/Menendez_Landing_in_St_Augustine.jpg
40cb4af0d9d4e402a7f7cdd9af54dde2
Dublin Core
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Title
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Menéndez Landing by Stanley Meltzoff
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Teacher Advisory Council
Description
An account of the resource
This collection includes contributions from the National Humanities Center's Teacher Advisory Council. The council is a 14-member board that supports the Education Programs of the National Humanities Center for a one-year term of service.
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
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Through my work with the NHC's 2018-19 TAC
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Judy Lindquist, 59 years old, Educator and Author and 2018-19 Teacher Advisory Council member
Date
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Around 1990
Source
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A painting by Stanley Meltzoff depicting the establishment of St. Augustine Florida by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
Description
An account of the resource
I was born in Boston and raised in New England. I attended an elite, all-girls, private school in New England, which was established in 1854 with the mission of turning out highly educated, capable young ladies, even before college was an option for all. So by the time I got there in the 1960s and 70s, female empowerment was steeped in the hallways. So were the ideals of a rigorous, humanities-based education. Through a curriculum rich in history, literature, writing, and the arts, I learned so much about our world.
I learned, for example, that the history of our country started in the early 1600s with the pilgrims from England and Holland who were seeking a better place to build their lives. I learned that in 1607 the colony of Jamestown was established, and not long after that in 1620, the Plymouth Colony. I learned that over the next hundred and fifty years or so, more and more settlers made the journey from England and established colonies up and down the east coast. As those colonies grew, they began to feel that England no longer understood or cared about their needs, so they signed the Declaration of Independence and asked General Washington to lead their Continental Army in the subsequent war. When the dust settled and the colonists had won, the United States was born.
While my young-self did understand that all such historical events were steeped in complexity and layers of understanding, this was the story of the founding of our country that stayed with me.
I was in my thirties when my husband got transferred to Florida and we relocated south. My first job in Florida was a 4th Grade Teacher. As you may know, the Social Studies curriculum for 4th Graders is usually the history of the State in which they live. Admittedly, I knew nothing about Florida History, so I realized I had better remedy that, and began to read everything I could get my hands on about Florida history. It did not take long for me to be hooked. I fell deeply in love with my new home state. It has such a rich and diverse history. The native tribes; the architecture; the wildlife and ecosystems. I discovered that Florida is a complex and wonderful place. And in my journey of discovery, I started reading about this place called St. Augustine, which was established in Sept. of 1565 as a Spanish settlement and has been the oldest, continuously occupied European settlement in what is now the United States.
You can imagine my surprise as I discovered this! 1565 is well before 1607 and 1620. How did I not know this? I was flabbergasted.
This became a moment of insight for me as I realized that our geography, our sense of place, no matter how hard we try for it not to, impacts our perspective and how we view events and the world. Almost as if we were literally standing in our geographic location, our understanding of historical events is viewed through the prism of where we are located. It also clarified for me the importance of acknowledging the multiple perspectives that are always present in events and issues.
This painting was selected as a visual representation of my Humanities Moment because it captures the landing at St. Augustine. Pedro Menendez de Avilez is the man kneeling in the painting and he led the voyage from Spain to settle Florida. When he landed, it was Sept. 15th, so he named the place they landed and their settlement after St Augustin. By Stanley Meltzoff, from National Geographic and dated February 1966, this painting is a representation of what the artist believed the landing party to be. Pedro Menendez is receiving the blessing of the priest who accompanied the voyagers, while the Spanish soldiers and the Natives looked on. While I do not know the historical accuracy of this painting as it related to the actual events of 1565, for me, the painting represents my new understanding that history is much more complex than simply learning about names, dates, and events. My personal discovery of St. Augustine and the history of this magical place, has influenced my life in so many profound ways.
Telling the stories of those in the past, has become a vocation of sorts. In addition to being an educator, I have also become an author of middle grades, historical fiction novels. And in that role, I seek to tell the stories of those who are most often overlooked as we look back. To tell the stories of not only Pedro Menendez de Avilez, but of the others who are standing peripherally on the edges- yet who also impacted, and were impacted by, historical events.
Title
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Historical Perspectives
Identifier
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historical-perspectives
Geography
History Education
Menéndez de Avilés, Pedro
Menéndez Landing
Painting
St. Augustine, Florida
Teachers & Teaching
Vocation
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https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/229/Gandhi_Statue.jpg
ddab9dc986830e1b6909fee5e4613c30
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Statue of Mohandas Gandhi
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TAC
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Rick Parker, Middle School Social Studies Teacher
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September 2018
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Statue of Mohandas Gandhi
Description
An account of the resource
In front of the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta you’ll find this statue of Mohandas Gandhi. For years I have used a photograph of this statue to introduce our Indian Independence unit to my 7th graders with the prompt “Why is this statue of Gandhi in front of the King Center?” My students are already familiar with the American civil rights movement, and this inquiry was always a great hook to learn about Gandhi’s system of nonviolent civil disobedience, which Dr. King utilized so effectively.
Recently a substitute teacher asked a question that made me re-evaluate this prompt and the lesson I’d been teaching. During a casual conversation at lunch she asked me, “Why is Gandhi’s statue in front of the King Center?” I started to talk about satyagraha and how King found inspiration from Gandhi’s methods of protesting injustice, when she stopped me. “No, why is a statue of a racist in front of Dr. King’s museum?”
I was taken aback. It’s true, Gandhi’s racism toward people of African descent is well documented. He wrote about the black people of South Africa using derogatory terms like “Kaffir” and lamented the indignity of being imprisoned with native Africans. He spoke out against forcing Indians to share the same communities with Africans and condemned the denigration of Indian genes through marriage with black people.
Without realizing it, I had been teaching a sanitized version of Gandhi’s legacy. This moment opened a whole box of questions. For example:
- Surely, Dr. King knew about Gandhi’s views. Yet, he chose to ignore these for the sake of what he could accomplish by using Gandhi as a role model. What does that say about Dr. King? Was he selectively ignoring the racism or was his character so strong that he could look past this?
- Who “owns” history? Historians who seek to paint the clearest, most accurate record of the past? Or people who use those lessons for their own purposes?
- Was my pride in engaging students with history in a way that was easy for them to digest misplaced? Have I been doing them a disservice all these years?
So, I’m embracing a new approach. History is messy and needs to be taught that way. Exposing students to all sides of a story gives them a better chance to explore the nuances and form their own opinions. It can also give them a deeper appreciation for figures like Dr. King.
Title
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An epiphany over a statue of Gandhi
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epiphany-over-gandhi
Atlanta, Georgia
Civil Disobedience
Gandhi, Mohandas
History
History Education
King, Martin Luther
Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
Memory
Racism
Statues
Teachers & Teaching
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https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/12/226/Africa_This_Way.jpg
b21c6429c2a552def18005801c98a8f2
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Barbados signs
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Barbados-signs
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Virginia Geographic Alliance West Indies Teacher Institute
Description
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A week-long experiential professional development experience for teachers taking place during June 2018 in Barbados
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From Andy Mink
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Kristen Wilson 30 years old, history teacher in Albemarle County, Virginia
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A sign that I photographed while on the Atlantic coast of the island.
Description
An account of the resource
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.
Title
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Overlooked Histories
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overlooked-histories
Ancestry
Bathsheba, Barbados
History
History Education
Memory
Slavery
Teachers & Teaching
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https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/8/58/plutarchs-lives-300.jpg
0d5fb2a30a5a9bf2daa0e558f5c0b2c8
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Plutarch's “Lives”
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National Humanities Center Fellows
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Any contributions from current or past fellows at the National Humanities Center
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This collection includes contributions from current or past fellows at the National Humanities Center
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An Unexpected Insight
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<p>At the end of my sophomore year in high school, during the awards ceremony in June, I received my varsity letter for playing football. And then my history teacher, Mr. Harvey, got up and gave three academic awards. To my complete surprise, I received one of those prizes. It was a book of <em>Plutarch’s Lives</em>, which was inscribed to me in part as follows: “This book ... represents his persistent toil toward clear, precise and meaningful expression in history at the Paris American High School.”</p>
<p>In addition, Mr. Harvey had also written the following quotation on the inside cover of the book, for me to ponder: “In times of danger and change when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present.” –John Dos Passos<br /><br />Mr. Harvey was the most outstanding, demanding and humane teacher I studied with during my four years of high school. His course in world history first opened my eyes to the excitement of historical studies, to discussing the interpretation and meaning of historical developments, to independent and critical thinking, and to the challenge of writing [my historical essays] well. He would write copious comments on my papers, counseling me, e.g., to choose words wisely, especially verbs — remember what Voltaire said, he reminded us: “the verb is the soul of the sentence.” Receiving this recognition from him was so unexpected and so wonderful; the way I felt you might have thought I had won a Nobel Prize. And as part of this gift, he offered his final unexpected insight, with that quote from John Dos Passos. He was sharing another idea, giving me yet another view — a long and capacious view — of how and why the study of history is so valuable and important.</p>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Mr. Harvey was the most outstanding, demanding and humane teacher I studied with during my four years of high school. His course in world history first opened my eyes to the excitement of historical studies, to discussing the interpretation and meaning of historical developments, to independent and critical thinking, and to the challenge of writing [my historical essays] well. He would write copious comments on my papers, counseling me, e.g., to choose words wisely, especially verbs — remember what Voltaire said, he reminded us: “the verb is the soul of the sentence.” Receiving this recognition from him was so unexpected and so wonderful; the way I felt you might have thought I had won a Nobel Prize. And as part of this gift, he offered his final unexpected insight, with that quote from John Dos Passos. He was sharing another idea, giving me yet another view — a long and capacious view — of how and why the study of history is so valuable and important.
Date
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June 1, 1956
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Jaroslav Folda, N. Ferebee Taylor Professor emeritus, UNC
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unexpected-insight
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<em>Plutarch's Lives</em>
Books & Reading
Dos Passos, John
History Education
Paris American High School
Paris, France
Plutarch
Plutarch's Lives
Professors
Teachers & Teaching
World History