Monkey” Trial of 1925, the battles over integration after the 1954 landmark Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
History
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Nobody Trusts Teachers
Nobody trusts teachers. Imagine a snowy Wednesday morning in February–a scheduled remote teaching day and a day following an actual, old-school type of snow day. [bctt tweet=”Now imagine teachers driving on those snow-covered roads to teach via Google Meets in empty classrooms. ” username=””] Picture many of those same teachers scrambling for child care because the […]
Posted inHistory
We’re Just People Who Don’t Want To Be Killed! A Student Reflection About Insurrection
By Tina Starks, Instructional Coach and policy fellow with Teach Plus, CA A piece of our worth was stolen today. It’s January 6, 2021, and a mob brandishing the flag of the Confederacy as well as the campaign flags of the outgoing President stormed into the Senate Chamber. The trauma of seeing a respectful treatment […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
“Patriotic Education” is a Problem
Last week, TheEducatorsRoom hosted a Twitter Chat titled “Is Teaching Political?” It was a conversation prompted in part by President Trump’s announcement of a commission–The 1776 Commission–to design a “patriotic education” program one month earlier. At the heart of his plan is an opinion that “left-wing indoctrination in our schools” is destroying the country. Instead […]
Posted inPodcast
Podcast Review: 1865
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s the power a single year could have on the world. The year 1865 is no exception, especially April of 1865. That’s where host Lindsay Graham (who is not the sitting South Carolina Senator) drops us into the storyline, right after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and Vice President Andrew Johnson’s […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Good Teaching Is Political…Or At Least It Should Be
Several weeks ago, President Trump announced his plans for a patriotic education commission, dubbed the 1776 Commission. He simultaneously criticized teachers for indoctrinating students and urged them to focus on America’s strengths; the president has confused indoctrination and education. Picking and choosing what history to emphasize or highlight based on how it makes the nation […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
10 Reasons Why American Reconstruction Is the Most Important Unit I’ll Teach This Year
When I first started teaching the second-half of American history, my colleagues and I fell in love with the curriculum. The Civil War, the World Wars, the industrialization and rise of America, and the jazz age all piqued our interests. But one unit that always left us wanting more was Reconstruction. Often glossed over as […]
Posted inDo The Work
Is it Time to Kill Mockingbird and Embrace Mercy?
Is it Time to Kill Mockingbird? Until recently, To Kill A Mockingbird was one of few classics I actually liked. I’ve usually pushed back against the canon, but I could get behind a story about a precocious young tomboy who helps her father fight against racial injustice. But, as I read it once again with […]