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RE: Teaching Civil Rights
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From: Steward, Celeste <csteward_at_aclibrary.org>
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 09:07:06 -0700
Monica--I agree. And my daughter said as much when I asked her about Jim C row laws and what she remembered.
As a former K-8 school librarian, what kids absorb in elementary school (es pecially history) really depends. That's why good teachers are so vital. As we all know, there's no substitute for an inspired teacher!
My youngest daughter had such a teacher during her freshman year. She told me he wanted the kids to know about unfair working conditions in Mexican fa ctories as opposed to those in the United States. He divided the kids into two groups, one for U.S. workers and one for Mexican.
The Mexican workers had to stand and didn't receive perks, such as breaks o r snacks. The U.S. workers were able to sit while they worked. He gave the U.S. workers snacks while the others had to watch standing. She won't forge t that as she was part of the Mexican group.
When one of my children frequently mentions a teacher's favorable methods a nd relates classroom stories, I know they are in good hands.
Celeste Steward, Librarian IV Collection Development Alameda County Library Fremont, CA
________________________________
From: Monica Edinger
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 8:26 AM To: CCBC message posting Subject: Re:
Teaching Civil Rights
(This just went to Tony yesterday because I hadn't clipped enough of his or iginal query, but I'm resending it to the list because I'm guessing others might be interested too.)
Sadly, I don't think history gets a lot of attention in these days of overf ocus on testing for reading and math. And I think it is hard to generalize throughout the country because it really depends on the local situation. I have heard of public school teachers still able to do creative teaching a nd others who cannot. All depends.
That said I also want to go on my teacher soapbox and suggest that a few th ings should be kept in mind when considering what children know and how the y know it. (I teach fourth grade and wrote a few books for teachers on tea ching history.) So even if kids have been exposed to something historical a nd even exposed to it well they still may not remember it well a few years later. Or even at all. I teach fourth grade in a very good school and teac hers are constantly shocked, shocked at what the kids don't know. They may , for example have learned something about Jim Crow (indeed most likely whe n discussing King or Parks) and forgotten it. Last year I did an assembly for grades 5-6 with a group of students focusing on Betsy Partridge's March ing for Freedom, but that doesn't meant the kids will hold on to it well.
Facts about history be it Jim Crow or the Holocaust or Vietnam or the Middl e Ages are tricky. I believe strongly that kids hold on to historical info rmation when they are invested in learning about it. They have to care. A nd too often they are given it in ways that are not worth caring about (unl ess you are a fact fiend:). I recently debated with Marc Aronson about the significance of the latest NAEP which focused on history. (My blog post ab out our debate is here: http://medinger.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/in-the-cla ssroom-nothing-but-the-facts/) I took a look at the fourth grade questions and there were so many facts that I bet those teachers just taught to the test and the kids got no depth and no historical understanding.
My suggestion is to just not expect them to know much or anything and take it from there.
Monica
-- Monica Edinger 600 West 111th Street Apt 2A New York NY 10025 educating alice _at_medinger on twitter My Huffington Post Blog
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 09:07:06 -0700
Monica--I agree. And my daughter said as much when I asked her about Jim C row laws and what she remembered.
As a former K-8 school librarian, what kids absorb in elementary school (es pecially history) really depends. That's why good teachers are so vital. As we all know, there's no substitute for an inspired teacher!
My youngest daughter had such a teacher during her freshman year. She told me he wanted the kids to know about unfair working conditions in Mexican fa ctories as opposed to those in the United States. He divided the kids into two groups, one for U.S. workers and one for Mexican.
The Mexican workers had to stand and didn't receive perks, such as breaks o r snacks. The U.S. workers were able to sit while they worked. He gave the U.S. workers snacks while the others had to watch standing. She won't forge t that as she was part of the Mexican group.
When one of my children frequently mentions a teacher's favorable methods a nd relates classroom stories, I know they are in good hands.
Celeste Steward, Librarian IV Collection Development Alameda County Library Fremont, CA
________________________________
From: Monica Edinger
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 8:26 AM To: CCBC message posting Subject: Re:
Teaching Civil Rights
(This just went to Tony yesterday because I hadn't clipped enough of his or iginal query, but I'm resending it to the list because I'm guessing others might be interested too.)
Sadly, I don't think history gets a lot of attention in these days of overf ocus on testing for reading and math. And I think it is hard to generalize throughout the country because it really depends on the local situation. I have heard of public school teachers still able to do creative teaching a nd others who cannot. All depends.
That said I also want to go on my teacher soapbox and suggest that a few th ings should be kept in mind when considering what children know and how the y know it. (I teach fourth grade and wrote a few books for teachers on tea ching history.) So even if kids have been exposed to something historical a nd even exposed to it well they still may not remember it well a few years later. Or even at all. I teach fourth grade in a very good school and teac hers are constantly shocked, shocked at what the kids don't know. They may , for example have learned something about Jim Crow (indeed most likely whe n discussing King or Parks) and forgotten it. Last year I did an assembly for grades 5-6 with a group of students focusing on Betsy Partridge's March ing for Freedom, but that doesn't meant the kids will hold on to it well.
Facts about history be it Jim Crow or the Holocaust or Vietnam or the Middl e Ages are tricky. I believe strongly that kids hold on to historical info rmation when they are invested in learning about it. They have to care. A nd too often they are given it in ways that are not worth caring about (unl ess you are a fact fiend:). I recently debated with Marc Aronson about the significance of the latest NAEP which focused on history. (My blog post ab out our debate is here: http://medinger.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/in-the-cla ssroom-nothing-but-the-facts/) I took a look at the fourth grade questions and there were so many facts that I bet those teachers just taught to the test and the kids got no depth and no historical understanding.
My suggestion is to just not expect them to know much or anything and take it from there.
Monica
-- Monica Edinger 600 West 111th Street Apt 2A New York NY 10025 educating alice _at_medinger on twitter My Huffington Post Blog
---Received on Sat 30 Jul 2011 09:07:06 AM CDT
