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"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,,,,,,"Hello, my name is Justina Licata, and I am a Ph.D. student studying history at UNC-G. And my humanities moment relates to how I became a history major many years ago, and it dates back to my eighth grade year. I think I was 13, I may have been 12. I went to school in Southern California in a town called Yorba Linda, it's actually where Nixon was born. Anyway, side-note. And I was very excited to take history, particularly U.S. history, I loved, loved history because my parents really made it a big part of my childhood by buying my sister and I lots of great books about history and art history. So I already had a really great foundation for loving history, but my eighth grade history/social studies teacher really kind of cemented it for me. Her name was Mrs. McClain and she was a fabulous teacher. She did a great job of making history feel alive and present, not just something that happened in the far past.
One way she did this was, I was in eighth grade during the 2000 Bush V. Gore election. And she took the time to, on an almost daily basis, kind of update us as that recount was occurring and explaining to us what was happening, how the Supreme Court participated in that election's decision, and she just really made the present feel as if it's a historical moment that we were living through and kind of appreciating that moment, whether we liked the outcome of that election or not, as a historical moment to pay attention to and that something people in the future will be reflecting upon, which is kind of poignant because the dissertation I'm working on is actually quite contemporary, something that's happened in the 90's mostly. And so it's been interesting to think back on how her, kind of, encapsulating that the present is a historical moment as well was really poignant for me.
One other thing I wanted to mention is that there was a particular lesson that she gave that really kind of made me realize that you could study history as a career and not just study, you know, the math and the science and the English, you know. That actually history could be something that you spent much of your college career dedicated to, which was something I didn't realize even though I loved it so much. So one day she, I don't actually recall what the lesson was about, but I'm assuming it was the Civil War because of what I will tell you in a minute, but she took the time to tell us a little bit about a paper she wrote in college, and I remember that she was writing, she was asked to write a paper about two years in the Federal Congress, so to examine two years in which of the House and Senate and what they did during that one session. So, she, I remember she told us that she chose to write about the 37th United States Congress which was the Congress that was sitting during the Civil War, so half of the Congress was not actually attending, half the members were not actually attending the sessions and going to Congress and D.C. because they had seceded.
And I just remember being so fascinated by this, and I couldn't even explain why I was so fascinated, I just thought wow that sounds so fascinating, and I wanted to write something similar. And, I remember thinking, well, that must, I don't think everyone's probably having this reaction to her explaining a paper she wrote in college, but I did remember also thinking that in that moment, realizing, oh, you can actually choose to major in history, and you can focus and learn, you know, in depth, about this topic, and that that was, in fact, what I really wanted to do, that I just loved history so much, and the idea of making this thing that I loved a career was truly remarkable and really poignant for me.
And so pretty much after that day, I told anyone who cared that I was going to, in fact, major in history and that I wanted to do something related to history as a career. I didn't know what that would be yet, but I did, in fact, go and do that, and I was really, I'm just so grateful that Mrs. McClain made that something that felt accessible to me, that she made it so that it felt like you can absolutely go and do this, and she kind of also gave me further insight as to how colleges worked which was really helpful as I was entering high school and starting to think about college in a more serious way, so I am very very indebted to Mrs. McClain, and I haven't spoken with her in a while, so I hope to try and maybe track her down and tell her how much I appreciated what she did for me way back then.
So, thank you so much, I appreciate it, and that is my humanities moment. Okay, thanks.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"During the Graduate Student Summer Residency Program ","High School Students,History,Presidential Elections,Self-Realization,Teachers & Teaching,Yorba Linda, CA",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/15/321/HM_White_House_image.jpg,Sound,"Graduate Student Summer Residents 2019",1,0
"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.
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.
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.
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,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Troops to Teachers program: National Humanities Center","Military Service,Stafford, Virginia,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/301/T2T_Humanities_Moment.PNG,Text,,1,0
"The role of the shield in education ",,"“Because a warrior carries helmet and breastplate for his own protection, but his shield for the safety of the whole line.” ― Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire
Like many parents, I have always felt like I am my families shield. It was not until I read this novel that I understood the importance of that role. I also noticed that as teachers, we have a very similar role. For many children in our classes, we are their shield against ignorance, racism, apathy, bigotry, abuse etc. They often come to us, sometimes the only stable part of their world, and seek refuge. We place our shield in front of them until we can get them the help they need. But our goal should not be to defend them forever. We need to get them the resources they need to defend themselves; to add their shield to the line to help defend others. As teachers, we must learn to lock our shields together against all of the negativity placed on our profession. This includes our local, state, and federal government. United, we can defend our schools and students against whatever comes our way. While swords and spears are often thought of as the most important weapons, the shield had a far greater impact.",,"Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel on the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield",,2012,"Richard Arnold, 48, English teacher",,,,,,shield-education,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Humanities workshop","Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel on the Battle of Thermopylae,Pressfield, Steven,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/300/shield.jpg,Text,,1,0
"Understanding History as Gossip",,"
Author, educational advocate, and entrepreneur David Bruce Smith discusses a transformational moment in his education, during which a high school teacher showed him the revelatory truth that history, at its core, is a collection of stories and gossip. Smith believes strongly that by presenting history to students as a series of exciting and illuminating stories, we can cultivate a more widespread appreciation for—and understanding of—history’s importance in the next generation of learners.
Curator's note: The Grateful American™ Foundation is dedicated to restoring enthusiasm in American history for kids and adults. Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in American Literature from George Washington University, and a master’s in Journalism from New York University. During the past 20 years he has been a real estate executive and the editor-in-chief/publisher of Crystal City Magazine. He is the author of 11 books, including his most recent title, American Hero: John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. The Grateful American Book Series for children, featuring historic couples that were partnerships, debuts in the fall with Abigail and John—a joint biography of the Adams's.
",,,,,"David Bruce Smith, Founding Father of the Grateful American™ Foundation",,,,,,david-bruce-smith-history,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"Heidi Camp","History,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/296/Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware.jpg,"Moving Image",,1,0
"The Power of Mythological Thinking",,"As a teacher of classical mythology, Poliakoff explains that the challenge he presents to his students—and that myths present to contemporary readers—is to understand how such ancient stories transcend their particular contexts to embody universal lessons which can be translated across cultures and history. By using classical mythology both to understand our origins and to clarify the truths of our current experiences, he suggests that we can learn how to live in a way that opposes tyranny and connects us to others.",,"“An Afternoon of Actaeon,” by Milet Andrejevic; The Oresteia by Aeschylus",,,"Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni",,,,,,michael-poliakoff-mythology,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Aeschylus,An Afternoon of Actaeon,Andrejevic, Milet,Metamorphoses,Mythology,Ovid,Paintings,Teachers & Teaching,The Oresteia",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/293/William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_[1825-1905]_-_The_Remorse_of_Orestes_[1862].jpg,"Moving Image",,1,0
"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 Six String Ranch in Austin, TX",,,,,,looking-beyond-rhetoric,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"Heidi Camp","Critical Thinking,Cults,Incarceration,Jones, Jim,Music,Musicians,Street Musicians,Teachers & Teaching,Vocation",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/285/unnamed.png,"Moving Image",,1,0
"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.
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.
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.
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.",,"The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh",,2010/2011,"Sydnie, 18, Student",,,,,,the-brightest-star-in-the-night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,School,"Art,Beauty,Inspiration,Painters,Paintings,Pointillism,Salt Lake City, Utah,Students,Teachers & Teaching,The Starry Night,van Gogh, Vincent",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/282/4912901360_c4971a58e6_o.jpg,Text,,1,0
"From the Pequod to the Oil Fields ",,"James Hackett describes how his early encounters with some classics of American and British literature—including Moby-Dick—caused him to become more reflective about life. They also taught him the importance of written self-expression.",,"The works of Henry David Thoreau; Moby-Dick by Herman Melville",,,"James Hackett, CEO, Alta Mesa Resources",,,,,,james-hackett-literature,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"Heidi Camp","Books & Reading,Business Leaders,Literature,Melville, Herman,Moby-Dick,Teachers & Teaching,Thoreau, Henry David",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/273/Unknown.jpeg,"Moving Image",,1,0
"“Fern Hill”: the fleeting, eternal magnificence of Innocence",,"I could do several Humanities Hours out of Humanities Moments – there are so many passages and ideas that have animated my imagination. I first find myself drawn to the heart-wrenching climax of Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote, but to describe that would be to reveal the ending, which I would feel queasy doing.
So I’m going with Dylan Thomas’s poem “Fern Hill” instead. Its lyricism conjures the innocence of youth that cannot imagine its own end. That’s kind of what innocence is: a brilliantly perfect inability to envision its own conclusion.
Thomas’s second stanza begins,
And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means
We are “young once only” and we play and are golden. We all see this in the delight of children and also in the mesmerizing natural panoramas that remind me of a summer evening on a hilltop in Maine. It’s summer vacation all the time. It evokes the feeling that I think that character from Friday Night Lights has in mind when he says, “My heart is full.”
In a way, the ending of “Fern Hill” brings me to what I love so much about Don Quixote and the scene I mentioned a minute ago. Here I am, a middle-aged guy spending every day with teenagers, hoping to share and discuss with them truths about the human condition and our relationships and tragedy and beauty while they, children who are “green and golden” in their “heedless ways,” in their Eden of hope and vigor, start to gain insight about how Time holds them. They are looking toward college and work and beyond, and often they worry and fear, and although for many the curiosity of youth is sputtering, its flame is not out.
Thomas:
Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that Time would take me
Up to the swallow-thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
Whenever I read “Fern Hill,” and whenever I think of Don Quixote, I do so from the Experience side of the divide between innocence and experience. I peer longingly over at innocence, and I wish for it…and I feel it as if it were still here. It is the wonder of the poem, and of art, that in its presence we can be both green and dying.
",,"""Fern Hill,"" a poem by Dylan Thomas",,"I can trace it to several instances, including my original interaction with the poem, but the photo I use was taken in July 2012.","Carl Rosin, 51, teacher",,,,,,fern-hill,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"I am a member of the NHC's Teacher Advisory Council for 2018-19","Books & Reading,Casco, Maine,de Cervantes, Miguel,Don Quixote,Experience,Fern Hill,Innocence,Literature,Poetry,Teachers & Teaching,Thomas, Dylan,Wonder",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/252/hackers-hill-casco-maine-july2012.jpg,Text,"Teacher Advisory Council",1,0
"Contingent Bodies: Encountering The DisAbility Project",,"Ann Fox describes her first encounter with The DisAbility Project, a St. Louis-based performance group. Humor, skits, and monologues reflecting the experiences of disabled people helped her understand disability politics, and realize the pleasure and creativity possible in bodily variation.
Curator’s note: Read Ann Fox’s essay, “To Be Rather than To Seem: Claiming Identity in Art, Curation, and Culture.” It discusses the intersections of art and disability studies that accompanied the National Humanities Center’s exhibit, Esse Quam Videri.",,"The DisAbility Project",,,"Ann Fox, professor of English at Davidson College",,,,,,contingent-bodies-disability-project,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"VAE exhibit / Don Solomon","Davidson College,Davidson, North Carolina,Disability Studies,Diversity,Humor,Intersectionality,Performing Arts,Professors,St. Louis, Missouri,Teachers & Teaching,The DisAbility Project,Washington University",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/245/Hands_on_Hips.jpg,"Moving Image",,1,1
"Hearing an Orchestra for the First Time",,"Charles Frazier recalls when the North Carolina Symphony traveled to the small towns of western NC on their annual state tour. The symphony’s visit to the rural and relatively isolated communities exposed Frazier and his classmates to a bold new type of sound—and a new way of thinking about art.",,"The North Carolina Symphony",,,"Charles Frazier, award-winning author of Cold Mountain, Varina, and other novels",,,,,,charles-frazier-nc-symphony,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"Robert Newman","Asheville, North Carolina,Music,North Carolina Symphony Orchestra,Rural Communities,Symphony Orchestras,Teachers & Teaching,Writers",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/237/41639717740_ab5fb3ebdc_o.jpg,"Moving Image",,1,0
"A (Buddhist) Conversation in Yangon",,"Intentionally wandering in Yangon, Burma with a good friend, led to being found by two Buddhist monks our same age. I was there to study how Buddhism influences culture as part of a study abroad program through Samford University. The monks invited us to spend the day at their monastery. The all-day conversation that ensued still serves as a beacon – it was a pinpointed moment of having to re-think all that I thought I knew and a moment that marks the beginning of an aspiration to introduce students to all they do not know.
“What do you think of my beliefs and vow?” they asked. The question, in such an uncommon context, pierced through the absolutism and fundamentalism I had been raised in as a christian evangelical. My pastor would have told me to explain that they were going to hell until they accepted Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. That they were so earnest and loving contrasted with my unfounded piousness. Their questions and sharing proved capable of releasing me from what I thought I was supposed to be. All that I thought I knew had to be vetted and re-thought. It also set a precedent by which I now live my life: living well in communities is better done in the absence of fundamentalism – I could not have shared meals with them in peace had I dogmatically preached that my way was better than another. They were not doing that. Their experiences were shared humbly and openly. They walked me through the path of the humanities as they asked questions that necessitated a more robust understanding of who I was, how I got to that monastery, and to consider where I was headed and why. Moreover, I came away with the belief that our communities benefit from a robust willingness to humbly approach space and place-making knowing that our preconceptions are always incomplete – we can’t live well until our worldviews allow for exceptionally diverse experiences. The meaning of that day is still being made; being confronted so holistically with all that I did not know was life changing; it made my life better and richer and more interesting. As a teacher, my pedagogical decisions are imbued with the spirit of that day. I join other thoughtful teachers in the humanities in prodding students to work rigorously, to practice the skills necessary for crafting worldviews that incorporate disparate, complex narratives. The intent is to prepare them for literal and figurative conversations wherein their hard-earned deftness with complexity will lead to healthy living in healthy, inclusive communities.",,"A conversation with Buddhist monks in Yangon, Burma",,2004,"Kyle Jones, 35, High School History Teacher",,,,,,buddhist-conversation-yangon,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"Andy Mink","Buddhism,Rangon, Myanmar,Religion,Study Abroad,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/236/myanmar_temple.jpg,Sound,,1,0
"How I found humanity in a dark cave",,"The most literal definition of the word humanities as always fascinated me. What could be cooler than getting to the very crux of what it means to be human by studying all the unique, beautiful, and awe inspiring things humanity has created? Humanists get to study the “whoa” and the “wow” moments of the human story. We get to look at something, read something, or hear something, and for a magical instant possibly feel the exact something the creator felt when he or she made that awesome something. How lucky are we?
“Excuse me,” random 15 year old student in my Ancient Civilizations class interrupted, “but, um, like you’re starting class with human evolution, and like these people were kinda boring. All they did was hunt and gather and sleep in caves. What’s so awesome about them?”
This was the conversation that broke my heart. This was the moment I was saddened to realize, that no, most of the populace does not care about all the wonderful things humans have done in the same way that I do. This was the moment when I realized that state standards and required curriculums can suck the awe and passion out of each and every wonderful moment of human expressions. This was the moment when I felt as though I had completely lost to the world of technology and social media.
And so I thought, and I planned, and I researched, and I brainstormed, and I then I saw…the most beautiful, simple expression of humanity I have ever seen.
Photos of La Cueva de las Manos (The Cave of Hands) in Argentina flashed across my computer screen. In an effort to develop any exciting lesson on ancient cave art, I had found my “ah ha” moment. I had found the artifact to anchor my story and the story of my fifteen year old student with the story of some human painter who lived 10,000 years ago. In that moment, the world had suddenly become a lot smaller and the human family grew so much tighter, for I had discovered ancient Instagram.
Why are my students consumed with posting on social media’s various platforms? Because they want to be seen. They are screaming out into a very noisy world, “Look at me! See me! I was here.” And why did some artist or shaman or wandering traveler put his or her handprints all over this cave in Argentina? I do not know for certain, but I feel the artist was saying “Look at me! See me! I was here.” The Cave of Hands is awesome and I have only seen it through photos. I have never felt so close to some person I have never met before in my life. I look at these photos and I want to shout across the layers of time “I see you!”
Each school year, I put the photos up for my students to view on the big screen and I always fit my hand perfectly into one of the outlines. I can’t stop myself, I need to make this connection. And I know, in that moment, thanks to some ancient ancestor, what it is to be human.
",,"La Cueva de las Manos (The Cave of Hands) in Argentina",,2015,"Michelle Kaighn, 39, high school history teacher in Medford, NJ",,,,,,humanity-in-a-dark-cave,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"I am a member of the NHC TAC","Cave Paintings,La Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands),Medford, New Jersey,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/231/cave-of-hands-cueva-de-las-manos.jpg,Text,"Teacher Advisory Council",1,0
"Historical Perspectives",,"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.
",,"A painting by Stanley Meltzoff depicting the establishment of St. Augustine Florida by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés ",,"Around 1990","Judy Lindquist, 59 years old, Educator and Author and 2018-19 Teacher Advisory Council member",,,,,,historical-perspectives,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Through my work with the NHC's 2018-19 TAC ","Geography,History Education,Menéndez de Avilés, Pedro,Menéndez Landing,Painting,St. Augustine, Florida,Teachers & Teaching,Vocation",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/230/Menendez_Landing_in_St_Augustine.jpg,"Still Image","Teacher Advisory Council",1,0
"An epiphany over a statue of Gandhi",,"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.",,"Statue of Mohandas Gandhi ",,"September 2018","Rick Parker, Middle School Social Studies Teacher",,,,,,epiphany-over-gandhi,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,TAC,"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",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/229/Gandhi_Statue.jpg,Text,,1,0
"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,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"From Andy Mink","Ancestry,Bathsheba, Barbados,History,History Education,Memory,Slavery,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/12/226/Africa_This_Way.jpg,"Still Image","Virginia Geographic Alliance West Indies Teacher Institute",1,0
"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,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Andy Mink","Ackland Art Museum,Cambodia,Chapel Hill, North Carolina,Geography,Khmer Rouge,Museums,Photography,Teachers & Teaching,War,World History",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/221/Dinh_Q_Le.jpg,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"There is No Singular Experience",,"The study of contested territory for me has alway been a story of land and/or ideological dispute between colonial powers, regional peoples, religious factions, or other distinctions that come into play as humans acquire land and promulgate cultural traits and ideologies.
Contested territory is more than a story of “us versus them” or “them vs. them.” In fact, “them” is not a singular entity.
During a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, we had the pleasure of hearing from UNC professor Gang Yue, Chair of the Department of Asian Studies. He opened a lecture on Communism Today by sharing the experience of his parents, both doctors, during mid-twentieth century China. In 1950, Chairman Mao announced that there would be a, “complete unification of Chinese medicine” (qtd. In Levinovitz’s article, Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine). Despite being educated in cutting edge medicine in one of China’s top hospitals, both Professor Yue’s parents were reeducated in traditional medicine which westerners have come to identify as synonymous with China. Yue’s mother and father were sent to rural, outlying provinces for several weeks to treat the countries remote population.
Through his story, it became clear that his parents had vastly different opinions of their experience both with their training in traditional Chinese medicines and practicing in the rural provinces of China. While his father looked down at his reeducation experience, Yue’s mother found many practical purposes of traditional practices which she incorporated in her field of gynecology. In addition, she remembered her practice in rural China as the most rewarding service in her career, providing medical care to those in need rather than with the elites in urban China.
Upon hearing this story, my romanticized view of a China, steeped in tradition, that continued to remain a practicing culture of traditional medicine, was shattered.. More disturbingly, I realized that I had bought into the cultural myth and view of the “mysterious Orient,” ignoring my own first lesson to students to not “mythisize” or “otherize” people. More importantly,Yue’s personal narrative opened my eyes to the complicated task of curating stories to try and define a singular experience of contested territory. People have differing memories despite being from the same side of the same coin, even those individuals who are a part of the same family. As with any narrative, there is no singular experience of a contested territory.
",,,,"July 23rd, 2018","Lesley Jane Mace, 40, Social Studies Teacher",,,,,,there-is-no-singular-experience,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Humanities Center","China,Communism,Medicine,Teachers & Teaching,World History,Zedong, Mao",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/220/Traditional_Chinese_Medicine.jpg,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"Contested Autonomy",,"The video clip I saw of a young Vietnamese-American woman who opened an art gallery in Vietnam led to my humanities moment. She said that her mother disowned her because of her decision to go back to Vietnam. I could relate this to my personal experience. My mother was very upset when any one of her children wanted to go back to visit Vietnam. She told us that she risked her own life for us to escape Vietnam in 1978, and we should not want to go back to visit a country with a horrific and unjust communist dictatorship. She said that we should not support the communists by going back there, even as a tourist. This made me realize that our lives are full of conflicts because we are tempted to believe that our own experiences and points of view are more important than others.
Like Ambassador MacWhite and his Asian friend in The Ugly American, we refuse to listen to each other’s perspective. Just as Vietnam was contested territory, our autonomy is also contested. Rather than being open to different avenues for deeper understanding, we are often close minded. I know that conflicts are inevitable. While I may not have power to control every encounter, I must accept that these challenges strengthen my understanding and empathy.",,"The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer",,"Tuesday, July 24, 2018","Julie Doan, Elementary Teacher, Oregon",,,,,,contested-autonomy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"I heard from the National Humanities Center ","Autonomy,Burdick, Eugene,Family,Lederer, William,Migration,Teachers & Teaching,The Ugly American,Vietnam",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/219/Old_Woman_Young_Woman_Optical_Illusion.jpg,"Still Image","Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"Violent Legacy Continued",,"My moment was a culmination of two. The first was the image or video taken from Muhammad Ali’s comments regarding the Vietnam War. I have played this video many times in class to highlight the conflicting viewpoints and social implications of the Vietnam War. Considering the backlash experienced by Ali followed by his most recent transformation into an iconic symbol of defiance, I and others have used this video mainly to highlight the racial component of sending African Americans to fight wars in foreign countries despite them not being treat equally in America. And as a black man, the most important moment in the video was previously when he says that no Vietcong had ever called him a nigger and that they want him to go fight for them, but they won’t fight for him, Ali, at home. But after watching the video early in the course and creating the map on unexploded ordinance in Laos, my ah hah moment came from connecting Ali’s comments regarding the people in Vietnam to the unexploded ordinance that continues to take the lives of many in Southeast Asia today. In fact, before he speaks on the racial aspects of American society, he talks about the killing of poor, brown, people in a country that has done nothing wrong towards him or any American for that fact. The picture above of the unexploded ordinances that continue to kill children living in Southeast Asia today is testimony to how the legacy of contested territory continues to dramatically influence the lives many in these countries today in a violent way",,,,,"Tony Noland, 44, Language Arts/Social Studies Teacher",,,,,,violent-legacy-continued,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Andy Mink","Ali, Muhammed,Civil Rights,Human Rights,Intersectionality,Southeast Asia,Teachers & Teaching,Unexploded Ordnance,Vietnam,Vietnam War (1961-1975)",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/217/Muhammad_Ali_1966.jpg,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"You Cannot Copy That Map",,"In a lecture on the lived experiences of the local peoples of the area surrounding Dien Bien Phu in Northwest Vietnam, Dr. Christian C. Lentz, Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Chapel Hill, shared this map of the Northwest Region of Vietnam and a short anecdote about why this map is of particular importance. He was in the middle of doing research in Hanoi at the North Vietnam Archives Center #3, and faced opposition when he attempted to make copies of many of the maps dating to the French colonial era in Vietnam, whether they be from the French or a Vietnamese production. This map alone Dr. Lentz was allowed to reproduce. This map represents for me the numerous layers that the themes of “contested” and “territory” manifest in Southeast Asia in this time period.
This seemingly little tidbit that he shared in the midst of his lecture is what really stuck with me, and cemented my understanding of the conflict in Southeast Asia. The “contest” for Vietnam extends much further past the initial creation of this map in 1952. The idea that a visiting scholar such as Dr. Lentz was strictly forbidden to copy any maps other than this one speaks to how hotly contested the memory of the Vietnam War is still today. As Dr. Lentz told the story, I created a mental image of a Vietnamese archival official standing over Dr. Lentz’ shoulder, closely monitoring what the American scholar copied. How do we remember this conflict? From which perspective? Controlling what can and cannot be recreated is an attempt to steer the narrative, which is very much still being written.
Dr. Lentz’ story on the “Black River Region after Northwest Campaign (Oct-Dec 1952)” map simplified for me all the complexities that contributed to the warfare in Southeast Asia into a single map, a visual representation of a territory that meant so many different things to so many different actors, each pulled into a conflict that continues to this day to be contested. I can only hope through continued scholarship, communication, and openness, that one day, the archival official will instead say, “Yes, you can copy that map.” ",,,,"July 2018 - NEH Summer Institute","Maggie Childress, 24, Teacher, Wake County, North Carolina",,,,,,you-cannot-copy-that-map,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"NEH Summer Teachers Institute","Archives,Cartography,Censorship,Research,Teachers & Teaching,Vietnam,Vietnam War (1961-1975)",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/216/NW_Vietnam_Region.JPG,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"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,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Teacher Summer Seminar at the National Center for the Humanities","Colonialism,Communism,Propaganda,Teachers & Teaching,Vietnam,Vietnam War (1961-1975)",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/214/GOSouth.jpg,"Still Image","Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"Contested Perspective",,"Human connection is the most important part of life to me. I really value great relationships and look forward to connecting with new people every chance I get. Obviously, I am not going to have the same views on every single topic as anyone else. I think we make the biggest growth as human beings when we connect with people who have very different perspectives than our own, and we are willing to see things through their eyes. It does not mean that will always lead us to the same conclusion or change our own perspective in any way.
I use the phrase, “life is all about perspective” all the time, but how much the concept of contested territory is related to perspective did not really hit me until Morgan Pitelka was presenting his seminar, “Memory and Commemoration.” He discussed the Yūshūkan War/ Military Museum in Tokyo, Japan and explained that the Japanese people say the museum is a place of memorial for the lost soldiers, while others see it as a place to glorify Japan’s violent military past. There were other strong examples of contested perspectives throughout my time here in North Carolina, but that moment brought it all together for me.
",,,,"July 26th, 2018","Breann Johnston, Middle School Teacher",,,,,,contested-perspective,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"The National Humanities Center","Connection,History,Museums,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/212/Yasukuni.jpg,"Still Image","Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"Vietnamese Declaration of Independence",,"The introduction of the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence from the Nancy Gardner presentation was one of the high points of the week for me. Until that time I had not even presumed that such a document existed. To find out that the document was actually written by Ho Chi Minh himself was an eye opener. Furthermore to find out that Ho actually used the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Men as resources was extremely edifying. I found it interesting that he opened with a direct quote from the Declaration of Independence and went on to quote from the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
His conversation is to the American and French authorities. He questions them on their hypocrisy throughout the document based on the American and French struggles for independence. This is one of the documents that I plan to share with my students.
",,"The Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ",,"7/18/2018 ","Dorothy Morris-Ross, 71, High School Teacher",,,,,,vietnamese-declaration-of-independence,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"NEH Summer Teachers Institute","Colonialism,Hồ Chí Minh,Teachers & Teaching,The Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,Vietnam",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/211/Vietnam_Declaration.jpg,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"Embracing the Complexity and Chaos of the Humanities Through a Photo",,"On May 8th, 1957, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem was greeted by President Dwight Eisenhower (along with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles) at Washington National Airport at the beginning of an official state visit for President Diem. This seemingly ordinary photo is noteworthy because it captures the complexity of the Cold War and the contested territory of Southeast Asia, and embracing that chaotic feeling is a main reason why I love the humanities.
There is much to teach about in this photo. Why would Eisenhower personally greet Diem at the airport, something he only did on one other occasion (and is almost never done by sitting U.S. presidents for heads of state)? Why is the year 1957 important? What does the United States think of Vietnam at this time? How is this photo potentially problematic? There are contrasts on many levels when dissecting this photo, and it can launch exploration in so many directions.
The photo encapsulates a conversation that I had with Vietnam historian Pierre Asselin after a talk he presented to our NEH summer seminar at the National Humanities Center. While we were discussing the challenges of teaching the Cold War to students, Professor Asselin noted, “if you study the Cold War correctly, you should be more confused as you go along, and that’s a great feeling!” This last line resonated with me, and reiterated my belief that it is important for students to understand different perspectives, sometimes without finding an answer to the question that was posed, but understanding the complexity and nuance of that question. This process is where real learning takes place, and it is important to teach students to embrace this chaos (and even to seek it out) in their own learning. Challenging our initial impressions of a source and digging deeper speaks to the lifelong value of the humanities.
",,,,"July 24, 2018","Bryan Boucher, 39, Teacher",,,,,,embracing-the-complexity-and-chaos-of-the-humanities-through-a-photo,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"NEH Seminar on Contested Territory at the National Humanities Center","Diplomacy,History,Photography,Presidents of the United States,Teachers & Teaching,Vietnam",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/210/Eisenhower_Ngo_Dinh_Diem.jpg,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"The Senselessness of Rambo and Other Things",,"It was the beginning of another morning session for Contested Territory and I was still circulating ideas in my mind about connections between Vietnam and the South Side of Chicago. While perusing my notebook to find a clean page, our speaker for the session was introduced and we all settled in for the lecture. I looked up to hear a tall bearded white man with an unrecognizable accent. I’m looking closely at his mouth to help me decipher his words when I make out Rambo. Rambo was his entry point into the study of Vietnam and the Vietnam War. Immediately, my reaction is visceral and I tensed up. Images of what seems to be senseless violence on brown bodies flash before me and his voice goes mute in my head. The phrase senseless violence repeats in my mind until I remember where I’ve heard it used before. Senseless violence is the phrase that trivializes gang violence which leads to very little investigation of homicides and allows it to persist on the South and West Side of Chicago. I decided Contested Territory for my students would be a lesson challenging them to see gang violence as more than just violence, but intimate communities that are fighting over land, economic safety and respect, similar to the motivation for many wars in Vietnam. Contested Territory is a way that students could learn about a people and a history far from us while feeling just how close those realities are to their neighborhood. ",,,,,"Brittanee C. Rolle, 28, Teacher ",,,,,,the-senselessness-of-rambo-and-other-things,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"National Humanities Center","Chicago, Illinois,Teachers & Teaching,Vietnam,Violence",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/209/Humanities_Moment_Rambo.jpg,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"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,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"National Humanities Center Webinar","Memory,My Lai Massacre, Vietnam, 1968,Statues,Teachers & Teaching,U.S. History,Vietnam,Vietnam War (1961-1975),Violence",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/208/vietnam_war_memorial.jpg,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"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,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"NEH Seminar ","Ali, Muhammad,Conscientious Objection,Dissension,Teachers & Teaching,Vietnam War (1961-1975)",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/206/muhammad-ali-572571_1280.jpg,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"Forever Maps",,"5 years ago the AP Human Geography teacher at my former high school announced that she would be moving to Rhode Island. She informed me that I would be taking over the course. I fell in love with the material and am constantly looking for ways to make geography more meaningful for students. Every year I feel I get a little better at getting young scholars to think about the five themes of geography: absolute and relative location, place, human/environmental interactions, regions, and movement. Last Friday I had an experience that will forever change to way I teach.
On the second day of the Contested Territory seminar Chris Bunin quickly and effectively taught us how to use ArcGIS software. Groups received an assignment that was due on the first Friday. Our instructions were to focus on one of the five themes of geography and create an ESRI story map based on the territory of SE Asia. Our group chose to focus on bombing in Southeast Asia during the Vietnamese/American War.
Working with my group on the assignment created an a-ha moment. Our topic was unexploded ordnance from the bombing of SE Asia. We all were thinking about human-environment interaction as we scoured the internet looking for data, articles, and images. We worked on how to use the software. We had brainstorming sessions to storyboard our presentation. This is exactly what I want my AP Human Geography and AP Capstone Research students to do.
The biggest a-ha moment came when the other groups presented. I looked at my fellow participants and saw the wonder as we viewed the aesthetically beautiful story maps. I kept thinking, “We collectively created these and they are awesome.” We were not only proud but also amazed at the power of the assignment. We learned from embedded videos, recorded first person accounts, biographies, and multiple maps where the information had probably never been conceptualized in that particular way.
My students will have a-ha moments when they learn how to GIS. It will take many hours for me to be able to do what Chris Bunin did for us. This is an investment of time that I am ready and willing to make.
",,Storymaps,,"Friday, July 29, 2018 group presentations of ESRI storymaps ","Spencer Swindler, 44, social studies teacher Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools",,,,,,forever-maps,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"at the National Humanities Center","Cartography,Geographic Information Systems (GIS),Geography,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/205/800px-South_Vietnam_-_The_final_days_1975.jpg,Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0
"Flying Over the Ho Chi Minh Trail",,"When I was young my father, knowing of my interest in music and war, gave me a book entitled ""Singing the Vietnam Blues: Songs of the Air Force in Southeast Asia."" Actually, he had it hidden so well he lost it and gave it to me years after he intended. I ended up losing it again while in college before reading it, a missed opportunity I’ve always regretted.
Later on in life, I discovered a folk song through a project at Buffalo State University called Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folklore Project. I found the song instantly haunting. Recalling my father’s gift, I have always yearned to share it with my father to get his opinion. Unfortunately he died before I could. The song is titled “Ho Chi Minh Trail,” although the tune is identical to the old country song “Billy the Kid” (this adds extra layers of meaning if you know the lyrics). The song describes the point of view of an American pilot trying to stop North Vietnamese trucks on the trail while facing anti-aircraft defenses and his own fears.
While participating in the National Humanities Institute on Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, I have gained an appreciation for the layers within the song and parallels to Vietnamese culture. Obviously the Trail was a “contested territory,” with the North Vietnamese on the ground and Americans in the air above. This difference of space itself is a reflection of the technological and cultural divide between the two sides. The author describes a pilot struggling in the dark while fighting to stay in the air. This recalls to me American administrations creating policy, struggling with their ignorance of Southeast Asia, while fighting to keep South Vietnam afloat. This song also represents a contested cultural territory in America. Folk songs were typically used by American protesters in the 1950s and 60s, but here the form is used to describe a military experience. The last verse of the song, about an overconfident youth, seems a fitting metaphor for America as a whole in the mid-20th Century. Finally, this song brings to mind the Vietnamese Ca Dao poetry, or folk poetry used by the Vietnamese peasants to describe and give meaning to their lives. This song is an American equivalent of Ca Dao; it would have been sung by and to other American pilots before they met their destiny in the contested space above the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The song makes me think of lost opportunities for communication between people divided by space, technology, politics, and culture, just as my opportunity to play this song for my father was lost by his death. Listening to this song, I am haunted by that realization of loss. As we hurt each other, we all lose opportunities to understand. We lose our youth, we lose our fathers, and we lose ourselves.
“Ho Chi Minh Trail” by Toby Hughes
Come along, boys, and I'll tell you a tale,
Of the pilots who fly on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Of Covey and Moonbeam and Nimrod you've heard,
Of Hobo and Spad and of old Yellow Bird.
The trucks load in Hanoi and Haiphong by day,
In singles and convoys they start on their way.
South by southwest in an unending stream,
Reaching the border at day's fading gleam.
They stop at Mu Gia or at Ban Karai.
And wait for the last of the daylight to die.
Under cover of night through the pass they set sail,
Out on the roads of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
As they roll on through darkness, not stopping to rest,
Miles away are the pilots whose skills they will test.
Who'll soon face the darkness, the karst, and the guns,
In the grim cat and mouse game that no one's yet won.
When you fly on the Trail through the dark and the haze
It's a thing you'll remember the rest of your days.
A nightmare of vertigo, mountains, and flak,
And the cold wind of Death breathing soft at your back.
But the trucks must be stopped, and it's all up to you,
So you fly here each night to this grim rendezvous.
Where your whole world's confined to the light of the flare,
And you fight for your life just to stay in the air.
For there's many a man who there met his fate,
On the dark roads of Hell, where the grim reaper waits.
Where a man must learn quickly the tricks of his trade,
Or die in the dark for mistakes that he's made.
And there's many a lad in the flush of his youth,
Who's still yet to meet with his moment of truth.
With wings on his chest and the world by the tail,
He'll grow up fast on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDnC8ANpwLk
",,"""Ho Chi Minh Trail"" by Toby Hughes",,"July 2018","Alex Christman, 41, history teacher in Durham North Carolina",,,,,,flying-over-ho-chi-minh-trail,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"I discovered Humanities Moments while attending an institute at the National Humanities Center","Ca Dao (Vietnamese Folk Poetry),Fathers & Sons,Folk Music,Ho Chi Minh Trail,Hughes, Toby,Oral History,Singing the Vietnam Blues: Songs of the Air Force in Southeast Asia,Teachers & Teaching,Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folklore Project,Vietnam War (1961-1975)","https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/204/Ho_Chi_Minh_Trail_network_map.jpg,https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/13/204/Ho_Chi_Minh_Trail-sDnC8ANpwLk_x264.mp3",Text,"Contested Territory: America’s Role in Southeast Asia, 1945–75",1,0