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"From The Page to The Garden to The Fridge",,"For the first two decades of my life, food wasn't something to which something I gave much serious consideration. I was guided—as I suspect most young adults are—by taste, convenience, and price. I knew what I liked, where I could get it, and that I could get it for cheap. My lack of interest in what I ate directly paralleled my ignorance and detachment from the landscapes in which I lived. My family moved every few years; I barely got to know a place before we moved again, never bothering to seriously try and set down ""roots.""
As a first-year graduate student in the heart of Iowa, I became friends with a number of budding writers and scholars who grew up with an entirely different mindset. Almost all of them were deeply interested in place, the environment, and how body and land are more intrinsically linked than we might otherwise believe. At our cozy shared office one day, one colleague dropped off Kingsolver's 2007 memoir, a year-long chronicle of her family's efforts and experiences to raise and grow as much of their food as possible. I didn't read it until the semester finished, when the freedom of summer allowed me to read, reflect, and honestly think about the text on a page.
Kingsolver is a beautiful writer, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is further proof of this. Scenes chronicling the gradual growth and progress of rhubarb, asparagus, tomatoes, and potatoes are described in poetic rhetoric, detailing such small changes with a clear sense of wonder, awe, and reverence. Beyond these observations and recordings, however, the books is laced with commentary about our contemporary food systems—farming, restaurants, soil management, corporatization, commodification and seed patents—and how alternatives exist, both small and large scale, right before our eyes.
I finished Kingsolver's book wanting—needing—to both eat differently and think more deeply about how I lived as a part of the natural landscape. Trips to nearby farmer markets, supporting local growers, spending my dollars on organic products, learning to garden, learning to cook—all of these were habits gleaned from her memoir, and behaviors that led to me becoming a more passionate environmental activist over time.
Most of the courses I teach are grounded in environmental concerns—climate change, ocean acidification, soil erosion, drought—and how we write about them. What's made Kingsolver's memoir not only a personal favorite, but a classroom jewel as well, is that her book is empowering: my students frequently note in course evaluations that this memoir not only revealed and informed them about the realities underlying their current relationship with food, but also provided them with tangible, pragmatic solutions about how they might incorporate changes. Sometimes, I am self-conscious and wary when talking about what my research and teaching interests concern. I am a late-bloomer with my environmental passions; I didn't grow up strongly intertwined with a sense of place or spend my formative years actively thinking about issues that bridge human and nonhuman worlds. Kingsolver's writing, and this memoir in particular, show that it's never too late to start paying attention, begin learning, or caring about where you live—an inspiring message that's never more timely and needed than it is today.","Barbara Kingsolver","Animal, Vegetable, Miracle",,2012,"Luke Rodewald, 28, English Ph.D. Student ",,,,,,page-garden-fridge,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Dr. Andy Mink, NHC Graduate Student Summer Residency","College Teaching,Environmental Activism,Environmental Humanities,Kingsolver, Barbara,Landscapes,Sustainability,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/463/1c87237f-a74f-4e08-a1ea-0f828425d293.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2021",1,0
"How to Get U.S. Citizenship and the American Dream",,"When I was 8 years old, I found hidden in a drawer a little, brown book. It was a well-worn copy of, ""How to Get U.S. Citizenship,"" which my mother had used to prepare for her U.S. citizenship exam. When I asked her about it, she explained that it was one of the items packed into her small suitcase along with a few articles of carefully selected clothing, photographs, and jewelry that would be the only things that would remind her of the life she had lived in Korea. As I glanced through the pages, I thought about my mother as a young woman dreaming of a life in America - a place where she believed the streets were lined with gold.
In 1973, my mother, alone and without knowing a word of English, left all that was familiar to her for a life in the United States. She joined my father who had emigrated years earlier with his sister, the wife of an American GI. Her friends and family told her she was bound for an easy life where she would live in a big, American house. Caring for her children would be her primary concern. But when she arrived, she settled into a cramped, 3-bedroom house in Westland, Michigan with my father, his mother, his brother, sister-in-law and their young daughter.
After my brother and I were born, it became apparent that my father’s low-wage job in a warehouse would not support our family of four, so mom decided to look for work. Despite her very limited English, she was hired to work on the assembly line at General Motors and became our household’s primary wage earner. Her job eventually allowed us to move out of Westland and into a nice, middle class neighborhood with good schools. Her work was difficult, but life was definitely taking an upswing. About 7 years in, Mom was laid off from GM and was forced to take odd jobs in Chinese restaurants or flea market jewelry shops in Detroit. At times, Mom held two or three jobs at a time, just to keep us afloat. She worked hard to ensure we could remain in that middle class lifestyle. Mom scrimped and saved to make sure her two children had enough to eat, decent clothes, and the opportunity to attend universities to pursue careers that would ensure they’d never have to work as hard as she did. General Motors called mom back after a few years. One of her jobs was a welder on the night shift. Her tired 5 foot 4 frame would come home smelling of exhaust. And her shirts were covered in tiny holes from stray sparks. Though it was difficult work, she never complained. Instead she regularly encouraged us to do well in school so we’d never have to work so hard as she did. Mom ended up working for almost 30 years and is now enjoying a much needed retirement.
The significance of this little book is that it is an important bookend to the immigration story of my family to the United States. When she arrived, mom was full of great expectations for herself, but having found the reality of life much different than expected, she modified her dreams to encompass something more tangible. In 1978 she applied for and received her U.S. citizenship. One of the annotated pages in this little book pertains to why she, the applicant, wanted to obtain US citizenship? Mom underlined this answer, “I wish to work for the benefit of this country and to protect the happiness of our children.” If you’d ask her today, my mom would proudly affirm that she had achieved the American dream-a better life for herself and for her family. It allowed her the ability to have an American dream for her children to attend college and live securely in the comfort that they could provide for their families. Achieving this was our way of being able to honor our mom’s hard work and sacrifice.
","C.H. Kang","How to Get U.S. Citizenship (2nd Edition)",,1973-present,"Teresa Kim, History teacher in Vista, California",,,,,,citizenship-american-dream,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"American Dream,Books & Reading,Citizenship,Emigration & Immigration,Families,How to Get U.S. Citizenship,Kang, C.H.,Korea,Marginalia,Mothers & Daughters,Teachers & Teaching,Westland, Michigan",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/131/us-citizenship.jpg,Text,,1,0
"The Power of a Perspective Change ",,"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.
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 Facing East from Indian Country. 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.
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.","Daniel K. Richter","Facing East from Indian Country",,"Fall 2017 ","Michelle Lukacs, 30, Social Studies Secondary Teacher ",,,,,,power-perspective-change,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"My school district's curriculum design project ","History Education,Marginalized Voices,Richter, Daniel K.,Teachers & Teaching,U.S. History",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/511/arch-4297400_640.jpg,Text,Educators,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
"“For the Sake of a Cloud”","The beautiful thing about the humanities is that the search for truth need not be a matter of “right” or “wrong” — there is room both for the mastery of facts as well as for creativity and innovation. Through Euripides’ play, I realized that the story of the war really belongs to everyone; if even the ancient Greeks had creative and radically different versions, that frees up modern classicists to similarly transcend the traditional narrative. This experience invited me into the field because I could finally see myself doing something new within the discipline, and I was eager to be part of a long tradition of reinterpreting the story in a way that resonated with my own experiences. In the years that followed, I have written poetry about mythological subjects, and the process of writing about mythology helped me see connections across the disciplines of the humanities. From history to literature and art to music, the myths of ancient Greece continue to be reinvented and Euripides’ imagination has passed on to a new generation of artists, scholars, and thinkers.","
While taking Latin in high school, I became fascinated by the story of the Trojan War. I loved the interconnected perspectives of soldiers, royalty, deities, and ordinary people. The family trees and catalogues of soldiers seemed endless, and I was thrilled to discover that each individual inspired stories, plays, and art. As I began to master the intricacies of the myths, I prided myself on recognizing the differences between movies like “Troy” or Disney’s “Hercules” and the original story. I watched eagerly to notice what they got wrong or right about the myth.
My beloved Latin teacher Dr. Fiveash soon introduced me to “Helen,” a play by the Greek playwright Euripides. The Trojan War is said to have started when Helen runs away to Troy with a prince named Paris. But in “Helen,” the story is turned on its head; she never goes to Troy. Instead, a cloud that resembles her was placed at Troy while the real Helen lived in Egypt and wondered when her husband could come to pick her up. I realized the story of the war is so complex that even the most fundamental aspects can be reinterpreted.
The beautiful thing about the humanities is that the search for truth need not be a matter of “right” or “wrong” — there is room both for the mastery of facts as well as for creativity and innovation. Through Euripides’ play, I realized that the story of the war really belongs to everyone; if even the ancient Greeks had creative and radically different versions, that frees up modern classicists to similarly transcend the traditional narrative. This experience invited me into the field because I could finally see myself doing something new within the discipline, and I was eager to be part of a long tradition of reinterpreting the story in a way that resonated with my own experiences. In the years that followed, I have written poetry about mythological subjects, and the process of writing about mythology helped me see connections across the disciplines of the humanities. From history to literature and art to music, the myths of ancient Greece continue to be reinvented and Euripides’ imagination has passed on to a new generation of artists, scholars, and thinkers.
",Euripides,"Helen by Euripides",,2006,"Skye Shirley, age 28, Latin Teacher in Boston, MA",,,,,,for-the-sake-of-a-cloud,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Books & Reading,Classical Drama,Euripides,Helen,Latin,Mythology,Teachers & Teaching,Trojan War",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/7/91/Helen.jpg,Text,#Humanitiesinclass,1,0
"""on a small radiant screen honeydew melon green are my scintillating bones""",,"Gwen Harwood's ""Bone Scan"" will always have a place in my heart when it comes to my inspiration for teaching Literature and my abiding interest in the humanities. Growing up in Singapore, the educational environment I was in did not prioritize literature and the humanities very much, and math and science were the core subjects that we were expected to focus on.
However, when I was 18, I had a literature teacher who taught and prepared us to appreciate unseen poetry for the A levels and among the poems she introduced us to was ""Bone Scan,"" which we later realized was her way of explaining her long absence from the classroom near our national exams. She was struggling with cancer and her teaching allowed us to appreciate that the poem's use of the word ""scintillating"" and the use of sibilants represented her desire to regard her struggle with cancer as a positive and hopeful journey rather than one to think about negatively and pessimistically. Although she eventually passed on, her influence continues to inspire me to be a better teacher and reader of literature, and continues to remind me of the importance of being attentive and committed to the text before us. I continue to return to ""Bone Scan"" and think how we approach, study, encounter, and teach literature reflects how we approach, encounter, and interact with others in our lives as well.","Gwen Harwood","""Bone Scan"" ",,2010,"Eunice Ying Ci Lim, 29, Ph.D. Candidate, Pennsylvania State University, Comparative Literature and Asian Studies",,,,,,on-a-small-radiant-screen,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Graduate Student Summer Residency 2021","Harwood, Gwen,Illness,Poetry,Self-Realization,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/458/HM_Bones_Image.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2021",1,0
"Eyes on the Mockingbird","Without Eyes on the Prize, I would have never seen what was happening outside of my little hometown. I knew there were different cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities surrounding Durand, but I never came in contact with them. I certainly never knew that people had to fight to be able to go to school or that fire hoses were used to deter people from going to school. It also taught me that minority does not indicate a color or even social grouping; rather it indicates a lack of political power. By Lee showing that people in the minority were being harmed by those with power, I was able to see how important it is for me to stand up for human rights. Without the humanities, I would have been blind to the world.","I grew up in a very small town in rural Wisconsin. When I looked at my classmates it was like looking in a mirror. Because of that, I never realized that there were many people who were facing hardships because of their minority status and people who were taking advantage of them. Fast forward to my sophomore year of high school. Mrs. Shaw made it her mission to open our eyes. She wanted to expose us to the realities of this world. While I questioned it at the time, she showed us the entire Eyes on the Prize documentary. She would allow us to watch, and then she would force us to talk about it and face the facts. We had to face the fact that people could be cruel, especially if they felt they had power over others. The curriculum then went on to To Kill a Mockingbird. Mrs. Shaw made sure to show us that skin color is not the only way to dictate belonging in the minority. She made us see the importance of standing up for the fact that people are people, no matter what, no matter their political power.
Without Eyes on the Prize, I would have never seen what was happening outside of my little hometown. I knew there were different cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities surrounding Durand, but I never came in contact with them. I certainly never knew that people had to fight to be able to go to school or that fire hoses were used to deter people from going to school. It also taught me that minority does not indicate a color or even social grouping; rather it indicates a lack of political power. By Lee showing that people in the minority were being harmed by those with power, I was able to see how important it is for me to stand up for human rights. Without the humanities, I would have been blind to the world.","Hampton, Henry; Harper Lee","Eyes on the Prize and To Kill a Mockingbird",,1995,"Sarah Arnold, 38, English Teacher",,,,,,eyes-on-the-mockingbird,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Bildungsromans,Books & Reading,Civil Rights,Discrimination,Documentary Films,Durand, Wisconsin,Eyes on the Prize,Film,Hampton, Henry,Human Rights,Lee, Harper,Literature,Minorities,Social Justice,Teachers & Teaching,To Kill a Mockingbird",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/110/To_Kill_a_Mocking_Bird.3.jpg,Text,"Teacher Advisory Council",1,0
"The Role of the Individual versus an Intellectual Aristocracy","Why is this a Humanities Moment? Hesse wasn’t the only author of modernist alienation I read as a teenager, but I use him to illustrate this point because years later, another of his books again explained an important moment in my life. Three years ago, I became involved in efforts to bring philosophical education outside of the academy. I had been teaching high school philosophy for years, and was shocked to learn that there were whole organizations devoted to pre-college philosophy, and that people were doing philosophy with elementary and even pre-K students. Around this time, I read the Hesse novel The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) for the first time. Although dull at times in its abstraction, the novel raises prescient points that Humanities education is still struggling with 50 years after its publication. In short, the novel describes a future world where monasteries and colleges have essentially fused, and a wildly abstract game, the Glass Bead Game attempts to unify all of the fields of human learning. Importantly, Castalia, where the game is played, steadfastly refuses to engage with the world outside -- intellectual pursuit literally has become a walled-off game. In the year 2017, especially, it seems crucial to find a way to explore the socially critical functions of Humanities thinking while avoiding the elitism that has led so many people to even reject the idea of a shared truth. The question -- how to bring a Humanities education and its expansion of perspective to all?","Choosing a Humanities Moment was initially a challenging task. Over the last few years working with the organization PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization), I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the humanities, liberal arts and a philosophical education. In particular, the so-called crisis of the Humanities, the popularity of STEM fields and the blossoming of a national testing regime prompted me to think a lot about what a good education should entail. In thinking back to my own education, my Humanities Moment both shows the power and challenges of what could be called a liberal arts perspective. I attended a high school run by the Department of Defense in Heidelberg, West Germany due to my father’s job in the government service. From the start, I was culturally and politically alienated from my peers. Having lived in Germany for years, I not only had scant knowledge of recent American culture, but also had a much different perspective. Initially, I could only feel the alienation to be a shortcoming of my own. However, in the summer between 9th and 10th grade, I discovered Hermann Hesse, in particular, the novel Demian. The novel, a classic Bildungsroman, discusses a young student’s coming to see beyond the illusions and falsehoods of the society around him. This novel struck me with tremendous power at the time. Along with other novels of this sort, it showed me a fundamental ideal of the Humanities -- the same set of facts or experiences can can have more than one meaning -- perspectivalism. It took me awhile to come to understand all of this, but as a shy 15 year old, it gave me emotional fortitude and encouragement. Unfortunately, it also gave me a nascent sense of elitism. It didn’t just validate my feelings, but suggested the idea of an intellectual aristocracy I could potentially be a member of. As the member of the special club of those who “got it”, it suggested my experiences were superior. Later, in college, exposure to Kant, Aristotle and other very challenging philosophers introduced humility. If there was a special club, surely I couldn’t be a part of it!
Why is this a Humanities Moment? Hesse wasn’t the only author of modernist alienation I read as a teenager, but I use him to illustrate this point because years later, another of his books again explained an important moment in my life. Three years ago, I became involved in efforts to bring philosophical education outside of the academy. I had been teaching high school philosophy for years, and was shocked to learn that there were whole organizations devoted to pre-college philosophy, and that people were doing philosophy with elementary and even pre-K students. Around this time, I read the Hesse novel The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) for the first time. Although dull at times in its abstraction, the novel raises prescient points that Humanities education is still struggling with 50 years after its publication. In short, the novel describes a future world where monasteries and colleges have essentially fused, and a wildly abstract game, The Glass Bead Game attempts to unify all of the fields of human learning. Importantly, Castalia, where the game is played, steadfastly refuses to engage with the world outside -- intellectual pursuit literally has become a walled-off game. In the year 2017, especially, it seems crucial to find a way to explore the socially critical functions of Humanities thinking while avoiding the elitism that has led so many people to even reject the idea of a shared truth. The question -- how to bring a Humanities education and its expansion of perspective to all?","Hesse, Hermann","Demian and The Glass Bead Game",,1984,"Stephen Miller, 48, Philosophy Teacher",,,,,,the-role-of-the-individual,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Bildungsromans,Books & Reading,Demian,Heidelberg, Germany,Hesse, Hermann,High School,Literature,Philosophy,Teachers & Teaching,The Glass Bead Game",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/107/hesse.jpg,Text,"Teacher Advisory Council",1,0
"Transformation of an Island",,"My source of inspiration came from a lecture on paintings and images of slave society presented at the Barbados National Museum. The painting by Issac Sailmaker entitled ""Island of Barbados"" visually depicts the transformation of the island's geography due to the creation of sugar plantations in 1694. Sugar not only transformed the physical landscape of this mostly uninhabited land, but also would impact the social, political, and economic institutions that were created as a result. This painting symbolizes the totality of sugar on this small island and sets the stage for the ensuing nickname, ""Britain's crowned jewel."" One of the reasons I was drawn to this painting for inspiration is due to my own experiences on the island over the last week of learning and exploring. Driving through the different parishes and seeing how the landscape differs in various regions is a stark contrast to this image from 1694 showing mostly port cities and the beginning of European transformation on the interior to create space for large scale sugar farming. When looking at maps from the 18th and 19th centuries, the island of Barbados is transformed even more due to the profits and demand for sugar in a new global economy. This image is a snapshot of an island in transition, but lacks the conflict and division sugar production will create in the future. The profits from sugar will create a hierarchy between plantation owners and those working the fields and mills as slaves. Although this image depicts the beginning of British influence and domination over the island of Barbados, the narrative will continue to evolve as sugar projection reaches an all-time high and the thirst for profit will result in the dehumanization of an entire group of people.","Isaac Sailmaker","The painting Island of Barbados by Isaac Sailmaker",,"June 19, 2018","Caroline Bare, 38, Social Studies teacher ",,,,,,transformation-of-an-island,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Andy Mink","Barbados,Colonialism,Exploitation,Island of Barbados,Sailmaker, Isaac,Slavery,Sugar Production,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/12/183/Sugarcane.jpg,Text,"Virginia Geographic Alliance West Indies Teacher Institute",1,0
"J.C. Bach and the Exhaustion of Feeling",,"I was around 16 years old at the time of my humanities moment. I had been playing the viola for 7 years. As usually occurred, I became bored with practicing the first movement of J.C. Bach's Viola Concerto in C minor that my teacher had given me for an upcoming recital, so I decided to skip to the next movement. The second one was not one that my teacher ever assigned her students, so I hadn't heard it before. After a somewhat cobbled together sight-reading attempt, I decided to look up a recording.
The song was hauntingly beautiful, filled with slow, elongated melodies and fast, anxious lines. I don't know what Casadesus intended to communicate with it, but, for me, it was a song about grief. The slow passages are restrained emotion, how one might feel when they are trying to keep themselves from feeling their sadness. The piece then becomes more anxious, as if unable to stop from considering what's going on. After the climax, it wanes, as if exhausted by the full cycle of the feeling. All of this was clear to me immediately upon listening.
The piece both changed the way that I played music, but also changed the way that I considered music in my life. It was what I turned to play immediately after the passing of a loved one. I played it in my senior recital. I have returned to it over and over ever since. It encouraged me to seek out musical moments in my life, and to consider the emotional and personal significance of humanities works.","J.C. Bach","J.C. Bach's Viola Concerto in C Minor, 2nd Movement",,2012,"Megan Kitts, 25, Philosophy Ph.D. Student",,,,,,bach-exhaustion-feeling,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Through the National Humanities Center summer intensive program","Bach, J.C.,Classical Music,Emotional Experience,Music,Music Appreciation,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/449/HM_Bach_Image.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2021",1,0
"“Il faut le savoir:” Reflecting on France’s Holocaust History and Memory",,"“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.
","Jean Cayrol, Alain Resnais","Night and Fog (1955)",,"Spring 2021","Willa Z. Silverman, 62, Malvin E. and Lea P. Bank Professor of French and Jewish Studies, Penn State University",,,,,,il-faut-le-savoir,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"From one of my graduate students at Penn State (Morgane Haesen, whose ""Moment"" you published)","Documentary Films,Emotional Experience,Film and Movies,Historical Memory,History,History Education,Holocaust,Memorials,Memory,Teachers & Teaching,War",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/433/syn-ecc_NotreDame1-296x300.png,Text,,1,0
"Well-Behaved Women","The humanities contributed to this moment, because my ancestors and myself are using words to make sense of the world and our place in it.... Resisting!","My moment focuses on the fact that African American women have been using their words as Political Resistance.
The humanities contributed to this moment, because my ancestors and myself are using words to make sense of the world and our place in it.... Resisting!","Laurel Thatcher Ulrich","Well - Behaved Women Seldom Make History",,"It started when the first slave arrived in America and is ongoing.","Jacqueline Stallworth, 46 years old, High School English teacher in northern Virginia",,,,,,well-behaved-women,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"African American History,African American Women Authors,Ancestors,Civil Rights,Hurston, Zora Neale,Resistance,Teachers & Teaching,Truth, Sojourner,Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher,Wells, Ida B.,Women's History","https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/112/Well_Behaved_Women_4.jpg,https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/112/Well_Behaved_Women_1.jpg,https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/112/Well_Behaved_Women_2.jpg,https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/112/Well_Behaved_Women_3.jpg,https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/112/Well_Behaved_Women_5.jpg,https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/112/Well_Behaved_Women_6.jpg,https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/112/Well_Behaved_Women_7.jpg","Still Image","Teacher Advisory Council",1,0
"Why Representation Matters",,"The sixth grade stands out for me as one of those important milestones in life. As an adult, I have numerous precise moments of recollection where a memory is so vivid it feels as if I can recall every word and emotion. Our school was a small neighborhood Catholic school with a tragic past. In the late 1950s, the school burned down, and ninety-five people lost their lives.
My experience as one of the few kids in the neighborhood who did not attend public school was nuanced. I never thought much about my identity outside of being the girl who went to Catholic school. My neighborhood was majority Latino and Black, and Chicago was and remains a largely segregated city. I saw white people at school and on television and Brown and Black people in my everyday life. I never noticed that the people I watched on tv shows and working in my small Catholic school did not represent my life or the lives of the people I knew.
That all changed when Mrs. Maureen Hart started her teaching career in my sixth-grade class. I could share countless stories about Mrs. Hart's dedication to teaching and her desire to really make a difference in the lives of her students. Still, this particular moment is about our sixth-grade production of A Raisin in the Sun. We spent weeks preparing. We watched the 1961 movie adaptation, we read the script, and we designed the set. We learned all about Lorraine Hansberry and her groundbreaking accomplishments. We learned that the original play was set in Chicago and that Hansberry herself was a Chicagoan. The information made our production even more important. After all, we had to do justice to Chicago's own playwright.
Studying and preparing for that play brought a profound sense of pride and ownership. I fell in love with the characters and all of their imperfections. It was the first time I experienced black characters who were flawed and proud on paper and in film. The struggles of the world around them were not the focus of the story. Family and kinship were central to the plot. When I finished the play, I clearly remembered a profound sense of knowing that I had a place in the world. My stories, although not heroic or regal, mattered and was worthy of praise and notoriety.","Lorraine Hansberry","A Raisin in the Sun",,1988-1992,"Bridget H., Ph.D. student",,,,,,why-representation-matters,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"2021 NHC Summer Graduate Student Residency ","A Raisin in the Sun,African American Authors,African American Literature,African American Women Authors,Chicago, IL,Family,Hansberry, Lorraine,Kinship,Representation,Teachers & Teaching,Theater and Drama",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/479/sunset-2180346_640.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2021",1,0
"A Painting, A Baby, and Jacques Lacan Walk into a Syllabus...",,"This summer, I am working with the Syracuse University Art Museum to create English-specific teaching resources. The goal is to make the museum's collections more accessible to instructors for both teaching and research purposes. The job came with the underlying assumption that artwork is a valuable tool for all kinds of academic or humanistic endeavors: close reading, interpretation, question-asking, theory application, etc.
As I dug around in the collection, I came across a piece by Louisa Chase, ""Baby, Baby"" (1991) and had a breakthrough moment. The abstract work, and Chase generally, uses geometric shapes to shadow or mimic forms--in this case, rectangles and squares to mimic a baby--and chaotic, heavy lines to disrupt the image. The work is striking in itself, but I was inspired by the way in which it perfectly represents the Lacanian idea of the ""Mirror Stage.""
A professor I work closely with describes pre-Mirror Stage identity as the formless, wild, confusing, cloudy, and chaotic experiences of an infant's sense of ""self."" And Chase's work shows that exactly, without the use of so-called ""high theory."" I was excited to show my professor, who was equally excited, and I went on to develop an entire module on the ""Mirror Stage"" and Identity out of paintings, photographs, cartoons, and other artworks of diverse mediums.
This module, once completed, will hopefully help to illuminate Lacan's theory by showing how humans find (or construct) their identity via images, representations, objects, and other things on the outside. I'm excited to continue to research the collection this summer to identify other artworks that can help students and scholars achieve understanding, find inspiration, and communicate ideas.","Louisa Chase","""Baby, Baby"" by Louisa Chase (1991). Etching on aquatint. ",,"June 2021","Madeline Krumel, 24, Ph.D. Student ",,,,,,painting-baby-jacques-lacan-walk-syllabus,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"NHC GSSR","Art,Chase, Louisa,Identity,Lacan, Jacques,Museum Curatorship,Museums,Psychoanalysis,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/455/cubes-447703_640.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2021",1,0
"World History Puzzles",,"I have vague recollections of eating my packed lunch on the stone steps of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art after completing a scavenger hunt for facts about particular paintings deemed important by my elementary school teacher.
I more distinctly remember returning to that art museum with my mom a few years later to view the Monet’s Water Lilies: An Artist’s Obsession exhibition. I had already developed a partiality for impressionism, and Monet specifically, probably from that early field trip, and we discussed the similarities and subtle differences in each iteration of the painting. Alongside the paintings were photographs of the gardens from Monet’s time as well as modern images that immediately put this French commune on our travel bucket list.
My mom and I haven’t made it to Giverny yet, but this summer we traveled to see the Monet and Boston: Legacy Illuminated exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts. This collection featured Monet’s paintings alongside works from his predecessor Millet and contemporary Rodin, but it was the comparison to the Japanese artist Hokusai that I found most surprising - until I learned that the forced reopening of Japan to foreign trade in the nineteenth century exposed Western Europeans to Japanese style and culture which inspired many artists of the time, including Monet.
This art exhibition displayed the interconnectedness of political and economic power plays, expanding global trade networks, and cultural diffusion. And it has been by teaching my students how to analyze the content and context of paintings, maps, and other images that they have been able to put together the pieces that make up the puzzle that is world history. But I was doing to my students what my elementary school teacher did to me twenty years earlier.
I selected all of the visual sources used in my classroom and explained how students should analyze them in order to understand the past - I was making them all complete my version of the world history puzzle. But then I came across the Black Histories, Black Futures exhibition curated by local high school students who developed a theme to explore, selected the works of art to display, and wrote the labels to provide context for three galleries throughout the MFA. These students actively researched and interpreted historical information to reach their own understandings about a past that was important to them. Next year, I look forward to seeing how my students put the pieces of world history together to create their own unique puzzles … and maybe even to curate their own museum galleries!","Museum of Fine Arts, Boston","Black Histories, Black Futures",,"June 18, 2021","Sarah Bartosiak, High School Social Studies Teacher",,,,,,world-history-puzzles,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"High School Social Studies Curriculum Specialist","Art Exhibitions,Art Museums,Learning,Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,Teachers & Teaching,World History",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/523/Claude_Monet-Madame_Monet_en_costume_japonais.jpg,Text,Educators,1,0
"Baseball, Jackie Robinson, and Racial Identity Formation","Reading a short biography on Jackie Robinson and developing my own racial identity were important ways that the humanities helped me in this moment.","As I grew up in rural South Carolina in the 1980s, baseball was my favorite hobby and pastime. For most of my 7 year Dixie league/recreational league baseball career (ages 5 to 12), my dad was my coach. I don’t remember watching baseball on television because we only had three to four channels and did not have cable.
On my first baseball team, I was the only black player; and then after that most of my teams were majority black. At this time I only had vague notions about race, although I knew that I was black. Because both of my parents worked, my brother and I attended a day-care facility in town. The day-care provider was a thirty-something year old white woman and most of the children in her care were also white. Again, I had little sense of my blackness.
Of the many books on hand at the daycare, one day I discovered a children’s book about Jackie Robinson. By this time, I’m in the third grade and am a good reader, so I read the book very quickly. Just as quickly, it becomes one of my favorite books.
I was extremely excited for several reasons: Never before I had a read a book with a Black main character. I knew there were black baseball players, but did not feel like I knew any very well. The book discussed racism that Robinson faced and how he overcame it and became one of the best baseball players in his generation (Rookie of the Year and MVP). It was the first example of people facing hardships because they were black and Jackie Robinson overcame the hardships. And lastly, a big part of my own racial development and understanding was that being black was not just about facing hardships in the past and overcoming them.
I continued to study Negro league baseball. Read several books and became fascinated by these invisible men who participated in a separate but unequal league, but had equal or superior baseball talent.",N/A,"A children's book about Jackie Robinson (I don't remember the title)",,"I was a third grader in the 1980s.","Jamie Lathan, 39, teacher and school administrator, husband, father, son, brother, friend.",,,,,,baseball-and-racial-identity,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"African American History,Baseball,Biography,Black History,Books & Reading,Children's Literature,Introspection,Literature,Negro Leagues,Race Identity,Robinson, Jackie,South Carolina,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/115/download-1.jpg,Text,"Teacher Advisory Council",1,0
"A few lines of poetry might be all we need...","My students were so engaged in this lesson, and I am sure some of these words and images continue to affect them today. I certainly hope my humanities moment enriched their lives and changed the way they thought about our world then and now.
","I remember seeing the images on the television, in newspapers, and in magazines. It was such an epic event. The Berlin Wall was coming down, something I never imagined would happen. As a child in the 50s and 60s, I remember bomb drills during elementary school.
Several of my friends had fallout shelters in their homes. I used to be afraid of bombs, of communists, of Khrushchev. I tried to understand how a wall could divide the city of Berlin into two very different places.
And then, in 1989, the unbelievable happened. I had just accepted an interim job teaching Senior English at Mooresville High School, and I wasn’t sure how to deal with such a momentous moment in history. Just a few lines from Stephen Vincent Benet’s John Brown’s Body made everything crystal clear and powerful.
Sometimes there comes a crack in Time itself.
Sometimes the earth is torn by something blind.
Sometimes an image that has stood so long
It seems implanted as the polar star
Is moved against an unfathomed force
That suddenly will not have it any more.
Those six lines provided so much focus for our classroom discussion and reflection... and awe.
My students were so engaged in this lesson, and I am sure some of these words and images continue to affect them today. I certainly hope my humanities moment enriched their lives and changed the way they thought about our world then and now.
","Stephen Vincent Benet","Stephen Vincent Benet’s lines from John Brown’s Body",,"November, 1989","Nancy Gardner, educational consultant and NBCT teacher",,,,,,a-few-lines-of-poetry,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Benet, Stephen Vincent,Berlin Wall, 1969-1989,John Brown's Body,Mooresville, North Carolina,Poetry,Teachers & Teaching,World History",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/7/92/berlin-wall.png,Text,#Humanitiesinclass,1,0
"The Virginia State Capitol: Past and Present","An architectural design conveys the meaning or purpose of a building. The designer want us to experience something when we see, enter, or tour a building. But it strikes me that the architecture itself can have many meanings and that historical events and people who live and work in buildings can transform their original intent. The humanities should teach us to appreciate architecture and understand the meaning of public buildings, but they also give us the tools to see beyond the edifice, the structure, the artistic beauty. When we look beyond the purpose of the building to the people inside, we are likely to find a new and different meaning and purpose.","I had been to the Virginia State Capitol many times since I moved to Richmond in 1989. I’ve viewed proceedings in the House and Senate chambers, held meetings for students, given several lectures in the meeting rooms, and toured the building with family, friends, and students. Yet, until I took part in the Humanities in Class project with the National Humanities Center, I had not thought carefully about why the building was so important, both to me and to the people of Virginia. Just recently I visited the Capitol with a group of students and as I looked up at huge white columns and wandered through the building, I began to think more deeply about the transformative nature of this place. I looked past the architecture, the museum pieces and the contemporary issues debated in the General Assembly to the problem of race in the history of Virginia. I also began to think of its ability to transform the lives of my students.
An architectural design conveys the meaning or purpose of a building. The designer want us to experience something when we see, enter, or tour a building. But it strikes me that the architecture itself can have many meanings and that historical events and people who live and work in buildings can transform their original intent. The humanities should teach us to appreciate architecture and understand the meaning of public buildings, but they also give us the tools to see beyond the edifice, the structure, the artistic beauty. When we look beyond the purpose of the building to the people inside, we are likely to find a new and different meaning and purpose.","Thomas Jefferson with Charles-Louis Clerriseau","The Virginia State Capitol",,"July 2017","Daniel J. Palazzolo, 56, professor of political science at the University of Richmond",,,,,,virginia-state-capitol-past-present,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Architecture,Capitols,Clérisseau, Charles-Louis,History,Jefferson, Thomas,Presidents of the United States,Professors,Public Buildings,Racism,Richmond, Virginia,Teachers & Teaching,University of Richmond,Virginia State Capitol",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/7/105/7358972234_b6c87cd027_b.jpg,"Moving Image",#Humanitiesinclass,1,0
"Such a Short Time to Stay Here","I think that the humanities contributed to my moment in three ways. First, they gave me the philosophical question about the meaning of life that I simply could not solve by looking to anyone else. Second, they gave me the musical source material that inspired me to find my own answer to that incredibly important question. Finally, throughout my life the humanities have given me the means to solve that problem by allowing me to study history, literature, art, music, and philosophy in order to make sense of the world as well as to teach my students about ways they can make their own lives meaningful.","I am not a churchgoer or a believer, and thus, I have always been left with questions about the deeper meaning of life that could not be easily answered through traditional authorities. Instead, I have had to search for ways to make meaning myself. The importance of this quest to make meaning in a chaotic world was first impressed upon me as a young girl when I listened to my father playing traditional bluegrass songs and was almost physically jolted by the power of a single line, ""Such a short time to stay here, such a long time to be gone."" With that succinct encapsulation of the brevity of life, I suddenly understood how important it would be for me to do as much as I could with the short time on Earth that I was allowed. I could not look for some grand purpose to be provided. I had to do the work of making my life meaningful so that it might be remembered and impactful for the long time that I would no longer exist.
I think that the humanities contributed to my moment in three ways. First, they gave me the philosophical question about the meaning of life that I simply could not solve by looking to anyone else. Second, they gave me the musical source material that inspired me to find my own answer to that incredibly important question. Finally, throughout my life the humanities have given me the means to solve that problem by allowing me to study history, literature, art, music, and philosophy in order to make sense of the world as well as to teach my students about ways they can make their own lives meaningful.","traditional bluegrass song popularized by the Stanley Brothers","""Little Birdie,"" a traditional bluegrass song popularized by the Stanley Brothers",,"in the 1980s, during my early childhood","Jennifer Snoddy, 42, high school history teacher, TAC member",,,,,,short-time-to-stay-here,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Bluegrass Music,Franklin, Indiana,Little Birdie,Meaning (Philosophy),Music,Teachers & Teaching,The Stanley Brothers",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/119/The_Stanley_Brothers.jpg,Text,"Teacher Advisory Council",1,0
"""Teach Them Well and Let Them Lead the Way""",,"For many years, my school district hosted an annual Academic Diversity Institute prior to the start of the new school year. At this institute, teachers had the opportunity to hear speakers and attend seminars that taught about and encouraged the implementation of new teaching strategies and methods in the classroom. The theme of the 2012 institute was ""Reaching All: Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century."" The keynote speaker at the 2012 institute reinforced many of the concepts and arguments that I had studied in my graduate school cohort program, from which I had graduated just three months earlier. As I listened to the keynote speaker, her words really resonated with me, further confirming my belief that the integration of technology in the 21st century classroom is critical to helping students to be academically successful, both in the present and in the future.
The keynote speaker tugged at my heartstrings through her incorporation of Whitney Houston's ""Greatest Love of All"". It is the song that my dad and I had danced to for our Father/Daughter dance at my wedding a year earlier. Although there is a very personal reason why my dad and I chose this song for our special dance, much of the meaning that he and I both share in connection with this song also carries over into my beliefs as a classroom teacher. My own analysis of Houston's lyrics further supports my belief about the importance of technology in the classroom.
""I believe the children are our future,"" as past and current generations have shown that they will be who shapes the workplace environment once they become the majority of the population. ""Teach them well and let them lead the way"" in how they will acquire, master, and utilize knowledge. ""Show them all the beauty they possess inside"" in order to intrinsically motivate them to want to learn. ""Give them a sense of pride to make it easier"" for them to find their own meaning in the standards that they must master in order to pass a particular course. ""Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be"" when we ourselves were students (Whitney Houston, ""Greatest Love of All"").
That last line in particular reminds me of how excited I was to use Ask Jeeves for the first time in my 9th grade Regional World Studies class in order to do research on the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. At the time, Ask Jeeves was a newly developed research tool on the Internet. My own memory of this experience reinforces the need for teachers to not only continuously learn about and incorporate new learning strategies and methods, but to also serve as a guide on the side of student learning and to let students find meaning in their own learning.","Whitney Houston","""Greatest Love of All""",,"August 2012","Kathryn Thayer, Social Studies Teacher",,,,,,teach-them-well-let-them-lead,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Colleague,"Children,Houston, Whitney,Music Appreciation,Teachers & Teaching,Technology",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/517/board-409582_640.jpg,Text,Educators,1,0
"Inspirational Literature",,"In this video Marlene Daut describes how teaching literature to college students enables them to both understand their lives and history better, as well as be inspired regarding their possible futures. ",,,,,"Marlene Daut, Associate Professor of African Diaspora Studies, University of Virginia",,,,,,marlene-daut-inspirational-literature,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"African American Authors,African American History,African American Literature,Books & Reading,Coral Gables, Florida,History,Inspiration,Professors,Teachers & Teaching,United States History,University of Miami,Wheatley, Phillis,Women's History","http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/10/47/hm-daut-360.mp4,https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/8/28/Phillis_Wheatley.jpg","Moving Image","National Humanities Center Fellows",1,0
"My Service in the Navy Sparked a Lifelong Interest in Other Cultures",,"Teacher Lou Nachman discusses how his experiences overseas in the Navy changed him from an indifferent student to embrace life as a teacher and enthusiastic traveler.
For Nachman, works of literature such as Big Fish or To Kill a Mockingbird forge an appreciation of human connections in the midst of apparent differences. In doing so, he says, they urge us to reflect on our own place in the world: how do we think, and how do we want to think?",,"Novels such as Big Fish and To Kill a Mockingbird",,,"Lou Nachman, Charlotte Mecklenburg School District, NC",,,,,,navy-other-cultures,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions,Books & Reading,Charlotte, North Carolina,Film Adaptations,Lee, Harper,Military Service,Teachers & Teaching,To Kill a Mockingbird,Travel,Wallace, Daniel",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/33/US_Navy.jpg,"Moving Image",Educators,1,0
"How do you get to the stories we are not told?",,"Bernier shares how her lifelong interest in the history of slavery was sparked by curiosity about the stories that seemed to be missing in the account of the British Empire she was taught in school.",,,,,"Celeste-Marie Bernier, University of Edinburgh",,,,,,bernier-stories-not-told,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"British Empire,History,Slavery,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/8/38/Transatlantic_slave_trade_map.jpg,"Moving Image","National Humanities Center Fellows",1,0
"Broccoli, Anthropology, and the Humanities",,"Caitlin Patton discusses how the work of Ted Fischer, an anthropologist focused on food culture, specifically the cultivation of broccoli in Guatemala, inspired her choice to study at Vanderbilt University.
Fischer’s book, Broccoli and Desire, spotlights an anthropological case study of food culture: the surprising webs of connection between American consumer culture and the traditions of the indigenous Maya people of Guatemala. At first blush, broccoli may not have seemed like an intriguing reading topic, but the book’s methods and message ultimately shaped the course of Patton’s own scholarship.",,"Broccoli and Desire by Ted Fischer",,," Caitlin Patton, North Carolina Humanities Council",,,,,,broccoli-anthropology-humanities,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Anthropology,Books & Reading,Broccoli and Desire,Fischer, Ted,Food Cultures,Nashville, Tennessee,Teachers & Teaching,Vanderbilt University",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/40/broccoli.jpg,"Moving Image",Educators,1,0
"Fathers and Sons",,"In this video, Scott Gartlan discusses his reaction to seeing Arthur Miller’s 1947 play All My Sons and seeing deep connections between the play’s narrative and his own life story. He goes on to reflect on the power of storytelling to bridge generations and personal circumstances.
Witnessing the performance of Miller’s play was a “flashbulb moment” that deepened Gartlan’s appreciation of “what art can do in representing life.”",,"A performance of Arthur Miller's play All My Sons",,,"Scott Gartlan, Executive Director, Charlotte Teachers Institute",,,,,,fathers-sons,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"All My Sons,Drama,Families,Fathers & Sons,Literature,Miller, Arthur,New York, New York,Performing Arts,Storytelling,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/41/Arthur_Miller.jpeg,"Moving Image",Educators,1,0
"Unlocking the Code",,"In this clip, educator Kathryn Bentley discusses an early moment in her teaching career when she came to realize the role emotions play in learning to read and that for some students this is the key element of instruction.
Throughout several decades as an educator, Bentley has sought to impart her own love of reading with her students. Interactions with individual learners—especially those who initially resist or struggle with literacy—have illuminated the many different approaches to “unlocking the code of reading.” Bentley has come to realize that while some children need to learn more about the “science” of reading, others benefit from an introduction to its “art.” ",,,,,"Kathryn Bentley, Arts & Science Council",,,,,,emotional-impact-learning-to-read,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Books & Reading,Literacy,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/44/Scrabble_reading.jpeg,"Moving Image",Educators,1,0
"What Happens When We Share Our Stories?",,"Teacher Theresa Pierce discusses how the accumulation and sharing of personal narratives help generate individual moments of realization among students as they also help build a sense of community.
Books, maps, and works of art consistently facilitate connection and shared experiences among Pierce’s diverse group of students. For example, Marjane Satrapi’s graphic autobiography Persepolis moved one young woman to reflect on her own family’s narrative. This communal sharing of stories helps Pierce’s students to realize that the world “isn’t a bubble” but a “huge interconnected thing.”",,"Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi",,,"Theresa Pierce, Rowan County Early College",,,,,,sharing-stories-fostering-understanding,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Books & Reading,Graphic Novels,Persepolis,Professors,Satrapi, Marjane,Storytelling,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/45/Persepolis.jpg,"Moving Image",Educators,1,0
"Feeling the American Revolution",,"History teacher Steve Oreskovic discusses how he gets his students to empathize with the feelings of injustice among colonists in the run up to the American Revolution, helping them gain a richer context for learning about history.
Through the practice of experiential learning—a simulation of a tax on school supplies—Oreskovic created an opportunity for his students to imagine the lived realities of American colonists. In doing so, he drew parallels with the Stamp Act imposed by the English government in 1765. The experiential activity “really gets them into the why,” he explains. By reflecting on the internal feeling of injustice, his students gained a richer understanding of the past that transcends the mere knowing of dates, names, and places. ",,,,,"Steve Oreskovic, Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District",,,,,,feeling-american-revolution,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Active Learning,American Revolution,Charlotte, North Carolina,History,Stamp Act of 1765,Teachers & Teaching,United States History",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/47/Burning_of_Stamp_Act-600.jpg,"Moving Image",Educators,1,0
"What Does It Mean to Be Southern?",,"Community college teacher Julie Mullis describes how a classroom experience with students from diverse backgrounds and perspectives created a memorable and “multi-colored” sense of place and belonging. The conversations and debates that took place in a Humanities 122 class illuminated a profound truth for Mullis and her students: “we all had this common strand of humanity to us, no matter where we came from or how we grew up.” By considering a single topic—Southern culture—from a variety of perspectives, the classroom opened up a space for its diverse learners to celebrate both similarities and differences.",,,,,"Julie Mullis, Wilkes Community College",,,,,,what-does-it-mean-to-be-southern,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Community Colleges,Cultural Exchange,Professors,Southern United States,Teachers & Teaching",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/4/48/Mason_Dixon_Line.jpeg,"Moving Image",Educators,1,0
"An Unexpected Insight","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.","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 Plutarch’s Lives, 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.”
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
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.
",,"Plutarch's Lives",,"June 1, 1956","Jaroslav Folda, N. Ferebee Taylor Professor emeritus, UNC",,,,,,unexpected-insight,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Books & Reading,Dos Passos, John,History Education,Paris American High School,Paris, France,Plutarch,Plutarch's Lives,Professors,Teachers & Teaching,World History",https://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/8/58/plutarchs-lives-300.jpg,Text,"National Humanities Center Fellows",1,0