Hidden History is Everywhere

 In class this week, my 8th grade students and I are discussing the period of Reconstruction and the missed opportunity to fix many of the problems that plagued this country since our founding. One of the topics we cover is lynching and the widespread use of lynching by white mobs to intimidate black Americans trying to exercise their basic human rights. Often, the narrative centers on the mass amounts of lynchings that occurred in the American South—this makes it seem like a distant problem of the past that only existed there. It’s easy for students to think lynchings only happened in the South, so we’re good- we’re removed from that stain of history. We live in Michigan after all, we were the last stop before ultimate freedom on the Underground Railroad after all, how could we be involved in this history? 

The truth is much more difficult to grasp. Dark stains of history are all around us. In a brutal system of slavery and subsequent oppression and racial discrimination, no place was exempt from pockets of hatred and bigotry. We all have hidden stories of atrocities that are not known because they are not told. 

132 years ago today, on the morning of May 27, 1889, 23 year old African-American Albert Martin sat in the St. Clair County Jail in Port Huron, MI. He was accused of assaulting a local farmers wife. That morning a white masked mob dragged him out of the jail and subsequently hung him from the 7th Street Bridge in the city center after dragging him through town by a rope. Although we often associate lynching during Reconstruction and Jim Crow as a Southern problem, the ugly truth is that racism exists everywhere, and did then too. Although there is some confusion in the historical record, some say there were 3 total race inspired lynchings in Michigan, the Equal Justice Initiative recognizes the lynching of Albert Martin as the only racially motivated lynching to take place in the state of Michigan. Local newspapers from the time demonstrate the extent of the bigotry and racial aspects associated with it. The Michigan Herald ran than headline “A Brute Lynched” and “A Michigan Mobs Vengeance on a Colored Ravisher” in the days following the incident. No one was ever charged or punished for the act. Sounds like a tale as old as time in the Reconstruction South? But it wasn’t. It was here in Michigan. A stones throw from the Canadian border. 

Why does this matter? Port Huron is only about 30 miles from my home. My wife and I take our children there most weekends to walk by the river and watch the freighters go by under the Blue Water Bridge to Canada. I grew up spending weekends on the beach just north of the city. It’s a place so many go and never think of a hidden history below the surface. We like to think horrific racial events are disconnected from us, somehow a distant past from another time and place and out of sight and out mind. But the truth is, there are so many such stories around us if we take the time to seek them out. Students here in Michigan look to the South as the racially backwards section of the country and fail to really understand the deeper narrative: hate can exist anywhere if it is given the light of day. 

I have taken the opportunity this year to try to expose students to these kind of stories. Show them there is always a history that’s hidden under the surface. What we read in textbooks is never the complete story, what we’re told is never the complete story. Many students will go through their middle school years thinking lynchings only happened in the South, never realizing that it also took place in their own backyard. 

Recent events have put history teachers in the spotlight as we “brainwash” students and teach them to hate America. Here in Michigan, a bill is in the state legislature that would penalize a district 5% of their state funding if a teacher teaches about marginalized races or anything deemed “anti-American” in a history class. My question to those that sponsor this legislation is what am I supposed to tell kids about something like this story? Why should they not know a mob dragged a human being from a courthouse and hung him from a bridge without even a trial? I refuse to back down. My job is to teach kids the truth but also the critical thinking skills to go along with it so they can think for themselves. 

My challenge to myself as I head into the summer is to uncover more of these stories. Uncover more hidden history and hidden voices that call to us to tell their story. Students need a full and complete picture of our history If we are going to learn from it. 

Let’s do better history. Our kids deserve it. 

America is at a Crossroads

Make no mistake about it: Our country is at a crossroads.  It is hard to find one area of life that the COVID pandemic has not reached. I cannot speak for the whole country, but here in Michigan it has been an ever present risk/reward debate since the middle of March. We saw what we thought was the worst of the pandemic in April as deaths and cases climbed in the state and we were one of the leading states in both categories. We hunkered down, sacrificed, and we “flattened the curve” then becoming a role model to other states as by Memorial Day and into early June case counts and deaths were way down. We saw a summer where with precautions, life was relatively normal. Then, we started to shift towards fall and we all watched with angst as the case counts crept up each and every day. Now, we are sitting here in November until a temporary 3 week pause in the state of Michigan closing certain establishments and activities to help curb the spread of the virus.

Sifting through social media comments, news stories, or other sources demonstrate immediately what a fractured moment in history we are experiencing right now. Many Michiganders welcomed the news of tighter restrictions in order to do our part to help not overwhelm the healthcare system and slow the spread. Others immediately cried “government overreach” and “tyranny” and within a day, actual elected officials in Michigan called for Governor Whitmer’s impeachment because of tightened restrictions for public health. In the polarized world of 2020 this seemed par the course for what we’ve been experiencing. Online, there is a failed US House candidate openly telling businesses to not follow the new restrictions. Telling businesses that if they are hit with a fine to not pay it. To not enforce the mask mandate. There’s a lot of talk of freedom and Liberty and infringement. There’s a lot of talk in general. Everyone thinks they're an expert. Everyone thinks they know what freedom means. One commenter to the Detroit Free Press even told people to go read The Federalist Papers, which is funny because I don't remember Madison or Hamilton arguing about a pandemic. 

All of that whirlwind and information and misinformation has placed us at a crossroads as a country. What we do next matters greatly. How we approach the next few weeks matters. It’s not an issue of Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal. It’s a matter of what it means to be American and to live in a country that is in and of itself an experiment in freedom, liberty, and democratic government. We have twisted the notion of freedom and liberty so much that we've lost the sense of collective belonging and attachment to our fellow Americans. 

Governor Whitmer asked us in Michigan to take 3 weeks to make a difference and battle back against this virus. Other states are taking similar measures. Now, I know we have been going at this since March. We were under stay at home orders for April and much of May. I understand that. I understand we’re tired, annoyed, we want to get on with our normal lives. But this isn’t about us anymore. When thousands of people are dying each day across this country, we can’t complain about a disruption to our lives like not being able to eat in a restaurant. Believe me, I know the sacrifice and fatigue. We unexpectedly lost my dad to a heart attack in February. This will be the first Thanksgiving and Christmas without him. Trust me, I want to be with my family. I want to hold my mom and tell her it’ll all be ok. But that would be reckless of me. She’s in her late 60s, I can’t risk losing another parent. You want sacrifice? Try having that conversation with your grieving mother that she can’t see you or her grandkids for the first big holiday since dad's passing. 

My personal needs aside, people are questioning why we can’t get this right. Why as a country can we not move on past COVID? After all,. aren’t we the smartest, wealthiest, most educated country in the world? Aren’t all the worlds greatest minds here? For those of us that have studied American history could have predicted this response as a country. We don’t like to be told what to do as Americans. It runs counter to who we are and what we’ve been told. Think back to your elementary school history class and the lessons from the Revolution. We needed to be our own free and independent country because Britain and the King wanted to control us, right?! 

After the Revolution, we created our first form of government intentionally weak and powerless because we were afraid it might become too tyrannical. We replaced that with a Constitution, you know the one that everyone is using to claim masks violate their rights but they’ve never actually read any of it?, yeah that one. In that document, we inherently have the concept of federalism and shared power by the local states and the federal government—again so a powerful national government couldn’t tell us what to do. That idea morphed into States Rights which was used to defend the institution of slavery for generations, because again, why should anyone be able to tell us we can’t own people? We fought a Civil War over that which cost the lives of nearly 700,000 Americans, all because one side wanted to keep another bondage and didn’t want to be told they couldn’t—it’s as simple as that. 

It’s not just in national events, the sense of individualism in American history and character. We are a nation of risk takers. A nation where people sailed across the ocean to begin new lives in a new world. Whether we are descendants of the original colonists, or recent immigrants, we came here because our chances were better. Whether it was moving West and establishing a homestead on the frontier, or the idea of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and the rags to riches story, those ideas are central to what American identity is, or at least what we’ve been taught. We’re the nation of Cowboys and Pioneers, Roughnecks, and so forth. It’s about me, how can I succeed and make myself better? How can I improve my life and that of my family? It’s the American dream to achieve—as we’ve been told all of our lives. Oh, you’re not successful? Then maybe you didn’t work hard enough, or you’re just not smart enough. We’ve all heard that before. 

Individualism runs deep in America. We love our personal freedoms and the idea of limited government. We love the ability to do as we please and have the freedom to make choices that we think are best for us and for our families. We love the inherent rebel spirit of America where we have freedom and the rest of the world has less of it than us, right? That is all well and good and no one is arguing to take rights away or limiting your freedom to be the leader of your own life. But, what this pandemic is showing us is that Americans are taking the idea of individual freedom and manipulating to fit their needs all while undermining the greater public health crisis. 

This sense of individualism has also lead to an inflated sense of what freedom and liberty means. Many think freedom is the ability to do whatever you want with out government interference. True. But, what happens when that freedom negatively impacts others? What happens when your pursuit of freedom inhibits my ability to do so? Sure, you can decide whether wearing a mask is effective or not and if you're going to follow the rules, but what happens when you start a chain of virus spread that impacts me, or my family, or someone else that you may not even know? What if they get infected because you were expressing your rights? Why does their freedom and their rights mean less than yours? That’s the crux of the argument we are now at in this pandemic. Many people are screaming for freedom from government overreach because they want to go eat, shop, see a movie, etc all without a mask on. It’s a conspiracy, it’s a hoax, it causes breathing problems, it’s my right not to. Freedom! See this is what makes COVID a much bigger problem in America. We don’t have a sense of community and what it really means to work as a community to defeat something. Think about it, look at your subdivision, how hard do you work to either have a lot with neighbors far away? A big privacy fence? Do you even know your neighbors? Extrapolate that out to your city, town, township. Do you know more than a handful of people? See, it’s hard to sacrifice for people you don’t know when you’re focused on you. In that moment we fall back on what we know, freedom. We focus on ourselves and our own rights and many make the decision that wearing a mask just isn't worth it and it's easy to discard the impact when you don't see it. That’s the essential reason we as a country are struggling so hard to put COVID behind us: we aren’t willing to strike a balance between personal freedom and community. Many think that personal responsibility (masking up, social distancing, etc) are an attack on personal freedoms rather than an aid to help their community. That’s the problem. That’s the battle we are fighting. 

This isn't about government overreach, no matter what anyone tells you. Being asked to follow public health recommendations is not about taking away your freedoms, let's be honest. The same people who won't wear a mask will gladly follow other government actions to help public health, such as getting vaccinated as children, vaccinating their own children and so on. They don't cry foul when the government collects their taxes every year, or a sales tax on the purchase they just made at the store. They don't cry government overreach when they have to pay for registration and license plate tabs for their vehicles, or pass a milage for their local school district, police department, or fire department. What we are really experiencing here is a twisting of the notion of individualism and freedom to fit their argument. According to the Brookings Institution, 40% of Americans won't wear a mask because they believe it is their right not to. I have yet to be shown where in our rights and freedoms it says that, but I digress...

Generations before us have had their defining moment to step up and sacrifice for the greater good. Countless times Americans have answered the call before. Millions of men signed up to fight on distant fields in World War I. When that wasn’t enough millions more went to fight evil in Europe in World War II, never asking what would happen to their freedoms while they went. Suffragists, civil rights activists, all risked their lives and well being for actual freedom and a greater cause. All we are talking about Is wearing a mask. A piece of cloth that covers your nose and mouth. That’s it. Nothing more. And to stay away from people outside of your household. That’s all. So with all due respect, put the talk of freedom aside and step up for your community. Sure, I may never get COVID, but I am more than willing to help stop the spread for my fellow Americans who don’t have the choice  I do it for all those that don’t have the privilege to stay home. Who have to work because if they don’t they can’t make rent, or pay the bills. Or those that can’t afford to get sick because of underlying conditions—like my own wife. I do it for all those kids that I teach, to show them that sometimes contributing to the greater good is more important than yourself. I do it to show people that their freedom matters to me just as much as my own. Any freedom loving American would feel the same way, right? If you really love that freedom you talk about, you'd want everyone to have it, not just you. 

This is a defining moment for our country. Will we put aside the rugged sense of individualism and embrace the greater good of the community? Will we stop all the talk of freedom and tyranny and wear a mask so we can put this thing behind us? And for all those who post quotes of the Founders talking about giving up freedom, just stop. Health experts are asking you to wear a mask. And, if we do that, in a few months you can take that mask off and bask in all that star-spangled freedom again! 

It’s time that we as a nation do what we have collectively shunned for so long—embrace your neighbor and step up. Put aside the individualism and embrace the greater good. Sacrifice for a short time so that more of us Americans can be around to enjoy the freedoms we have sacrificed for, for many years to come. 

This One's For Dad: Go For What You Want (and an announcement!)

 I would not be alone if I said that 2020 is a horrible year. But for my family it has been exceptionally bad. In February we unexpectedly lost my dad to a heart attack at the age of 63. The sudden loss shook us all to the core. Two weeks later my wife laid in an emergency room bed--the same emergency room where we lost dad--and then spent three days in the ICU with multiple organ failure due to complications from a preexisting condition. Then COVID hit. While I was in the ICU with my wife news came that Michigan schools were shut down and would move online. We lost dad, almost my wife, and schools shut down. And this was March 12, 2020. 

In March we had no idea what the remainder of 2020 would have in store. We had no idea we'd be shut down and put under Safer At Home Orders. That every grocery store visit would be curbside pickup. That we'd have to make mask wearing a part of daily routine. But, with all that being said, my family has had our health through all of this. Sure we've had our ups and downs. I had to telehealth my doctor and admit that I was not doing well and the stress was having physical manifestations. I had to open up and talk about the loss of my dad (something I am still struggling with). 

With all of this still going on, I had some professional setbacks in my education career. A couple of job opportunities to advance my career opened and I eagerly applied and began preparing, only to not be selected for the jobs. Loss, heartbreak, pandemic, anxiety, and now rejection. What else could 2020 have in store?

Then, a couple of weeks ago I opened my email to find that I had been named the Michigan History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. I was floored. I picked up the phone and out of instinct, I dialed Dad's number. A couple of rings in I realized what I was doing and hung up the phone, sunk to the floor and lost it for a number of minutes. After about ten minutes passed I was able to pick myself up and dial my wife who was at work and I could barely get out the news. Here I was sharing news of the biggest honor of my educational career and I was a mess. Dad was the first person I dialed for a reason: this award was all dad. Dad was always the first to hear of good news. The one I went to for advice. The one I called when I had a bad day. So Dad was going to be the one to share this news. But it's more than that. This honor was a culmination of Dad's purpose and work with me as his son. 

Dad always taught me to value myself and advocate for myself. He would laugh when he said if you're not willing to advocate for yourself why would anyone else? If you don't believe in yourself why should anyone? He was a hard worker who never failed to provide for his family. Through all of that though, he always taught us to go for what we want. Donn't be afraid if we really believe in something--just do it. He was that way when I told him I wanted to go into education. Dad was a designer to General Motors and his dad worked in the auto industry as did his sister and many other extended family members. He was fully supportive when I said the auto industry had no appeal for me. Dad pushed me to be the best teacher I could be and would constantly ask about my students, lessons, and other news of school. 

A few years ago I began transforming the way I teach. I was horrible before. I wanted to teach history better for my students as they deserved it. So I took Dad's advice and went for it. I read books, articles, emailed professors and historians and radically changed the structure and content of my 8th grade US History curriculum. So when that hard work was honored as Michigan History Teacher of the Year, it had Dad's fingerprints all over it. 

That being said, I am going to use this honor to go for it even more. I want to help people. Dad helped people. He always put others before him. So I am going to follow suit. I want to help teachers do better. History teachers need to do better. We all can do better. So, I am going to go for it. I am pleased to announce that coming very soon I will be launching a Podcast titled "The Teaching Better History Podcast."

The goal of this podcast is not to be a soapbox for me to act like I am better than anyone. But, rather a forum for me to share my experiences and transformation in the classroom and successes and failures I have had with that. In the coming weeks I will launching and releasing a few episodes to begin before making it an open forum for any history teacher that wants to talk about their experiences of teaching better. In this way, we can transform history education and transform the way students learn history. All honoring Dad's legacy of "going for it." If you're interested in participating, please let me know!

Fixing History

I will first lead this post off by saying that I never make political posts in any way. I pride myself in keeping my personal views of politics separate from the teaching side of things and I objectively look at both Republicans and Democrats to try to seek the truth in every issue. I don’t pick sides, I don’t pick winners and losers in the current political climate, and I never try to push my personal views, or even hints of my personal views onto my students. Rather, I teach them to think about their own views. I teach them how to critically make decisions and think for themselves and arrive at their own conclusions based on their own morals, values, or world view. So this post in no way meant to bash the President personally or make any kind of statement politically. Merely I am trying to set the record straight like I try to do for my students each day. 

Last night, July 3, 2020, President Trump gave a speech at a rally in front of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. I will spare you all the history of Mount Rushmore and the controversy surrounding the land that it is built on (you can do your own research there and see). In part of the speech the President told the “true stories” of the four Presidents immortalized on the monument. In many ways, what he said was either wrong, or misleading. In class each and every day I try to get my students to see the whole picture. Look at a problem in history from every angle-not just one viewpoint. The speech on American history last night left a lot of that out. In our current climate as a country, change is sweeping the country. Now more than ever it is important to look to history with a critical eye and realize those in our nation’s past did great things but also had flaws, much like ourselves. Would you go through your entire life only telling people the great things you did and never pause to reflect, and learn from, mistakes you’ve made? So in this post I am going to edit the President’s speech. I am going to attempt to fix it, or at least say what should have been said if we’re telling the “true stories” of American history:

First, let’s begin with the transcript of President Trump. Mind you this is part of a larger speech. But pasted here is word for word what President Trump said last night: 

“Our people have a great memory. They will never forget the destruction of statues and monuments to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, abolitionists and many others. The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets and cities that are run by liberal Democrats in every case is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions. Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies, all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition. This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore. They defiled the memory of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Today we will set history and history’s record straight.

Before these figures were immortalized in stone, they were American giants in full flesh and blood, gallant men, whose intrepid deeds unleashed the greatest leap of human advancement the world has ever known. Tonight I will tell you and most importantly the youth of our nation the true stories of these great, great men. From head to toe George Washington represented the strength, grace, and dignity of the American people. From a small volunteer force of citizen farmers, he created the Continental Army out of nothing and rallied them to stand against the most powerful military on earth. Through eight long years, through the brutal winter at Valley Forge, through setback after setback on the field of battle, he led those patriots to ultimate triumph. When the army had dwindled to a few thousand men at Christmas of 1776, when defeat seemed absolutely certain, he took what remained of his forces on a daring nighttime crossing of the Delaware River. They marched through nine miles of frigid darkness, many without boots on their feet, leaving a trail of blood in the snow. In the morning, they seized victory at Trenton after forcing the surrender of the most powerful empire on the planet at Yorktown, General Washington did not claim power but simply returned to Mount Vernon as a private citizen.

When called upon again, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and was unanimously elected our first president. When he stepped down after two terms, his former adversary, King George called him the greatest man of the age. He remains first in our hearts to this day, for as long as Americans love this land, we will honor and cherish the father of our country, George Washington. He will never be removed, abolished, and most of all, he will never be forgotten. Thomas Jefferson, the great Thomas Jefferson, was 33 years old when he traveled north to Pennsylvania and brilliantly authored one of the greatest treasures of human history, the Declaration of Independence. He also drafted Virginia’s constitution and conceived and wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a model for our cherished First Amendment. After serving as the first Secretary of State, and then Vice President, he was elected to the presidency. He ordered American warriors to crush Barbary pirates. He doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase and he sent the famous explorers Lewis and Clark into the west on a daring expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He was an architect, an inventor, a diplomat, a scholar, the founder of one of the world’s great universities and an ardent defender of liberty. Americans will forever admire the author of American freedom, Thomas Jefferson, and he too will never, ever be abandoned by us.“

Again, that was just a section of the speech. Now like I said before, I don’t make political posts. So this is not an indictment on him as a person, as a President, and in no way meant to show support or a lack of support. I am merely presenting a critical view of the information presented to the American public. I teach kids for a living. I teach the youth of our nation, and since President Trump said he was doing the same thing last night I figured I would add some of my own notes to his speech, so that we all have the complete picture of these historical figures. So below is his words, with my additions/modifications: 

Our people have a great memory. They will never forget the destruction of statues and monuments to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, abolitionists and many others. (Maybe, but history isn’t about monuments. I can read history all i want and never need to see a monument. Monuments immortalize a person at their best and don’t account for flaws)The violent mayhem  protests we have seen in the streets and cities that are run by liberal Democrats in every case is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias misinformation in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions. Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains (I don't know where this is happening. If anything kids are far too often taught that America is great and people like Washing and Jefferson never did anything wrong). The radical view of American history is a web of perspectives, lies, all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, where every motive is examinedtwisted, every fact is distorted presented and every flaw is acknowledged magnified until the history is purged and the record is all brought to light and we are left to make our determinations. disfigured beyond all recognition. This movement is openly attacking questioning/evaluating the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore. They defiled  examinethe memory of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Today we will set history and history’s record straight.

Before these figures were immortalized in stone, they were Americans giants in full flesh and blood, gallant men, whose intrepid deeds unleashed the greatest leap of human advancement the world has ever known (a bit of grandstanding here, but I will allow it). Tonight I will tell you and most importantly the youth of our nation the true stories of these great, great men. From head to toe George Washington represented the strength, grace, and dignity of the American people. From a small volunteer force of citizen farmers, he created the Continental Army out of nothing and rallied them to stand against the most powerful military on earth. Through eight long years, through the brutal winter at Valley Forge (Valley Forge is often overblown--see Ray Raphael's "Founding Myths" for more), through setback after setback on the field of battle, he led those patriots to ultimate triumph. When the army had dwindled to a few thousand men at Christmas of 1776, when defeat seemed absolutely certain, he took what remained of his forces on a daring nighttime crossing of the Delaware River. They marched through nine miles of frigid darkness, many without boots on their feet, leaving a trail of blood in the snow (again see Raphael's book here...)In the morning, they seized victory at Trenton after forcing the surrender of the most powerful empire on the planet at Yorktown (actually the war went on for almost 2 more years), General Washington did not claim power but simply returned to his plantation, Mount Vernon, as a private citizen.

When called upon again, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and was unanimously elected our first president. When he stepped down after two terms, his former adversary, King George called him the greatest man of the age. He remains first in our hearts to this day, for as long as Americans love this land, we will honor and cherish the father of our country, George Washington. He will never be removed, abolished, and most of all, he will never be forgotten. But, in our current state of affairs, we must also be reminded of George Washington the slave owner. Washington who owned over 300 people in his life time and never freed one of them. We cannot fully understand how far we've come as a country if we ignore this truth. 

Thomas Jefferson, the great Thomas Jefferson, was 33 years old when he left behind his plantation, and those enslaved there, and traveled north to Pennsylvania and brilliantly authored one of the greatest treasures of human history, the Declaration of Independence. He also drafted Virginia’s constitution and conceived and wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a model for our cherished First Amendment. After serving as the first Secretary of State, and then Vice President, he was elected to the presidency. He ordered American warriors to crush Barbary pirates. He doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase and he sent the famous explorers Lewis and Clark into the west on a daring expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He was an architect, an inventor, a diplomat, a scholar, the founder of one of the world’s great universities and an ardent defender of liberty. Americans will forever admire the author of American freedom, Thomas Jefferson, and he too will never, ever be abandoned by us.“ But again, we must fully evaluation the Thomas Jefferson who owned over 600 people in the course of his lifetime. The Jefferson who had children with one of those enslaved people. The Jefferson who also authored the important work, Notes of the State of Virginia, that furthered racial prejudices and engrained racial differences in "science."

_____

Now this is not the best edit ever, but it's a start. It's the beginning of a more complete conversation. I did this post not to hate on our past, in fact quite the opposite. Picture it this way--if you love someone you love all of them right? You come to grips with past mistakes, troubles they had, errors they made, and you celebrate the good they do. The same should be true for looking at our past: we can love this country and bring into questions the flaws and it does not make us any less patriotic. Only when we are willing to examine the past critically, and fully, can we really move forward as a nation and finally come to grips with our past. In the song, " A Better South" the band American Aquarium sings that "to the right side of history we're always late." As a country we need to accept our past as a way to move forward.

How Should We Remember Westward Expansion? (Part 1)

The period of American Westward Expansion, roughly the mid-1800s, is an interesting topic to teach and talk about with 8th grade students. Sometimes it seems that all they know is the world they live in and they don't often think about how the borders of the United States came to be. Why, for example, does the United States stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific? How did we acquire that land? What happened the other groups that were there before? These are all questions that are important to answer and a chance to teach the idea of multiple perspectives to US history. In the past, I have taught this topic to students in a variety of ways. My first year teaching 8th grade, we did a flipbook: horrible. The second year we read the textbook for perspective but then also read excerpts from a Mexican textbook about Manifest Destiny: better. The third year I focused on primary sources (Polk's declaration of war on Mexico, political cartoons, etc.): still better. This year I decided to go in a completely different direction. For a couple years now I have been following the debate surrounding Confederate monuments and their place in today's landscape. For students this is a hard concept to dive into as they don't have the content of the Civil War and Reconstruction nor the politics of the 1920s or even the era of segregation (when the majority of the monuments went up). Besides that, injecting 8th grade students into the politically charged climate of Confederate monuments doesn't seem like the best idea to me. I want to give that topic full justice if I was going to tackle it, and at the end of the school year we just run out of time and I can't do the topic justice. For that reason I took the ideas gleaned from reading the work, and discussions with, Kevin Levin a historian who in my mind is a go-to source if you want up-to-date information on the monument debate.

Since Manifest Destiny is a controversial topic it seemed like the perfect place to place discussion about monuments and memorials and how we actually remember the past. I gave my students three full class periods to do some independent inquiry (with some standard structure) on the topics relating to Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny. These included James K. Polk, acquisition of Florida, Louisiana Purchase, Texas, Mexican-American War, the Gold Rush, Trails West, Trail of Tears, etc. The students were given some basic guidelines as to how to explore the topics and to look through the lens of how we should remember Westward Expansion. At the end of their inquiry time I introduced the concept of monuments and memorials to them. To prepare for this idea, I spent some time reading and then used some of the ideas from Kevin Levin and his Civil War Memory blog and Confederate Monument Syllabus along with ideas modified from Facing History's lesson plan on Holocaust Memorials, students were introduced to what monuments mean and how we commemorate the past through out current views. We used the Gateway Arch (a monument to expansion) and Mount Rushmore as examples of how Manifest Destiny is glorified. But we also talked about how those monuments alone don't tell the whole story of expansion in the mid-1800s.  A whole class discussion ensued about what monuments and memorials actually represent and what it says about the people at the time who made them and how they viewed history. I gave them the example of the Texas Heroes Monument in Galveston, Texas.  It's a 74 foot tall monument with a statue of Victory at the top and was dedicated in 1900 to the heroes of the Texas Revolution. We reflected back on what the students had learned about the Texas Revolution from Mexico. Some great comments came out of that discussion about American settlers that had moved to Texas (when it was part of Mexico) and refused to follow the Mexican Government's rule (particularly about slavery). One kid commented with "does not following the rules make you a hero?" We then discussed how the Mexican government would commemorate the Texas Revolution. Would they build a monument to Texas heroes? Or would they feel differently? And why 1900? Why almost 150 years after the Texas Revolution did they erect this monument? Some kids were struggling with the point: who cares what a monument says? Does anyone pay attention to what's actually on them anyways? Surprisingly other students chimed in right away (before I could say it) and talked about how a person of Mexican descent might feel viewing that statue. Or a person whose descendants were enslaved in Texas (since the Texas Revolution eventually lead to Texas become a US state, and a slave state to boot).

 With that in mind I cut the students loose with the task of picking an aspect of Manifest Destiny to commemorate in a monument, memorial, or artwork. After about 20 minutes of brainstorming some had their ideas already forming in their head. Some took obvious routes for good or bad (monuments celebrating the economic achievements of the Gold Rush and monuments commemorating the negatives of the Trail of Tears). But others pushed their thinking and ideas. Some wanted to commemorate James K. Polk for actually achieving the goals he set out to accomplish, for example. For the first day of brainstorming I asked them to pick a topic and then focus on the message they want that monument/memorial/artwork to portray.

This week we will design and construct. I will be conferencing with each student along the way to see what they're thinking and why they are designing theirs the way that they are. Stayed tuned for a reflection on the work and examples of student monuments.

Where Do We Go in History Education?

One Year Later

I remember the day quite vividly. It was August 12, 2017 and I was sitting on my couch at home watching the news coverage of the "Unite the Right" Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. My mind wandered as I watched the chaos unfolding in this picturesque sleepy little college town where I had spent a week at a teacher seminar just about a month before. My mind also wandered as I looked down at my sleeping daughter. Zoe was born just 3 days before on August 9. Here is a sat with a great juxtaposition in my mind: Chaos and violence unfolding before my eyes and a sleeping baby that has no idea what world she's going to grow up in. It wasn't long after that, around 1:45pm, that the scene unfolding on TV got worse as a member of the rally drove his car into a crowd of counter protestors killing 1 and injuring 19 others. The news played the clip of the incident over and over again. As I watched I could not pull myself away. I had to watch it. I had to let it sink it. I had to emblazon this image into my mind. If nothing else for my daughter that I was holding. At that moment I realized that this is the world she is going to grow up in. This is the world she will have to find her way in. And this is the world in which she will have to decide for herself what is right and what is wrong. 

As I sat there, my mind also drifted to my students. The students that I have in 8th grade US History and the ones I have a limited amount of time to get hooked on why the study of history is important to them and their futures. At the time, I didn't have a lot of answers as to how I would use this dark moment in history to connect to my students and, to be honest, I still am not entirely sure. But now, one year later, I sit here again and think about that day and think about how that pivotal moment became a wake-up call to me and my teaching. Here are my thoughts about the future of history education, at least at the middle school level and the way I see it. This is by no means how everyone should teach as every school, district, community, is different. But in my mind, this is where we're at.

Why This Moment Matters

I believe that every American can point to a defining moment, a "where was I when I heard about this" type of moment that made them view the world in a different way. For some, it can stretch all the way back to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, others it's the Kennedy assassination, or the Vietnam War, the Iran Hostage Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, etc. But for someone like me who didn't live through any of that, my first defining historical moment was 9/11. I was in 8th grade on that fateful day. Little did my 13 year old mind know it then, but life would never be the same. Because I experienced that event live and unfolding in front of my eyes but I will always view the world through a different lens. My students, this year's group will be born in either 2004 or 2005, have no first hand memories of that day. They view the world through a different lens than I do. For them it's just history and there's a big difference between history and memory. 

Charlottesville is another one of those defining moments for me. Watching that day unfold I could not not helped but be moved by what anger and hatred can do (which is pretty scary to realize). I also realized that for some students, they have grown up seeing things like this on TV and for them it might not be that big of a deal. Charlottesville was the moment I realized as a history teacher (in Michigan in 8th grade we cover topics all the way through Reconstruction) it is my job and sacred duty to prepare these students to tackle big questions they will face in communities across the country. How is the past presented? Who's version of the past will be depicted? Who gets to protest if they don't agree? Does violence mean you don't get to speak your voice? These are all questions this generation of students will have to tackle in some form or another. It's all about being knowledgeable and being able to defend your position with accurate evidence. This is where history teachers need to be on the front lines of battle. 

Where Are We At

I realize that I'm about to make some generalizations here that may offend some people. But, collectively, US history teachers, and their classes, get a bad rap for being boring and unnecessary for the 21st century. Routinely at parent-teacher conferences I get the glances and non verbal cues that parents don't value their student's grade in history like they do in Honors Math or Advanced English. They don't see history as valuable to helping their child grow and enter the workforce. At the same time, we are not doing ourselves any favors in the profession if we stick to the age-old instructional methods. When I talk to people about why they didn't like history growing up I get a refrain of the same answers: "it was all memorization," "dates and facts," "dead people who were boring," "I never felt that I would use any of this." With all of that in mind, I constantly hear stories of teachers around the country who are still teaching this way. Students sitting silently in class listening to a prepared PowerPoint lecture while the teacher sits on a stool pointing to the board. The students are silently taking notes, sleeping, or daydreaming. After that, the students pull out their work packets and begin copying definitions and answers out of the textbook. Then, at a later date, there is a multiple choice quiz or test, and perhaps, if the teacher feels up to the grading, an essay question (often the topic given in advance). This method of instruction does nothing to help students actually learn how to use history and use it to impact their world. It is no wonder then that when people spew hate and untrue facts on the internet, no one questions it, or worse--believes it blindly. If we are not teaching students how to actually think and apply the lessons of history then we are failing them. I am not saying that every 8th grade US History classroom is like this, but a rather large percentage still is. I think if we took an honest look at our profession we would be scared to really see what's there if we pulled back the curtain a little bit. 

Lots of progress has been made by some really great people. There are hundreds of fantastic educators on Twitter who are trying new things, pushing their students in new directions, and challenging them. The Stanford History Education Group with the work of Sam Wineburg is pushing Historical Thinking and it's all amazing stuff. 

Where I Need to Go

1. Establish the "Why?"

I need to do a much better job of establishing why history is important in my classroom. It cannot be simply because I like it, or it's a required class, it has to mean more to students, it has to be tangible. They have to see the purpose in it. In the book Extreme Ownership, former Navy SEALS Jocko Willink and Leif Babin talk about how if people don't understand the "why" of a mission it has a very low chance of success.  It is no wonder than, that if we fail to show students why history is important, we have a high rate of failure and students not appreciating the study of the past. We need to start by establishing the why of history. Whether for you that means explaining the skills of analyzing and sifting through evidence, evaluating evidence, making an informed decision, understanding multiple perspectives, whatever it is, we need to establish the why.

2. Give Them the Tools to Succeed

There's the age-old saying "if you only have a hammer than everything looks like a nail." If we limit our student's thinking about history to rote memorization then we can never expect them to make critical decisions and use their knowledge. If we want students to make informed decisions based on their historical knowledge then we need to give them the tools to do so. This doesn't mean throwing down a printed DBQ packet you found online in front of them that has 5-6 sources and saying "go." This means teaching them how to actually look at a source. How to evaluate it. How to interact with it. How to value it. How to appreciate it. Only then, can you evaluate history and look at a problem from different perspectives. Giving students the complete record and letting them decide is key. I once saw a lesson about the Mexican-American War which was billed as a "deep thinking lesson for answering critical questions." The lesson contained five sources: President Polk's Declaration of War, a map of major battles, a letter from American General Winfield Scott, a table of casualties of the war, and a map of territory gained by the United States as a result of the war. The students then were supposed to answer the question "Was the Mexican-American War a Good Thing for the US?" Ugh. "good" for who, I asked? Where is the perspective of the Mexican Army, or Mexican citizens, in this assignment? Where are the voices of those in Congress who opposed the war? (a young Abraham Lincoln had a lot to say on this topic...). Where are the voices of the American Irish soldiers who abandoned the US Army because they were being persecuted and fought for the Mexican Army? Do you see how failing to include that side of the war can lead to pigeon holing students into a narrowing vision of history?

3. Give Them All the Details: The Dark Side and All

We can't cover up history and we shouldn't. I cringe when I hear teachers explain lessons they did in class on topics like the aforementioned Mexican-American War and who don't include multiple perspectives or both sides. I often hear the same thing when it comes to the American Revolution (think Patriots awesome-could never do any wrong; British, evil-always wrong) or Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears (by this I mean some teachers reduce it to a vocab term). Why are we afraid to give students the complete picture of American history? Is it because we're afraid to admit past mistakes that were made by Americans? Are we afraid that somehow students will view America as lesser if we do that? Whatever the reason is we need to stop doing it. We need to give students everything. Give them all the details in American history and let them come to their own conclusions about what we've done. By not doing so, we are limiting their minds and in turn making them more close minded. 

To wrap this up, the above 3 things are going to be my focus this year. I realized that 1 year after Charlottesville I still haven't done a good job at any of them. And because of that I may be contributing to the problem. If history is going to be relevant we need to show the connection and what it can do. We need to be open to talking about our country's past and how to grow from mistakes we've made. We need to be honest that a misunderstanding of the past can cloud our present decisions and make us think and act on things we shouldn't. It can also make us not appreciate one another--which is arguably the worst of all the side effects. Maybe the anniversary of Charlottesville will stir some thinking in history teachers and pushing us to gear up the next generation with the historical skills necessary to take on the challenges they will face. 

End of the Year Reflection: "I Failed My Students."

I remember the moment quite vividly. It was the end of May and the 2016-17 school year was beginning to wind down for the 8th grade US History students sitting in front of me. It had been an up and down school year with some amazing teachable moments while at the same time having some of those unexplainable days that every teacher has where nothing seems to go right and we question our career choice. Teaching is a very rewarding career, in my humble opinion, but it is also one of the only careers I can think of that relies a lot on reflection. I had just sat down at my desk after helping students work on their "Causes of the Civil War Investigation." The realization hit me hard at that exact moment (some 140 days into the school year). The realization was simple: I had failed my students. Yes, I said it. Me, a teacher, in the in-between of a new teacher and a veteran (this was the end of my 5th year) had failed to provide what I deemed to be good, quality instruction for each and every one of my students. This is not to say that I did nothing all year and my students ran wild and learned nothing. Sure, there were some fantastic lessons and I probably worked hundreds of hours to find valuable primary and secondary sources for my students and set high expectations for their work. Sure, they performed well on my tests and quizzes, turned in assignments, and did pretty well on a new historical thinking common assessments my district experimented with. But, sitting there at my desk at that moment I realized the problems with my students not meeting my expectations was not their fault, but rather mine.

Let me go back in time (not a historical pun...but fact). When I graduated college with a degree in American History and Secondary Education I made a commitment to myself, and future students, that I would not be the history teachers I had growing up--the old school lecture, memorize, repeat style of learning that so many generations of students grew up on. In fact, I am certain it's the reason that so many people in this country feel that history isn't relevant (but I digress...). This style has made the job of history teachers today much more difficult. I have to fight decades of bad teaching in the field of history that have left students bored, disengaged, and don't see a purpose to the study of the past. I decided that I wanted to bring real learning experiences to my students and give them an appreciation of the past. History is something I am passionate about--not just a subject I teach for a paycheck--but I actually live and breathe this stuff. But, that didn't always translate into great lessons nor motivation for my students. It's like the old saying...passion can only take you so far. I delved into research and settled on developing historical thinking skills for them. This is because I did not want my students to memorize history (dates, names, minutia of facts, etc) but wanted them to develop thinking skills that could cut across subject areas and allow them to leave 8th grade with skills they could use again when analyzing information (i.e., the real world application of "Fake News").

So, I set out to accomplish a culture of "historical thinking" and figured my students would love it and I could create a bunch of little historians ready to go on to get PHDs in History and be the next generation of historians. I poured over the work of Sam Wineburg, Bruce Lesh, and others to see what I could do in my little classroom. I spent every weekend planning out my lessons--sitting at my home office desk from sun up until well into the evening consuming way too much coffee and stopping only when my wife insisted I eat something. All this time allowed me to develop great lessons: A Boston Massacre Investigation complete with a CNN "Breaking News" Trailer, a Constitutional "Bootcamp," an Alien and Sedition Acts simulation, experimenting with and creating my own BreakoutEdu games. I even spent hours making "artifacts" such as clubs painted with "blood" for our Boston Massacre scene, and a to-size replica of the box that runaway slave Henry "Box" Brown shipped himself to freedom in. I made over 60 flipped videos so that I could avoid lecture instruction as much as possible and used a 360 camera to develop my own virtual reality field trips (complete with a class set of VR headsets). I picked a ridiculously difficult student growth goal, but it had value and required students to analyze and process. I edited hundreds of documents to be reader-friendly to 8th graders and read close to 50 historical books to gain more content knowledge for my students. All of this may paint the picture that this year was awesome. The reality wasn't that simple.

Everything didn't gel the way I wanted it to. Upon reflection, I am confident that where I failed my students was in preparing them for all that I wanted them to do. Here are my reasons as to why I think it failed this year--let my experiences, and thoughts, be an example for you:

1. Classroom Management Is Crucial
If you're a teacher and you're reading this, I hope you already know that. But, I thought I did too. I thought I had learned from mistakes made in my first 4 years of teaching and wouldn't make the same ones. But I did. I gave my students rules at the beginning of the year but didn't stick to them. I also failed to develop those rules with the learning of students in mind. I did not create classroom norms that would ensure all students could learn. I also did not take the time to train my students in how learning should take place in my classroom. All of this created a "perfect storm" where as months went by, I couldn't reign in some of the disruptions and I was fighting an uphill battle that took away from learning. Number one, get your classroom management ducks in a row.

2. Failure to "Front-Load"
At the beginning of the year I made it a point to try to build a sense of community in my class. I wanted the kids to be comfortable enough to try new things and speak their mind. What that did, however, was take time away from setting the groundwork I would need for them to be successful in my class. Behavior problems developed (as stated above) and I didn't do a great job there. But, my biggest mistake (one that I didn't fully realize until the school year was in full swing) was that I failed to properly teach them how to "be historians." I didn't give them enough of the support they needed at the beginning of the year as I was teaching them how to do things they had never done in a social studies class before. This caused them to struggle with the material and lead to frustrations that manifested early and and persisted throughout the year. I was also woefully ill prepared to deal with this as we went along. I didn't know some kids were struggling until it was too late. In the future, formative assessments will help here and check-ups on their thinking. Don't forget to properly prepare them!

3. Don't Go Too Far Above Their Heads
I am not trying to sound egocentric here, but I am at a higher level of historical thinking than my students. What I find interesting about history I realize they may not. Another mistake I made was to go way above their heads on some things. I incorporated some material that was too advanced for them and as a result, they got nothing out of it because they shut down once it was "too hard." For example, during our Constitution Unit, I wanted students to debate, experience, and see in today's world. how states and the federal government work together in the system of federalism. I sent them out with an assignment, but never really took the time to fully make sure they knew what federalism was, or if they even knew what governments do. I assumed because I know what takes place in government that they would too. I don't know why I was so naive, but I was. This summer, I need to back down some of my materials. I don't mean that I am going to dumb them down by any means, but I need to meet my students where they are if I am expecting to take them where I want them to go. There is no shame in starting them off simple and building complexity. We have a limited window to hook them on history and if we make things too complicated, and go over their heads, we lose it and can't get it back.

4. Involve Students in Their Own Learning
Like I stated before, students don't always feel that history is the #1 most important subject in the world. Meeting them where they are at is huge for history teachers. Give them the choice about what to learn on some topics. There is no problem is giving up a little control to get students hooked on history. This is something I struggled with this year. I had kids who wanted to dig deeper into certain topics but I couldn't give them the time to do so because I felt the pressure to cover all the content I had to cover. From my point of view, students only get so much history instruction in their educational career. I am ok with not covering every standard if I can get some thing, and lessons, to stick in their minds in the future. Giving students more choice in their own learning is a top goal of mine for next year.

5. Don't Miss the Opportunity to Make History Practical
History is all about experiences. The people we study in history lived and experienced that time period. We are currently experiencing our own time period that will be "history" someday. Don't miss the opportunity to connect that with students. Take the time to go off on a random tangent and how some themes in history keep coming back around. This year I tried to fit a lot of these discussions in, but again sacrificed these meaningful conversations for content. History, more than any other subject has the opportunity to really have an impact of students socially and their outlook on the world. I am not trying to say that Math isn't important, but Math cannot teach you how to be a better person, an aware citizen, or an active member of our democracy. History can teach you to appreciate the struggles of the past and show compassion and empathy towards others. If we miss that connection we miss the whole point of history education. This year I missed out on a lot of those connections because I was dealing with the problems outlined above.

Final Thoughts
My struggles may be the struggles of others or you may have found a system that works for you and you do it well. Whatever the case may be, don't forget to fully prepare and plan ahead. (Think of the "5 P's": Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance). This school year will push me to be the best teacher I can be next year and I will embark on a summer of learning to dedicate myself to being the best teacher that my students could possibly have when they see me in September. Always be the best teacher you can be, your students deserve it.