New York State Halls of Fame Tour

New York State Halls of Fame Tour

Edited by Alan Singer

New York State is home to several Halls of Fame honoring people from different fields. Some are well known, and others are obscure.

Sources: https://wbuf.com/ixp/554/p/upstate-new-york-museum-and-halls-of-fame/  https://www.bcc.cuny.edu/about-bcc/history-architecture/hall-of-fame-for-great-americans/

Best Known

The Hall of Fame for Great Americans in Bronx, New York opened in 1901. It is now located on the Bronx Community College campus. It currently has 96 busts; busts of Southern Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were removed. Busts for an additional four people elected to the hall were never installed because organizers ran out of money. You can view a virtual tour of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. https://www.bcc.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/virtual-hall-of-fame-website.pdf

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York opened in 1939 with its first five inductees, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. As of July 2024, the hall honored 244 former major league players, 39 Negro league players and executives, 24 managers, 10 umpires, and 36 “pioneers, executives and organizers.” The Hall of Fame includes one female member, Effa Manley, a Negro League executive. The museum displays baseball memorabilia. https://baseballhall.org/

National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York opened in 1973. The inaugural Induction Class included Jane Addams, Marian Anderson, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Mary McLeod Bethune, Elizabeth Blackwell, Pearl Buck, Rachel Carson, Mary Cassatt, Emily Dickinson, Amelia Earhart, Alice Hamilton, Helen Hayes, Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Florence Sabin, Margaret Chase Smith, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Helen Brooke Taussig, and Harriet Tubman. In 2020, it opened to the public in its new home at the former Seneca Knitting Mill. https://www.womenofthehall.org/

A Little Less Famous

North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame is in rural Redfield, New York in the Adirondack region. It is located in a converted farmhouse. It houses artifacts, pictures, AV tapes, records, and memorabilia of old time fiddling & fiddlers and has free concerts. Famous inductees include “Chubby” Wise who recorded nearly 50 albums. https://www.facebook.com/p/North-American-Fiddlers-Hall-of-Fame-and-Museum-100063476745882/

National Abolition Hall of Fame in Peterboro, New York is located near the Finger Lakes region in the building where the first meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society was held in 1835. Currently 28 anti-slavery activists are honored. https://www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org/  

National Soaring Hall of Fame and Museum established in 1969 is an aviation museum that preserves the history of motorless flight. It is located on top of Harris Hill near Elmira, New York. https://www.soaringmuseum.org/

National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York is part of the Strong Museum of Play. It celebrates toys that have inspired creative play and enjoyed popularity. The Magic 8 Ball was inducted in 2018. Millions of the hand-held fortune telling toy have been sold since it was first marketed in 1945.

National Toy Hall of Fame

Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame is located in Belfast, New York in Allegany County. The museum and Hall of Fame are in the training barns of the great champion John L. Sullivan. Famous Inductees include George Godfrey, “The Leiperville Shadow,” one of the best African American bare knuckle fighters of his era.  https://wnywilds.com/listing/bare-knuckle-boxing-hall-of-fame/

D.I.R.T. Stock Car Hall of Fame and Classic Car Museum is located next to the Weedsport Speedway in the Adirondack Park. It honors the achievements of modified stock car drivers. Famous inductees include “Barefoot” Bob McCreadie who broke his back five times while racing. https://www.discoverupstateny.com/packages/3566/dirt-hall-of-fame-classic-car-museum/

International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York honors boxers, trainers, and other contributors to the sport. Famous inductees include Muhammed Ali, Carmen Basilo, Ezzard Charles, Joe Frazier, Emile Griffith, Jake LaMotta, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson, Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman, Roberto Duran, and Joe “Newsboy” Brown, who was born in Russia, and boxed at the opening of the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1925. http://www.ibhof.com/

International Maple Hall of Fame in Croghan, New York honors people who “excelled in research, development, and leadership in the North American Maple Industry.” Its most famous inductee is Lloyd Sipple of Bainbridge, N.Y. who began making maple syrup during World War II to address a nationwide shortage of sugar. https://maplemuseumcentre.org/post.php?pid=14

National Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New Windsor) New York honors award recipients to “remind us of human sacrifices and the cost of freedom.” Ensign Jesse Brown’s citation (Korea-U.S.N.) reads: “Ensign Jesse L. Brown was the first African American naval aviator. While flying a mission 4 December 1950 his aircraft was hit, causing him to crash land in enemy territory.” https://www.thepurpleheart.com/

Catskill Fly Fishing Hall of Fame in Livingston Manor, New York, preserves the “heritage of fly fishing in the Catskills” and educates the “next generation of anglers.” https://cffcm.com/

New York State Country Music Hall of Fame in Cortland, New York pays tribute to the legacy of New York State and national country music performers. Hall of Fame members include Glen Campbell, Tammy Wynette, and many Grand Ole opry stars. https://www.iloveny.com/listing/new-york-state-country-music-hall-of-fame/2897/

National Dance Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York “honors innovators who have made outstanding contributions to American professional dance across all genres.” More than fifty choreographers, dancers, artistic directors, designers, composers, and critics are recognized, https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g48562-d218331-Reviews-National_Museum_of_Dance_Hall_of_Fame-Saratoga_Springs_Saratoga_County_New_York.html

New York State Convenience Store Hall of Fame in Albany, New York was established in 1996 to honor retailers and suppliers for exceptional achievement in and service to New York State’s convenience store industry.”  https://nyacs.org/hall-of-fame?layout=adgcreative:grid#

National Stand-Up Comedy Hall of Fame is located in Jamestown, New Yor’s National Comedy Center. Its first inductee’s included George Carlin, Joan Rivers, Richard Pryor, and Robin Williams. https://comedycenter.org/

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York was founded in 1950 and is currently located by the Saratoga Race Course. Among the horses inducted here are Man O’ War (1957), Exterminator (1957), Citation (1959), Spectacular Bid (1982), American Pharoah (2021), Secretariat (1974), and Seabiscuit (1958). https://www.racingmuseum.org/

International Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Albany, New York was established in 2019.  It is located on the mezzanine level of the MVP Arena. Inductees include Bobo Brazil, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Bret Hart, and “Gorgeous George” Wagner. International Maple Hall of Fame in Croghan, New York honors people who “excelled in research, development, and leadership in the North American Maple Industry.” Its most famous inductee is Lloyd Sipple of Bainbridge, N.Y. who began making maple syrup during World War II to address a nationwide shortage of sugar.https://maplemuseumcentre.org/post.php?pid=14

Online Halls of Fame

Long Distance Runners Hall of Fame in Utica, New York was formed in 1971. The building is currently closed. Famous inductees include Frank Shorter who won the marathon gold medal at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. This hall of fame can be viewed at https://www.rrca.org/about/hall-of-fame/

New York State Golf Hall of Fame: Famous inductee include Joey Sindelar, a major contender in the U.S. Open and Masters tournaments in early to mid-1990s. Find information and inductees at https://nysga.org/about-hall-of-fame

Governed by Despots: John Swanson Jacobs Chronicles Enslavement and Resistance

Governed by Despots: John Swanson Jacobs Chronicles Enslavement and Resistance

By Alan Singer (reprinted from New York Almanack)

Governed by Despots: John Swanson Jacobs Chronicles Enslavement and Resistance

The University of Chicago Press recently published a unique account of an escape from enslavement in North Carolina decades before the Civil War. The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots (2024) by John Swanson Jacobs tells of his escape from enslavement by North Carolina plantation owner and Congressional Representative Samuel Sawyer in 1838 while he and the slaveholder were in transit through the City of New York. Jacobs eventually made it to Australia where his story was published serially in 1855 by the Sydney Empire. It was later republished in 1861 in London, UK under the title “A True Tale of Slavery” by The Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation. The 1861 version of Jacob’s story is available online at the website Documenting the American South.

John Swanson Jacobs was born in 1815 in Edenton, North Carolina, the younger brother of his better-known sister Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). Harriet Jacobs originally published her book under the pseudonym Linda Brent, possibly to protect those who remained enslaved at home. In the book she referred to her brother John as “William” and Samuel Sawyer, the white father of her two children who “owned” both them and John, as “Mr. Sands.” John Swanson Jacobs, safely in Australia, published under his own name.

In 1838, Sawyer traveled north because he and his fiancé planned to be married in Chicago, Illinois where she had family. He was able to bring an enslaved John Swanson Jacobs with him to New York State because although slavery had been abolished there in 1828, state law permitted enslavers visiting or residing in New York part-time to maintain slaves within their households for up to nine months. This statute was not repealed until 1841.

The following is an excerpt from chapter 5 of A TRUE TALE OF SLAVERY that was published in The Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation (No. 478–February 21, 1861). In this excerpt, Jahn Swanson Jacobs describes his escape from slavery while in New York City.

“THE latter end of the third year after I was sold, my master was elected Member of Congress. I was ordered to get ready for Washington . . .  After my master had been there a short time, he went to board with Mrs. P—-, who had two young nieces here, to one of whom he was soon engaged to be married. As good luck would have it, this young lady had a sister living in Chicago, and no place would suit her like that to get married in . . . Everything was ready, and the hoped-for time came. He took his intended, and off we started for the West. When we were taking the boat at Baltimore for Philadelphia, he came up to me and said, “Call me Mr. Sawyer; and if anybody asks you who you are, and where you are going, tell them that you are a free man, and hired by me.”

We stopped two or three days at the Niagara Falls; from thence we went to Buffalo, and took the boat for Chicago; Mr. Sawyer had been here but a few days before he was taken sick. In five weeks from the time of his arrival here, he was married and ready to leave for home. On our return, we went into Canada. Here I wanted to leave him, but there was my sister and a friend of mine at home in slavery . . . I tried to get a seaman’s protection from the English Custom-house, but could not without swearing to a lie, which I did not feel disposed to do.

We left here for New York, where we stopped three or four days. I went to see some of my old friends from home, who I knew were living there. I told them that I wanted their advice. They knew me, they knew my master, and they knew my friends also. “Now tell me my duty,” said I. The answer was a very natural one, “Look out for yourself first.” I weighed the matter in my mind, and found the balance in favour of stopping. If I returned along with my master, I could do my sister no good, and could see no further chance of my own escape. I then set myself to work to get my clothes out of the Astor House Hotel, where we were stopping; I brought them out in small parcels, as if to be washed. This job being done, the next thing was to get my trunk to put them in. I went to Mr. Johnson’s shop, which was in sight of the Astor House Hotel, and told him that I wanted to get my trunk repaired.

The next morning I took my trunk in my hand with me: when I went down, whom should I see at the foot of the steps but Mr. Sawyer? I walked up to him, and showed him a rip in the top of the trunk, opening it at the same time that he might see that I was not running off. He told me that I could change it, or get a new one if I liked. I thanked him, and told him we were very near home now, and with a little repair the old one would do. At this we parted. I got a friend to call and get my trunk, and pack up my things for me, that I might be able to get them at any minute. Mr. Sawyer told me to get everything of his in, and be ready to leave for home the next day. I went to all the places where I had carried anything of his, and where they were not done, I got their cards and left word for them to be ready by the next morning. What I had got were packed in his trunk; what I had not been able to get, there were the cards for them in his room.

They dine at the Astor at three o’clock; they leave the room at four o’clock; at half-past four o’clock I was to be on board the boat for Providence. Being unable to write myself at that time, and unwilling to leave him in suspense, I got a friend to write as follows: — “Sir–I have left you, not to return; when I have got settled, I will give you further satisfaction. No longer yours, JOHN S. JACOB.”


This note was to be put into the post-office in time for him to get it the next morning. I waited on him and his wife at dinner. As the town clock struck four, I left the room. I then went through to New Bedford, where I stopped for a few months . . . The lawyer I have quite a friendly feeling for, and would be pleased to meet him as a countryman and a brother, but not as a master.”

Once free, John Swanson Jacobs moved to New England where he became an active abolitionist. His efforts took him to Rochester, New York and vicinity on a number of occasions and to New York City at least three times, in May 1849, October 1850, and July 1862. On May 11, 1849, the New York Herald printed an account of a speech by Jacobs at an American Anti-Slavery Society meeting where he called on attendees to make it “disreputable” for people who claimed to be Christians to hold other people in bondage. According to North Star on October 24, 1850, Jacobs spoke in New York City calling for active resistance to fugitive slave laws following the seizure of James “Hamlet” Hamilton by slavecatchers and on July 28, 1862, New York Independent reported on an interview with Jacobs where he recounted his experience as a cook on a British ship, with the support of British authorities in the Bahamas, that was attempting to enter the port of Charleston, South Carolina in violation of the federal blockade of Southern ports (252-258). Excerpts from these articles follow.

American Anti-Slavery Society (New York Herald, May 11, 1849)

“A slaveholder named Skinner, who was a skinner in every sense of the word, was in the habit of coming every year, to visit his brother, Re. Dr. Skinner, who . . . lived at 160 Green[e] street; and yet the baby-stealing, women-whipping tyrant never received a rebuke from his reverend brother, at whose table he sat . . . If anyone asked him what must be done to abolish slavery, his answer was, that it must cease to be respectable. They must make it disreputable, and then slaveholders would be ashamed of it . . . If they had less of religion, and more of Christianity, it would be all for the better” (252-254).

Meeting of the Colored Citizens of New York (North Star, October 24, 1850)

“My colored brethren, if you have not sword, I say to you, sell your garments and buy one . . . I would, my friends, advise you to show a front to our tyrants, and arm yourselves; aye, I would advise the women to have their knives too . . . I advise you to trample on this bill, and I further advise you to let us go on immediately, and act like men” (256).

Running the Blockade (New York Independent, July 28, 1862)

“[A] very intelligent colored man, formerly a slave in North Carolina, but recently for several years a resident of England, called at our office the other day, and related facts showing that British vessels are stilled engaged in running our blockade, and that the British officials in the Bahamas are, if possible, more inimical to our Union than are the same class of people at home . . . He shipped as a cook on board the steamship Lloyds, at London . . . ‘for Havana and any of the West Indies Islands’ . . . the captain (Smith) announced to the crew that he designed to run the blockade before Charleston, and offered three months pay extra to such as would remain with the ship . . . Jacobs refused to go to Charleston at any price whatever, and demanded, what was his undoubted right, that he be sent home to London. After various efforts on the part of Capt. Smith to indure (sic) Jacobs to either go to Charleston or to settle and sign a satisfaction, he attempted coercion. He had Jacobs taken before a police magistrate to answer the charge of having deserted the ship . . . The law was all on the side of Jacobs, but the public sentiment of Nassau was so strongly against him, and in favor of the unlawful and contraband trade with the Rebels” (257-258).

Teaching the APâ African American Studies Course

Teaching the APâ African American Studies Course

By Imani Hinson

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” – Maya Angelou

Each year I start my students off with a week of lessons to understand why we study history in the first place and to get students specifically to understand why varied viewpoints are so important. This year I had my students reflect on a quote from Maya Angelou and asked them why they thought some political leaders across the United States did not think African American history was important and why they thought this history was considered controversial.

My students responded with the understanding that by learning history we can hope to not repeat it but also that learning this history does not aim to make individuals feel bad for the deeds done but rather understand the historical situations in which our country was founded and the continued history that is shaping the way our country is moving forward today. Despite the pain and suffering lived by many in this country, especially African Americans, it is important to uncover truths about our shared history. The APâ African American Studies curriculum provides students with a chance to do just that; tackle tough questions, tough realities, glean an understanding of the world that they live in today, and it gives them a chance to acknowledge a history that many of them have not learned before.

The APâ curriculum has a fantastic starting with the African Kingdoms of Mali, Songhai, the Hausa States, and much more. Students are able to do a deep dive into the history of Africa that many of them had never been taught about before. A question I get often from my students is “Ms. Hinson why are we not taught this in world history or any other history class?” The truth is that a lot of this history was unknown or kept secret for many years. In my classroom, we delve into the nuances of this history so that students understand how it differs from the traditional documents and writings they usually learn about in Eurocentric history classes. I introduce them to griots and students learn that different cultures pass down history in different ways. Much of the early history we know from African civilizations was passed down orally making it much harder for historians to uncover truths about these societies.  My students learned that Christianity was in Africa before European arrival when they study about places such as Lalibela. They learn about trade starting in the 8th century along the East Coast of Africa that connect places with the Mediterranean region and Central and East Asia. Students uncover truths about the Great Zimbabwe and amazing structures, built not by Greeks or aliens, but by the local Zimbabwean people who garnered their wealth from the Indian Ocean trade routes. Timbuktu is not a fictional place, but a nation where trade, advanced institutions of knowledge, and wealth resided.

Before being exposed to this curriculum, my students were taught that Africa was backward, a continent ripe for exploitation. They saw Africa, not as the birthplace of humanity with rich cultures, but rather a place that Europeans conquered and a continent that continues to have issues to this day.

Challenging misleading notions continues as students learn about the African diaspora. Before being exposed to this curriculum, they believed African Americans had no culture and were only brought to the Americas for harsh work and enslavement because of the color of their skin. I overheard an exchange in my classroom in which one student of color was poking fun at another. A West African student asked another Black student, “Hey, where are you from?” The student responded, “Oh well, I am just Black.” The West African student laughed and said “Oh, I’m so sorry y’all don’t have any culture.” That was an eye-opening exchange. I joined the conversation and asked, “What do you mean by that?” The student explained that they never heard of any African American culture and that Black people did not know where they came from. The conversation continued:

“Well why do you think that African Americans don’t know where they come from?”

“Well, I am not sure I guess slavery.”

“Correct, but do you know about all that Black people had to do to overcome of the obstacles of enslavement? Do you know the years of oppression that then followed enslavement that African Americans continued to make strides towards crafting a new identity?”

“The music you listen to is African American culture, some of the pieces of clothing or slang that you use are African American culture. The food that you eat, a lot of is African American culture.”

“Wow I never thought about that.”

“You should take the APâ African American studies course so you can learn more about Black culture!”

The sad reality is that so many of our students think this way. They believe that Black people are a people without history and this misleading notion really stems from the fact that we have not done a good job as a society to unpack these misconceptions. In some states they still teach that slavery was a benevolent work system where the enslaved learned important skills, sugarcoating the reality of what enslavement was. Why don’t students learn that there was slavery in New York and in other northern localities? Why don’t students learn that Free Blacks and people who escaped from slavery played a crucial role in the abolitionist movement and that African Americans have fought in every war in the United States even before its inception, that 200,000 Black soldiers and sailors fought in the Civil War to end slavery and the right to be full citizens of the nation of their birth?

The hardest part about teaching APâ African American studies course is getting students to relearn the history that was taught to them over and over again since they entered school. Black people were slaves, the Civil War happened, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Reconstruction took place, African Americans got some rights, then skip to the Civil Rights Movement, and that’s Black history. But there is so much more to African American history. Students truly do not understand that African Americans as a people continuously strove to be accepted as valuable contributors to this great nation. Even when they were told to “go back to Africa,” they stayed and fought for equality. It is hard to teach history in a society that try to erase the African American past by making it seem Un-American to shed light on the contributions of Black people to this county.

As a society we have prevented students of color from learning the truth about their heritage and culture and permitted all students to believe in a factionalized past. As a corrective, APâ African American studies is not just a class for students of color. Ideally, African and African American history should be interwoven into World history and United States history classes, not just relegated to an elective.  Black history truly is both World and U.S. history.

It is challenging for many young people to see the correlation between history and the world that we live in today. I started a lesson on sugar being the driver for enslavement in the Americas showing students newspaper headlines discussing chocolate companies using child slave labor and asked students would they still eat chocolate knowing where it came from. Many of the students had to think long and hard about it, but eventually most of them confessed that “yes, they would still eat it.” After a gallery walk showing various documents about the correlation between sugar and enslavement and economics, we came back together to have a discussion. I asked my students how the legacies of sugar plantations and slavery continue to impact economic disparities and race relations today? A student raised her hand and said, “what we see is that enslaved people were working for free and that their enslavers were making loads of money because of their hard work.” I asked, “What does that mean for the Black community today?” Another student responded, “Well this means that many Black communities don’t have the same amount of money as white people because they got rich while we didn’t get anything.” Another student added, “Well that is the reason why so many Black people have struggled to make generational wealth. It is almost as if we started at a different place” and then another explained “they basically had a 300-year start.” This is the reality that people who criticize the APâ African American studies curriculum are afraid of students uncovering; uncovering how this history continues to play out in America today.

Some people fear the acquisition of knowledge because they know that with knowledge can come change. The APâ African American studies course should not be labeled controversial or Un-American; in fact, it is the exact opposite. African Americans fought to be a part of this country and continue to fight for the country to stand true to its democratic values of all people having the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The course does not blame students for the past, but rather brings them into the conversation about how we can continue to hold America to its promise by including the history of all of the people who helped to build this great nation. Thank you.

Interdisciplinary Teaching and Teacher Education by Dr. Jiwon Kim and Dr. Sandra Zak

Interdisciplinary Teaching and Teacher Education

By Dr. Jiwon Kim and Dr. Sandra Zak

Reviewed by Hank Bitten, NJCSS Executive Director and contributing author.

I am writing to you as a contributing author to Interdisciplinary Teaching and Teacher Education rather than as a reviewer. Through this blog post I am hoping to expand your classroom experience, ask you to begin talking about classroom instruction with your colleagues, and challenge you to develop partnerships or connection groups within and outside of your school. I have the perspective of an educator with more than a half-century of experience as a teacher in elementary, middle, high school, and college classrooms and five school districts.

Public education took a step forward in 1852 when Massachusetts became the first state to pass an Act Concerning the Attendance of Children at School. This was a monumental change because every village and city in Massachusetts was required to have a primary school to teach math and grammar. Students were required to be in school for three months with six weeks or more of continued instruction. Parents who did not send their children between age 8 to 14 to school were fined $20, a little more than a week’s wage for a factory worker. Lessons were passive and based on memory and practice.

Fifty years later in the beginning years of the 20th century, John Dewey dramatically shifted the focus to inquiry and problem-solving. Dewey’s instructional philosophy included brainstorming for solutions, testing hypothesis, experiential learning, and models of student government. His model was revolutionary, emphasized an understanding of the big ideas rather than simplistic true and false or multiple choice answers.

William James, a psychologist, understood the influences of the media on children. Children were exposed to advertising and pictures in newspapers and magazines. The media in the beginning of the 20th century was perhaps just as powerful as today’s social media digital platforms as publications overwhelmed the mailbox of the home instead of the inbox on the phone. James understood motivation, the importance of emotional engagement in learning, and the importance of the educational environment on the character and behavior of students.

My college instruction in the 1960s was influenced by Jerome Bruner.  The emphasis was on cognitive growth and a constructivist model of learning. We were taught concepts and how to use relevant experiences to bring meaning to the content in the curriculum. One of the lessons I applied from Jerome Bruner to the teaching of social studies was the influence of culture on how students learn. 

My education as a teacher was influenced by the sociologist James Coleman.  I developed simulations for understanding the big ideas of revolution, social classes, perspectives, and historical changes. I applied my college experiences of debate, Model United Nations, Model Congress, and Mock Trial to simulations of battles, problems in society, and decisions of presidents.  My graduate studies focused on the French Revolution and the insights of The Anatomy of a Revolution by Crane Brinton.

It is in the context of my simulation game, France, 1789, that interdisciplinary instruction became the focus of my teaching of world history, United States History, and African American History. I integrated literature, art, film, and music into my lessons. The engagement of my students was visible and they were applying knowledge and memory to their experiences.

Dr. Jiwon Kim and Dr. Sandra Zak provide a practical guide with explicit examples of how interdisciplinary models in classrooms and school are essential to learning in a Tik Tok culture and why teachers in departments, faculty in smaller schools, and professors of education need to have discussions about the effectiveness of teaching and the extent that students are learning.

The main concern of social studies teachers is that their students cannot write. We observe  children asking Google for answers, completing assignment worksheets in Google Classroom, and engaging with short videos on BrainPOP and YouTube.  My response to teachers who share with me their observations about how their students are learning in middle school and high school is that they need to be taught how to think before they can write. They need to be asked open-ended questions before they can express what they are thinking.  They need to build memory through interdisciplinary learning experiences.

Interdisciplinary education and interdisciplinary instruction are similar and yet very different experiences for students.  In Chapter 3, Christine Grabowski presents graphic models for planning and practical examples of interdisciplinary connections between social studies, math, reading, and art.  Below are examples relating to civic engagement and spatial recognition.

In Chapter 4, I provide explicit examples for teaching climate, U.S. History, Civics, and world history. Intradisciplinary models with integration of geography, economics, and culture provide students with both relevance and engagement. Below is an example of the diverse contributions of people from New Jersey who have impacted the lives of ordinary people.

Here is an example from social studies for a lesson on the contributions of people from New Jersey and their connections with art, music, science, and English Language Arts: Social Studies 6.1.5. Civics CM.5 Investigate the lives of New Jersey individuals with diverse experiences who have contributed to the improvement of society:

Using an assessment model, students in art could analyze cartoon drawings of New Jersey artists in the context of the skills and learning objectives in the curriculum. For example, Caspar the Ghost and Felix the Cat by Joseph Oriolo (Woodcliff Lake, NJ) and Uncle Wiggily Longears by Howard Garis (Newark, NJ).

Students in music might research the lyrics to America the Beautiful or find connections to New Jersey using the music of Dionne Warwick, Bruce Springsteen, or others. Interdisciplinary connections in science can be taught independently with students understanding cause and effect relationships, the contributions of scientists and engineers, and the places in New Jersey where they originated. Examples include Hellmann’s Mayonnaise (Englewood Cliffs), Trident gum (Morris Plains), and Carrier Air Conditioning (Newark).

In English Language Arts, students can read biographies of people from New Jersey who have made a difference or a significant contribution. For example, Gen. Hugh Mercer, Albert Einstein, George Merck, Carl Lewis, Larry Doby, Yogi Berra, Joe Theismann, Paul Robeson.

In Chapter 5, Dr. Mark Pearcy and I present explanations on why interdisciplinary learning is necessary, models for including this in the education of pre-service teachers, and an example of a school district in New Jersey that has multiple opportunities for high school students.  Below is an example of curriculum connections in a World History course.

Perhaps the most important contribution of the collaborative efforts of Jiwon Kim and Sandra Zak are the prompts suggested for discussions between teachers and curriculum directors.  The importance of shared instruction, differentiated learning, and partnerships with local and academic institutions is a good beginning. I hope you enjoy Interdisciplinary Teaching and Teacher Education as much as I enjoyed contributing to it!

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Using Rivers as a Contextual Bridge to Connect K-8 Students to Their Communities

Using Rivers as a Contextual Bridge to Connect K-8 Students to Their Communities

November 1, 2024 Heather Fenyk

By LRWP Board Members Missy Holzer and Heather Fenyk

For K-12 students, there is only one New Jersey Student Learning Standard (NJSLS) on rivers: “Use maps to identify physical features (e.g., continents, oceans, rivers, lakes, mountains).” On Monday October 20, Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership Board Members Missy Holzer and Heather Fenyk joined K-12 educators attending the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies annual conference to lead what we hope was the first of many workshops to support educators and students in using maps and rivers to learn about, and connect to, their communities. We now invite K-12 educators from all disciplines to explore curricular materials we shared at our NJCSS2024 session, titled “Using Rivers as a Contextual Bridge to Connect K-8 Students to Their Communities: A First Nations Perspective.” A curriculum guide and all workshop materials, including the powerpoint, bibliography, and detailed teacher and student case study guides, are available at: https://tinyurl.com/LRWP24NJCSS.

This LRWP workshop for social studies teachers emerged from our own place-based, problem-based teaching orientation, and built specifically on our Spring 2024 volunteer eel monitoring program. We centered the lesson around a special case study: “The Mystery of the Missing American Glass Eels,” and also worked to support educator comfort with using maps, particularly topographic maps, as tools for student understanding of change to their local landscape over time. Our aim, as always, is to help educators use local waterways to connect students to their backyards, while developing our next generation of local stewards.

While it may seem unusual for an environmental non-profit to engage with K-12 social studies educators, the LRWP sees great potential to connect with multiple disciplines, including social studies, science, math and art. From the past to the present, and into the future, New Jersey’s waterways were and are vital to our existence. Besides being a continual source of water, our rivers, streams, and canals have implicitly and explicitly shaped our presence in the state. Drinking water, food, transportation (people and goods), industry, energy, and recreation are a few of the services our waterways have contributed to life in New Jersey.

Viewing our waterways from a watershed perspective that includes all the tributaries, rivers, and wetlands within a drainage area, connects communities to each other as much as they connect the flow of water from the headwaters of a river to the sea. Our Lower Raritan Watershed, its lands, streams, and the Raritan River, offer a host of case-based, problem-based, and place-based approaches to formal and informal investigation of these connections from the past, present, and future. The LRWP invites formal and informal educators to connect with us to discuss opportunities to partner for classroom or field based approaches to learning and inquiry.

Book Review: The Hope of Glory by Jon Meacham

The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross, by Jon Meacham

Reviewed by Hank Bitten

The role of religious belief in world history is both a mystery and a connection to understanding continuity and change over time in history.  The major beliefs of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam have had an enduring influence on civilization for the past five millennium. They are also a critical part of the world history curriculum in New Jersey’s public schools. The Hope of Glory by Jon Meacham is a concise perspective of his personal understanding of the Christian faith, his scholarly research of distinguished individuals across several centuries, his years of nurture through Episcopalian clergy, and an understanding of Jesus Christ as an historical and spiritual leader. It is a useful perspective for educators, especially social studies teachers.

“I am one among that innumerable company and this book is a series of reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the cross – words spoken on a Friday afternoon that is at once impossibly remote and yet imaginatively close to hand.” (Page 6).  

Most teachers have their students read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) to understand the teachings of Jesus and in my classroom, I asked students to also read from the teachings of Moses (Ten Commandments), the teachings of Confucius (Analects), Lao Tzu, Muhammed (Koran), Siddhartha Gautama (Four Noble Truths), and the Ramayana.  The enduring teachings about life, love, humility, forgiveness, relationships go beyond the ideas of our civilization.  In fact, they are timeless and have endured more than 50 centuries. It is important that students have a cognitive understanding of the leaders of each faith and for many students in the United States, the Judeo-Christian heritage is familiar through the architecture of temples and churches, holidays and culture, and the experiences of their friends.

“His (Jesus) Sermon on the Mount and his frequently repeated messages, rooted in the scriptures of Israel, about the centrality of love can hardly be improved upon as guides to goodness and generosity.  He does not, however, endure because he offered a corner of the Roman dominated world a message of radical love.  He endures not only because of what he said but because of who he was – in the words of Peter, “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Christianity’s foundational belief is that Jesus was in fact the “Christ” – in Greek, the ‘anointed one’ – who died and rose again to redeem and restore a fallen world that is to be reborn as what John the Divine called “a new heaven and a new earth.” (Pages 8,9)

The message of the Christian faith, although familiar to many, remains one of mystery.  It is the only major religion that is for everyone in the world (the Gentiles).  Christianity is not defined by birth, geography, or ethnicity.  Jon Meacham states it cleverly: “We are all in a sense, like the Greek philosophers who came to Paul in Athens seeking clarity about the Christian message. ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?’ they asked him in the Areopagus. ‘It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.’ The apostle then preached the gospel, saying that God through Jesus, ‘will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Pages 11,12)

The historical context of the thread of a Messiah that began in Judaism is presented in Psalm 98 and the 35th chapter in the Book of Isaiah. In The Hope of Glory, the thread of this context continues into the context of the Roman Empire and the establishment of the teachings of the Christian (Roman Catholic) church.

“Paul admitted the difficulty” ‘But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.’ A king who died a slave’s death? A human atoning sacrifice? A resurrected messiah?  As Paul asserted in one of the earliest known writings in the New Testament, however, the heart of the matter was just that: Jesus ‘gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from the present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.’  Why invent something with no historical basis in the preaching of Jesus himself?  The Christian salvation story was singular and specific, offering a peculiar religious riff on the extent symphony of Judaism.  That the disciples understood Jesus so poorly at the time of the Passion is evidence of the power and prevalence of the existing theology of God’s kingdom, a theology that anticipated an imminent final struggle between the forces of good and evil.” (Pages 22,23)

Students need a reference point in understanding the common and the unique tenets of the major religious beliefs.  Each one references love, relationships, a world order, forces of good and evil, and the power of the divine. Some reference an afterlife, a rebirth, a pilgrimage, prayer, sacrifice, a free will, or a mandate of heaven.  Teaching with visuals supports memory and thinking. Unfortunately, the role of religion in world history is mostly dependent on text sources, although paintings, mosaics, and architecture are useful for student understanding. Here is a perspective that supports continuity and change in chronology:

“History is what happened in time and space.  Theology can be understood as what people think history means in relation to a presumed order beyond time and space.  History is horizontal, theology vertical, and their intersection is a motive force behind our religious, national, and personal imaginations.  The stories we tell ourselves about who we are, what we love, and how we live are furnished and fired by the factual and the fabled.  History and theology are inextricably bound up with each other, and together, I submit, they create truth.  Fact is what we can see or discern: truth is the larger significance we extrapolate from these facts.” (Page 27)

It is helpful for students to understand that reading sacred writings is different than reading an historical narrative or primary source. For students, all primary sources are likely the same. The critical insight of Jon Meacham is useful when reading texts from Confucius, Lao Tzu, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

“It’s certainly true that for the searcher or the believer; the point of reading sacred writings is not the same as reading, say the history of the Punic Wars or of World War II.  The texts are directive documents.  As the second Epistle of Timothy says, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (Page 43)

The sacred writings are expressed prophetically, poetically, historically and perhaps with another form of expression. Students need to understand that context matters, and that criticism engages thinking, analysis, and interpretation. Reason and faith are both helpful starting points for an educational conversation.

The thesis of the book is based on the words of Jesus from the cross on Good Friday. For teachers who have their students read selected verses from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, these words should prompt thinking, analysis, and understanding. The first words spoken from the cross are only written in the gospel of Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

These words are similar to the atonement of sins on Yom Kippur in Judaism, the triumph of good over evil in Islam, and the search for the enlightenment in Buddhism. However, the Christian faith has paradoxes and forgiveness of enemies, our persecutors, and people who do evil is one example. The message of forgiveness is what gave momentum to the acceptance of the Christian faith in the Roman Empire by Constantine and the Edict of Thessalonica by Theodosius in 380 C.E..

The second words are from Luke: 23:43: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”  If your students are engaged with learning history in small groups, the application of the last words of Jesus from the cross fit nicely into seven groups of three or four students. The context of Jesus entrance into Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover gave reason to speculate over a political or militant uprising to challenge the power of the Roman government in Israel. Jesus was popular and his preaching about the arrival of the kingdom provided hope to the Jewish people in Jerusalem.  However, if this was a political plot of revolutionaries, why were none of the followers who were with Jesus arrested or executed? Students need to think critically about the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount or in his parables. 

These words of Jesus are beyond our imagination or comprehension. They speak to the depth of the mercy and grace of an all-powerful God.  Students will likely focus on the clarity of the first word, ‘Assuredly’, the definition of ‘today’, and the etymology of the word ‘Paradise’.  These words have endured twenty centuries and will continue to inspire in the future in the search for answers about the human condition and existence.  It is an example of continuity without change over time.

The third words are spoken first to Mary, Jesus’ mother, “Woman, behold thy son!”  They are followed by the words, “Behold thy mother!”  to one of his disciples.  (John 19: 25-27) These words are spoken as commands, a charge to care for another person. There are links here to the religious teachings of right relationships by Confucius, being your brother’s keeper in Judaism, caring for others as reflected in the Eightfold Path and giving alms in the Five Pillars of Islam.  The application of these words from the cross speaks to how we understand the meaning and purpose of love and serving others.

The fourth words speak to the human suffering of Jesus on the cross. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27: 45,46) There is no other religious teacher associated with the major religious beliefs who experienced the pain and fear that was present in the final day of the life of Jesus. Confucius died a normal death, very little is known about the death of Lao Tzu, Abraham lived beyond a full age of people in 1800 B.C.E., Siddhartha likely died from illness after reaching Nirvana, and Mohammed died peacefully in his home. If Jesus knew that He would return to life in three days, what is the meaning of these words? This is the power of the invisible and the mystery of the unknown. In this context, how do your students understand the meaning of this question and the context of how it was spoken?  Which visual image has best represented the Christian faith over time: the cross, the empty tomb, or something else?

The fifth words spoken are: “I thirst.” (John 19: 28,29) On the surface, these words are unlikely to engage students in a meaningful discussion or application. Jesus was given vinegary wine on a hyssop branch with a sponge attached to it. The symbolism of hyssop is an important connection to the Passover in Judaism as it was used to sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the doorposts to guarantee God’s protection.  Kind David was cleansed in Psalm 51:7 with the hyssop plant.  In this context, it is important to emphasize the spiritual cleansing of forgiveness that is a core belief of the Christian faith.  The ‘thirst’ is connected to the Passover in Judaism, the importance of how forgiveness changes our lives, and how the church forgives sins through confession, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. For teachers, using the Sermon on the Mount, in addition to the words spoken in the final hours of Jesus, consider the words of Matthew 5:6, “Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness” support a meaningful discussion with many questions for deeper inquiry and application.

The next to last words spoken from the cross, “It is finished” are written in John 19:30. The meaning of these words for 21st century Christians is different than what the words meant for the first century followers and the eyewitnesses at Calvary. The Greek word, tetelestai means finished, completed, or accomplished. Paul preached to the Romans, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested…through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.  For there is no distinction: since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Page 86)

However, the creeds of the church that were written after the death and resurrection of Jesus have believers professing that all is not finished because Jesus is to return from heaven. Heaven, as mentioned in the Bible, is not a future destiny or a distant place. Instead, it is a hidden dimension in our life. Another way to think about heaven is that it is God’s space. (Page 88) Students will be asking questions about heaven, hell, eternity, war, sickness, and the list will continue.  These questions are important for inquiry by teenagers.  It is also important to understand that answers are determined by knowledge and the only clear knowledge we have in the Christian religion is to love God and to love one another as ourselves. This is the time to ask the essential question about the role of religion in world history, which is likely in your curriculum. There is mystery in all the major religions and students need to understand this difficult concept.

The final words spoken by Jesus are written in Luke 23:46: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”  The eyewitnesses watching the hours of Jesus dying were left with sadness and confusion. They expected a kingdom, a new earth and a new heaven. They only saw darkness. The most scholarly theologians are unable to fully explain the meaning of redemption.  The religions of Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and the teachings of Daoism and Confucius also leave students with unanswered questions.  The common thread in each religion is the universal search for grace, a better world where good triumphs over evil, and hope!

The religious faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have become politicized as people in different periods of historical memory have persecuted, attacked, interpreted morality, and defined culture.  The tenets of their foundational beliefs have endured trade, prosperity, the Crusades, scientific discoveries, schisms, epidemics, Age of Reason, imperialism, World Wars, a journey to the moon, and genocides. It is important for students of world history to understand how ordinary people live their lives with the same questions we are asking.

This is why we teach the role of religion in history.

The First World War and New York City

The First World War and New York City


Jaap Harskamp

Reposted with permission from New York Almanack

On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared America’s entrance into the First World War and initiated a nation wide drive to strengthen the armed forces. It was decided that the commemorations of Patriots’ Day on April 19 should coincide with a “Wake up America Day” of
recruitment. Every city hosted its own parties and spectacles.

In New York City, festivities were organized with decorated floats, patriotic banners and a grand vaudeville at Carnegie Hall starring Will Rogers, Ethel Barrymore, and others. James Montgomery Flagg designed the posters announcing the event. Fifth Avenue hosted a parade, whilst Army and Navy planes dropped pamphlets encouraging the crowd to summon the “Spirit of 1776.”

The manifestation started with a parade that re-enacted Paul Revere’s legendary “Midnight Ride” in April 1775 to warn the colonial militia of approaching British forces. At midnight the bells at
Trinity Church rang whilst, dressed as a Continental soldier, a young feminist named Jean Earle Moehle rode on horseback through Manhattan beckoning both men and women to “wake up” to the fight.

Despite America’s initial neutrality, the conflict was a headache for New York’s authorities. After recent mass arrivals, the city was largely populated by first- or second-generation European immigrants.

With their former homelands at war, residents responded by either declaring allegiance to the “motherland” or by identifying with their adopted nation and engaging in debates regarding the morality of global war.

The arguments were taken outdoors. The fighting front may have been far away, but the battle raged on the streets of the city. The war sharpened the focus on issues of American and civic identity.

A City of foreign villages? New York had grown rapidly with different immigrant nationalities living in a network of small communities. By 1900, the metropolis consisted of multiple foreign “villages” with a population that included 300,000 Germans; 275,000 Irish; 155,000 Russians; 145,000 Italians; 117,000 Austro Hungarians; 90,000 British; 30,000 Polish people and many other smaller groupings.

One of the most extensive communities was Little Germany (Klein Deutschland) in the Lower East Side where German banks, businesses, breweries and newspapers flourished. Little Italy (Piccola Italia) on Mulberry Street was likened to an insular Neapolitan village with its own language, customs, and institutions.

By 1900 there were many other ethnic enclaves dotted around the city. Little Syria was centered on Washington and Rector streets. Its name derived from some 95,000 Arabs who had arrived from Ottoman controlled Greater Syria (covering what is now Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan) in the Great Migration between 1880 and the early 1920s. In 1892, the first American-Arabic language newspaper Kawkab America (Planet of America) was printed there.

Throughout the nineteenth century New York served as a financial hub for industrial growth and became the nation’s de facto cultural capital. It created a divided city. While Fifth Avenue and the Central Park district were monopolized by the elite, part of Manhattan’s Lower East Side was stricken by poverty. New York’s political landscape became shaped by migration issues in which the Democratic Party and Tammany Hall dominated municipal government.

The loyalty of immigrants to the Democratic Party was born out of the perception that the city’s wealth was not shared, causing stark levels of inequality. The rule of oligarchs also caused the emergence of anarchist groups. It was against this background of social unrest and militancy that New York City was drawn into the war in Europe.


Divided loyalties

The United States initially decided on neutrality for a number of reasons. It was generally expected that the “distant” war would not last long. Politicians agreed that the fragile status quo between communities with ancestral ties to either the Allied or the Central Powers should not be endangered as the war was bringing conflicting ties and allegiances to the fore.

The German-language New Yorker Staats-Zeitung extolled the virtues of the German Kaiser; the Yiddish socialist Forverts(Forward) explained the murder of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo as a consequence of social repression; and the Gaelic American complained that Britain’s colonial rule forced Ireland into entering the war. Large crowds with divided loyalties gathered
around newspaper offices in Times Square and Herald Square to learn the latest news from the battlefields.

Consulates encouraged patriotic support. Schemes were set up to raise money for war widows and orphans. German-American residents paraded down Fifth Avenue and queued to sign up. City authorities became increasingly concerned that New York’s diverse population could prove to be a tinderbox of a conflict that was ripping Europe apart. Demonstrations of sympathy towards any of the combatants were soon forbidden.

In spite of internal tensions, Woodrow Wilson’s decision not to get involved was shared by many. That consensus changed when both Germany and Britain started targeting enemy supply lines on the high seas. The British North Sea blockade annoyed politicians, but the German move towards “total” submarine warfare became intolerable once American ships were attacked and lives lost at sea. Outrage was expressed after a German U Boat torpedoed the British liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915, killing 1,198 civilians, 128 Americans among them.

Closing ranks

Parades for and against military participation were held around the nation. Woodrow Wilson remained determined not to take sides. Why would a President who was of Ulster-Scottish descent and the son of a Presbyterian minister commit himself to a morally abhorrent conflict that might spill over into the streets of American cities? Why imperil an emerging economy that was heavily dependent on trade with the United Kingdom in particular, closely followed by Germany?

Former President Theodore Roosevelt by contrast advocated expanding the military in anticipation of a widening of hostilities, especially since Wilson’s appeals for peace talks and offers of mediation were ignored.

One effect of growing public anger was unease about New York City’s “American” identity. Addressing an audience at Carnegie Hall in October 1915, Roosevelt stated that “hyphenated
Americanism” was no longer tolerable. His words instigated a period of chauvinistic jingoism, accompanied by a campaign of orchestrated propaganda that permeated the city.

With the formation of the Preparedness Movement in August 1915 and the concurrent rise of the National Security League (NSL: a quasi-paramilitary organization which campaigned for the assertion of “American” values), New York’s streets were closely observed by municipal and national authorities. The call for Americanization had a belligerent undertone intended to ensure law and order amongst a split population.

Americans started to doubt Wilson’s policy of “armed neutrality” and were getting ready for intervention. On May 13, 1916, a Preparedness Parade along Fifth Avenue was attended by an estimated 130,000 marchers who joined ranks behind a banner that proclaimed, “Absolute and
Unqualified Loyalty to our Country.” The manifestation inspired Childe Hassam’s painting “Flags, Fifth Avenue.” An anti-German Francophile, the artist passionately backed the Allied cause.

Isolated incidents intensified the city’s febrile atmosphere. The Black Tom Island Explosion in New York Harbor on July 30, 1916, which destroyed a large ammunition depot, damaging the Statue of Liberty and buildings in downtown Manhattan, heightened the suspicion that German saboteurs were active in the city (although arrests were made, the culprits were never identified).

Americans & traitors

Responding to recent news of the February Revolution in Russia, New York’s 95th Mayor John Purroy Mitchel stated in an address of March 1917 to a gathering of Russian-Americans that the
city’s citizens should be divided in two classes: “Americans and traitors.”

In April 1917, Wilson went before Congress to ask for a declaration of war. He cited Germany’s resumption of submarine warfare, its sabotage, and the revelation of the “Zimmermann Telegram” (an attempt by the German Foreign Office to recruit Mexico to attack the United States) as evidence of the nation’s hostile intent. It was a pivotal moment. For the first time in the nation’s history, America joined a coalition to fight a war not on its own soil or of its own making. The decision transformed life in New York City. All foreign-language publications were monitored; socialist and anarchist newspapers were censored or restricted.

Vigilantes attacked people identified as “pro-German”; schools sacked German teachers; butchers no longer sold Frankfurters; orchestras stopped playing German masterpieces; the German American Bank was re-introduced as the Continental Bank of New York; and countless German-Americans changed their names to demonstrate their loyalty.

Six weeks after formally entering the war, Congress passed the Selective Service Act which authorized the government to impose conscription. Men between the ages of twenty-one and forty
five were required to register for military service. The move was widely resisted. As the spectre of the 1863 Draft Riots haunted politicians, the process in New York (and elsewhere) was enforced by a heavy police presence, backed up by NSL volunteers. Patriotism was tightly policed.

Speaking out against the war meant risking prosecution, while posters whipped up emotions and encouraged subjects to enlist, conserve food, buy liberty bonds and keep on the lookout for foreign spies. The (intimidating) calls for loyalty raised the issue of citizenship, especially amongst African-Americans.

By supporting the government’s call many black leaders hoped to gain full citizenship, but others suspected that the war would lead to more injustice. In response to racist perpetrating the East St
Louis Massacre, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and African-American Churches in Harlem conducted a Silent Parade on July 28, 1917, in which about 10,000 participants marched along Fifth Avenue.

Protesters carried banners and placards that alluded to a draft that demanded African-Americans to fight for freedom and democracy in Europe, whilst they themselves were not only deprived of representation and equal rights, but in danger of being assaulted or lynched.


“Real Americans”


Through conscription, the army grew in a relatively brief period from a constabulary force of some 300,000 troops to an American Expeditionary Force (AEF) of more than four million soldiers. These
forces reflected the population’s ethnic and racial diversity.

The slogan “Americans All!” promoted wartime service as a unifying experience that rendered differences in language, culture and religion irrelevant – but race still mattered. The army-at-war
remained rigidly segregated.

When American forces arrived in Europe, they quickly turned the tide in favor of Britain and France, leading to an Allied victory in November 1918. They had been engaged in six months of fighting at
the cost of 53,000 lives. In addition, nearly 63,000 men died of disease, primarily from influenza (misnamed “the Spanish flu”), and 200,000 veterans returned home wounded.

The number of casualties weighed on Wilson’s conscience. It motivated him to support the creation of an international body based on collective security. Even though joining the League of Nations would require the United States to sacrifice a measure of sovereignty, the President was prepared to pay the price for the sake of peace.

His opponents declared it foolish to relinquish America’s newfound stature as a military superpower. The toxic discussion on what later became known as “America First” has divided opinion ever since.

The marking of the Armistice in November 1918 was a moment that New Yorkers came together to celebrate their collective identity. Whereas in 1914, German-Americans had paraded down Fifth Avenue proclaiming their attachment both to the Fatherland and to the United States, now mobs of cheering citizens kicked effigies of the Kaiser through the city. The war had turned New Yorkers into “real” Americans.

Book Review – School Climate Change: How Do I Build a Positive Environment for Learning?

School Climate Change: How Do I Build a Positive Environment for Learning?

by Peter DeWitt and Sean Slade


Reviewed by Thomas Hansen, Ph.D

DeWitt and Slade give us in this brief ARIAS series book a variety of ways in which schools can be positive environments for learning. They remind us the National School Climate Council recommends the climate include components such as these (p. 2):

  • Norms, values and expectations that support people feeling socially, emotionally, and physically safe.
  • People are engaged and respected.
  • Educators model and nurture attitudes that emphasize the benefits and satisfaction gained from learning.

This very helpful but brief book drives home the point that violence, bullying, harassment, and intimidation have no place in a positive learning environment. Students of all cultures and backgrounds must be made welcome.

Administrators must work hard to make sure all marginalized groups of students are made to feel safe and feel valued in our schools. This attention to the student takes time, and it can be difficult to find that time in this day and age of obsession with test scores and with improvement in the quality
of the instruction.


However, improvement in test scores means little without the safety and comfort of all students, teachers, staff members, parents, visitors, and administrators. Improvement in teaching and learning are indeed important. The authors include three key questions for students and their teachers:
Where am I going? How am I going? …and Where am I going next? (p. 17)

Administrators are the leaders that can help the school climate become more positive. The authors remind us that there are four essential components of a beneficial school climate (p. 14):

  1. Engagement
  2. Empowerment and Autonomy
  3. Inclusivity and Equity
  4. Environment

They also provide some very good ideas on how to make it clear we are striving for a positive school climate. Some examples are: having a student ambassador; using safe space stickers for students of the LGBT community; and embracing a diverse curriculum.

Many states have adopted various outcomes, standards, and guidelines for how K-12 teachers should act and communicate in the classroom. Illinois (because of 2003 legislation) and other states have adopted social and emotional standards for students also.


The Illinois State Board of Education has proposed 10 Standards for Social and Emotional Learning (Social and Emotional Learning (isbe.net)). At the core of these, students and their teachers acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to:

  • recognize and manage their emotions;
  • demonstrate caring and concern for others;
  • establish positive relationships;
  • make responsible decisions; and
  • handle challenging situations constructively.

I recommend this book for new administrators and for professional development sessions attended by many types of stakeholders. Including parents, students, and community members in the process of creating a more positive learning environment is important also.

Book Review – Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

This book is incredibly interesting and brings up a lot of new information and stresses new and up-to-date theories such as an insistence on the co-existence of several “different types” of humans—including yet another explanation of why Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals must have co-existed.
Also detailed here are a few possible reasons the Neanderthals did not make it but Sapiens did.

This is a big book, full of theories, illustrations, great examples, and of course a lot of information about the origins, descriptors, capacities, abilities, and developmental stages of Homo sapiens. The
book is divided into four main sections all relating directly to Homo sapiens: The Cognitive Revolution; The Agricultural Revolution; The Unification of Mankind, and The Scientific Revolution.

As in most my book reviews, I do not give away too much content because the readers should experience that for themselves. In the case of this particular book, I will talk about the interesting and
entertaining way in which the book is written.

Professor Harari writes in a very readable fashion and uses many clever phrases in addition to humor. For example, he states, “That evolution should select for larger brains may seem to us, like, well, a no-brainer” (p. 9). He explains domestication of animals and the use of certain animals for food: “With each passing generation, the sheep became fatter, more submissive and less curious. Voila! Mary had a little lamb and everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go” (p. 92).

Harari writes with such an enjoyable style, such as in this sentence: “Most likely, both the gossip theory and the there-is-a lion-near-the-river theory are valid” (p. 24). Harari seems to really enjoy the writing of the book, and it comes through very clearly to the reader. Another interesting sentence is this one: “Presumably, everyone reading this book is a Homo sapiens – the species sapiens (wise) of the genus Homo (man)” (p. 4).

I recommend the book to teachers of science and of archeology, social studies, and history. There is technical information here great for the classroom, cultural information wonderful for the salon, and
pensive passages for those times we are alone with our thoughts and we want to reflect on what is written in the clever book we are reading. There is also ample info here for experts in prehistory and for fans of early humankind alike.

I enjoyed reading the book very much and cannot emphasize enough how clever the writing is and how clear the passages are. Harari has done a wonderful job here of explaining very technical information in everyday language so that non-specialists can participate in pondering and discussing
some of the most interesting stages, questions, and stories of sapiens.

Book Review – Mankind: The Story of All of Us

Mankind: The Story of All of Us

by Pamela Toler

Teachers are going to really enjoy this approach to story-telling that focuses more on themes than on the old fashioned linear method of discussing history. Themes and topics such as the use of tools,
differences in diet, domestication of certain animals and what that has meant for mankind, and the use of weapons, jewelry, boats, and architecture through history will astound and captivate the more technically oriented readers looking into this glossy, beautiful book.

More general readers, perhaps fans of the story of Homo sapiens up to current times will also love this book and will wonder what is next in mankind’s journey. This book tells us of great adventures in the past and gives us hints of what is in store, given our talents, strengths, and weaknesses. Pamela Toler has assembled here some incredibly cool ways to talk about the history of mankind and does something very new and unique: using modern drawings and actors to portray the stages of mankind over time. This makes for very interesting and lively illustrations.

Toler also uses a great deal of scenarios—created to advance theories of how wheat was first sown, how people reacted to the “Sea People” invading around the Mediterranean and bringing their women and children with them, and ways people thought and acted. The rationale for different actions over time are interesting to consider, and she uses them throughout the book to make the major and minor events alike more understandable.

As long as readers understand that is her method, they will be alright as they watch mankind progress through the themes, wars, discoveries, changes in regime, and differences in lifestyles over time. The use of the themes and topics, again, is very interesting. Chapter Five, for example, is
called “Plagues.” The book tells us where the words “algebra” and “algorithm” come from also, in addition to many other facts important to showing the contributions of many cultures to world knowledge

A third thing Toler does is uses clever phrases and humor in the book. This will make the book even more entertaining for those readers who want a little more “fun” in their dealing with the story of us.

For example, when discussing the supposed complete disappearance of Neanderthals from the earth, she reminds us that recent research has shown that the Neanderthal genome makes up between 1 and 4 percent of the DNA of humans who are not from Australia or sub-Saharan Africa. She states comically, “Evidently the rumors of Neanderthal man’s extinction are exaggerated. He lives on in us” (p. 16).

Without giving too much content away, I will say this book is a “must-read” for educators and all other readers who need a new and refreshing way to look at the history of us. It is a shiny, interesting, innovative, and thrilling book indeed. I am so lucky I was able to receive a copy to review!

The book could also be a clever tool to get some students interested in the story of us and to watch as they consider the photos, drawings, and scenarios presented in this lively and colorful presentation of
history. Many short sidebars and other bits of information fill the book, much as in many current high school books and undergraduate textbooks. I would champion the use of this book to see if teachers can “hook” some students into the realms of history, science, and discovery.

The design of the book is shared by the History Channel. It is also available via download to own, in Blu-Ray, DVD, eBook, and graphic novels. These other formats may be just what the teacher ordered for some students to be able to handle—and to reach them using technology they prefer.

As an educator, I can see many great uses for this book. It could also stimulate some wonderful discussions among teachers of science, technology, history, social studies, culture, mathematics, art, design, religion, and language.

As with many such books, interdisciplinary units can be crafted rather easily by creative teachers who will see many possible connections. Helping students become constructivists themselves and see connections is yet another possible use for the book as both a reference source and reading for getting good in-depth conversations going among secondary school students.

As with each and every book teachers use with students in K-12 settings, a thorough reading is important before students are encouraged to read the book. Some adult topics arise in the book and
should be considered, of course.