njcssjournal

by Scott Eckers

High-stakes testing policies have reduced elementary-level instructional time for untested subjects, raising questions about the extent to which students’ content knowledge in social studies has been compromised. My research compared social studies assessment performance of two student cohorts from the same New York State school district, one required to take a state assessment (2009) and one eight years after its elimination (2017). Students in the later cohort produced significantly lower overall achievement scores and lower scores on most sections of the test, including skill-based constructed-response items and four of five strands of social studies content tested with multiple choice items. Special Education students in the later cohort produced lower scores on all sections of the test and were impacted approximately twice as much on constructed-response items. Findings suggest that social studies curriculum as prescribed by the state was not taught as thoroughly in elementary schools following elimination of the state test. Recent instructional trends applying literacy skills to social studies have been insufficient to mitigate deleterious effects associated with elimination of the assessment.

Students were assessed on overall content knowledge and achievement in five strands of social studies (United States and New York History; World History; Geography; Economics; Civics, Citizenship, and Government) using content-based multiple-choice questions and skill-based constructed-response questions. Controlling for gender, ethnicity, and disability status, there was an 11.0% reduction in overall social studies knowledge from the 2009-2010 to 2017-2018 school years. Students had a greater drop on the multiple-choice section than they did on the constructed-response section (12.9% and 8.7%, respectively). This suggests that students were affected by the elimination of the assessment but were not affected equally on all components of social studies. Although students in both cohorts exhibited lower scores on the multiple-choice section than on the constructed-response section, the content-driven questions on the multiple-choice section of the assessment were more problematic for the 2017-2018 cohort than the skills-driven questions on the constructed-response section. The elimination of the assessment had a larger effect on aggregate multiple-choice achievement than on constructed-response achievement.

Within the multiple-choice section, the elimination of the assessment affected different strands of social studies unequally. Students had the largest drop (21%) in knowledge on historical facts related to United States and New York History, the strand of social studies featured most prominently in the curricula of the fourth and fifth grades. Strand 5 (Civics, Citizenship, and Government) is also a major part of the fourth and fifth grade curricula. Students learn, for the first time, the basics of how the United States government was founded and how the Constitution helps guide the nation. The study showed a 12.7% reduction of knowledge on this strand. Student knowledge of economics (the study of money, trade, and scarcity) dropped 11.5%. Given these clear reductions, there is a strong reason to believe that the core curriculum as prescribed by the New York State Education Department (1998, 2014) was not taught as thoroughly as when the students were assessed on the same material in years past. This affected basic knowledge and appreciation of American society and government, civics, history, and economics.

The strand of social studies affected the least by the elimination of the assessment was World History. Only three questions on the assessment addressed the World History strand, which may not have been enough to draw solid conclusions. Additionally, the study of foreign cultures and world civilizations is not stressed until sixth grade, the last year of the New York State elementary curriculum. Since the basic curriculum guide has not changed in decades, it would stand to reason that World History was the most inconsequential strand of social studies on a fifth-grade assessment and the one least likely to have been affected by its elimination.

Social studies is not simply about names, dates, and facts. Students are expected to improve their literacy and develop critical analysis skills. The constructed-response section of the assessment was designed to measure these skills and the research showed a reduction of 8.7% from the 2009-2010 cohort to the 2017-2018 cohort. Although recent trends in Common Core instruction apply literacy skills to social studies, this study suggests that such effort is not enough to mitigate the full effect of the elimination of the assessment.

The reduction of social studies knowledge among elementary students requires changes in secondary school instruction. Students who arrive in seventh grade without a working knowledge of elementary facts and skills could face difficulties learning historical content. Previously, students and teachers were able to “spiral” information learned and taught in fourth- and fifth-grade American History lessons and then apply higher-level analytical skills to some of the same information in later years. For example, students might learn some of the main reasons for the American Revolution in elementary school (e.g., taxes or the Quartering Act) and then read and analyze Enlightenment-era primary sources in junior high school that explain the foundational reasons for such a rebellion. Without the specific content knowledge about British taxes and laws, students in seventh grade have to spend time learning basic facts before attempting to work on higher-order thinking skills. Teaching research methods or the writing process through historical inquiry is stymied if students need to spend more of their time and effort playing catch-up on content. Further, many students may need remedial work in social studies skills such as reading maps, identifying bias, or understanding charts.

The length of time for social studies instruction, however, is not expected to increase at the secondary level. Teachers will be faced with a dilemma: spend time remediating incoming students or finish the curriculum. If seventh-grade teachers do not get to cover the Civil War, eighth-grade teachers must start earlier in history. This would result in topics being cut or curtailed – especially those following the Cold War era. Recent history such as the Clinton, Bush and Obama presidencies, years, the events of September 11 the war on terror, and current events would fall by the wayside.

The problem would cascade through the curriculum as high school teachers would be pressed to help students achieve mastery rates on subject-specific exit examinations. If a goal of social studies is to produce informed, participatory citizens who are critical thinkers, it is essential that students leave high school with not only basic facts and skills but an experience that will help them contribute positively to the world. In these challenging post-fact times, social studies knowledge is as important as ever before.

In all areas of the test except Civics, Citizenship, and Government students classified as disabled scored significantly lower than their general education peers. General education students had an 11.6% reduction in overall knowledge while special education students had a 13.8% reduction. A particularly significant reduction for special education students was on constructed-response performance. This section, which focused largely on social studies skills and analysis, saw an 8.5% drop in achievement for general education students and a 16.5% drop for special education students. The elimination of the fifth-grade assessment had almost twice the negative impact on special education students on questions that called for reading, analyzing, and writing about maps, charts, texts, and pictures.

The district in which the research was conducted was one of general affluence. A quick look at an online real estate website showed the typical home for sale listed between 1.5 and two million dollars. Fewer than 6% of the students received free or reduced-price lunch. This affluence has affected school-age residents by creating a school atmosphere that many would consider conducive to broadening students’ minds.

Students were enrolled in a school that provided a vast array of curricular and extracurricular offerings, even at the elementary level. The school offered programs in computer coding, performing and visual arts, athletics, and special education. Despite literature showing a connection between affluence and cultural literacy, the data indicated that scores on the elementary social studies assessment were still significantly lower when students and teachers were not held accountable by the state. This suggests that social studies instruction matters at the

Elementary-level regardless of affluent socioeconomic status; having a good supplemental education in the social sciences was not enough to match social studies knowledge of children taught in the previous decade.

by Julianna Ezzo

Talking to high schoolers about sex is most adults’ worst nightmare.  Now, imagine that you were tasked with talking about sex, and issues like dating violence and sexual assault, with teenagers, and that these teens were all from different states, both red and blue.  Pretty stressful, right?  Differences in background, though, are not this groups’ only challenge.  Imagine that you, as the leader of this group, only have about fourteen hours of instructional time with these youth before they present their ideas to the federal government in an hour long illustrated-talk-style presentation, followed by another hour-long question and answer period.  The stakes just got a bit higher, did they not? 

While this may seem like a scenario that was destined for chaos, this was my reality as a Collegiate Facilitator at the 2019 National 4-H Conference.  I was handed twelve youth, from twelve different states, and after meeting on Sunday, my delegates presented to the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), which falls under the Administration for Children and Families within the United States Department of Health and Human Services, on Tuesday.  In the sessions leading up to the presentation, the Healthy Relationships Roundtable was asked, by the FYSB, to discuss the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships, the challenges and strategies youth use when discussing, refusing, and negotiating intimacy with peers, the motivations of and factors that contribute to youth becoming intimate and abstaining from intimacy, and the emotions associated with the pressures to either become or withhold from intimacy.  After answering all of these questions, youth then designed model materials and programming initiatives for the FYSB.  Needless to say, the youth of the Healthy Relationships Roundtable worked hard to not only answer all of the challenge questions posed to them by the FYSB, but also create and generate the specific materials and aids that they thought would best assist the federal government in discussing sex with teenagers. 

For those unfamiliar with 4-H, you might be wondering just what this program is and how exactly it has access to US federal employees.  And for those who are vaguely familiar with 4-H, you are probably wondering why these farm kids are talking about healthy relationships and not their cows.  The answer to these questions lies in 4-H’s history, as it is a product of the Progressive Era and a long-time advocate of the “learn by doing” educational approach.

4-H: A Brief History of America’s Largest Youth Development Program

4-H members, often referred to as 4-Hers, frequently recite the phrase “Green Since 1902” when discussing the history of 4-H in the United States.  1902 is the year that AB Graham started hosting experimental and agricultural youth club meetings in Ohio.  Graham was inspired by Liberty Hyde Bailey, of Cornell University, who used funds from New York’s land grant college to better educate rural youth on agricultural topics.  The Morrill Act of 1862 established land grant universities in each state, which were tasked with improving both general education and the agricultural and mechanical arts.  Bailey then used New York’s land grant university as an avenue to reach youth, which inspired Graham.  By having his young club members participate in hands-on, experimental activities, Graham’s agricultural clubs became the personification of John Dewey’s “progressive education,” as club members were learning by doing (Wessel & Wessel, 1982, pp. 2-4).

            Local agricultural clubs, like Graham’s, remained largely unregulated for the next twelve years; the Smith-Lever Act would change that.  As youth agricultural clubs popped up throughout the country, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) took note of the work they did.  The USDA, at this point, was “stymied by adult farmers,” as they were unwilling to alter their agricultural methods and move “toward mechanized, industry-backed” agricultural practices (Rosenberg, 2016, p. 6).  To get rural communities to improve their agricultural methods, the USDA believed they needed to bypass stubborn farmers who were unwilling to change.  Thus, with the passage of the Smith Lever Act in 1914, Congress provided both its support and funds through the USDA’s Cooperative Extension Service (CES) (Rosenberg, 2016, p. 6; Wessel & Wessel, 1982, p. 25).  The agricultural club movement, which had already begun to brand itself under the name 4-H, now had a permanent home within the CES, where it received funds from the US government, direction and educational materials from the USDA, and reach across the country through the nation-wide network of land grant colleges (Wessel & Wessel, 1982, p. 25).  This unique structure, with the US government at the top, would allow these simple agricultural clubs to develop into a nation-wide organization.

            As Tracy S. Hoover, Jan F. Scholl, Anne H. Dunigan, and Nadezhda Mamontova argue in “A Historical Review of Leadership Development in the FFA and 4-H,” 4-H moved away from simply educating children on the best, most effective agricultural techniques.  4-H blossomed into a youth development organization through its learning by doing approach.  4-Hers were tasked with working with their peers, mentoring younger club members, and demonstrating their skills to others (Hoover, Scholl, Dunigan, & Mamontova, 2007, pp. 100 & 102).  In 4-H, learning about leadership happened naturally, as 4-Hers gained experience and expertise in the project area they chose.  4-H’s metamorphosis, from local agricultural clubs into the national youth development and leadership program which Hoover, Scholl, Dunigan, and Mamontova describe, is seen today at all levels of the program, including at the national level, through events like National 4-H Conference.

Why Healthy Relationships: An Explanation of National 4-H Conference

            According to the Iowa 4-H Foundation’s website, National 4-H Conference started in 1927 as the National 4-H Club Camp.  The organizers of the first-ever National 4-H Club Camp aimed to provide its delegates with the opportunity for the “development of leadership, recreation, and citizenship” (Iowa 4-H Foundation, 2012).  In 1927, the main goals of the program were to “bring together the most outstanding club members, and give them an opportunity to exchange ideas that they might share in their communities (Iowa 4-H Foundation, 2012).  While the venue may have changed – the delegates of the 1927 National 4-H Club Camp slept in tents on the National Mall, while today’s delegates stay at the National 4-H Conference Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland – the goals of the modern National 4-H Conference have changed very little overtime.  According to 4-H’s website, National 4-H Conference gives “4‑H youth… the opportunity to engage in personal development experiences that increase their knowledge, resources, and skills while discussing topics affecting youth and 4‑H programming nationwide” (National 4-H Council, 2019).  Thus, while the delegates learn a lot, both through their pre-conference research and on-site activities, delegates “are empowered to create positive social change in their communities and have the opportunity to practice and apply their skills in a real-world setting” through the roundtable and federal briefing experiences (National 4-H Council, 2019).  In fact, many delegates will be challenged, by their state 4-H program leader, to bring what they have learned home, and educate their community on their roundtable topic and/or attempt to implement some of the solutions which the roundtable thought of while generating their presentation. 

The roundtable topics for National 4-H Conference can be almost anything.  In my five years at the event, my topics were distracted driving (in 2014 and 2015), physical activity and exercise (in 2017), vocational job availability (in 2018), and healthy relationships (in 2019).  These, though, were just the topics with which I was personally involved.  My co-facilitators, many of whom also returned to this event multiple times, facilitated roundtables dealing with other “hot button” issues including the opioid crisis, mental health, bullying and cyber bullying, alternative energy resources, and emergency preparedness.  Just like 4-H had expanded its programming throughout its existence to include much more than, as the saying goes, “cooking and cows,” National 4-H Conference expanded its programming as well, while retaining the program-wide “learn by doing” approach which Hoover, Scholl, Dunigan, and Mamontova discuss.  At National 4-H Conference, youth voice matters, and youth are empowered by the opportunity they have to share their ideas with those in positions of power. 

Action Civics in Public Education: A Summary and Evaluation of Generation Citizen

As Alexander Pope, Laurel Stolte, and Alison K. Cohen demonstrate in their article, Closing the Civic Engagement Gap: The Potential of Action Civics, educational civic opportunities are not limited to 4-Hers.  In their article, Pope, Stolte, and Cohen discuss Generation Citizen, an action civics program designed for public education, which they describe as being “action-oriented, community-based, and student-centered” (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 265).  The Generation Citizen framework is pretty simple: students chose an issue of importance, research how to take action, and then take the action that they determined would lead them to success (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 266).  More specifically, though, Generation Citizen is based upon this idea that “[s]tudents take charge of their learning,” as the process is only facilitated by the classroom teacher and a Generation Citizen collegiate volunteer (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 265).  This type of “[s]tudent-centered, project-based learning,” according to Pope, Stolte, and Cohen, “improves student motivation, knowledge retention, understanding, enthusiasm, and appreciation of material” (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 265).  Then, by having students carry out their action strategies, educators give their students the opportunity to “[take] real-world action on their issue of interest” and develop key life skills, like “oral and written persuasive communication” (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 265). 

One of Generation Citizen’s strengths is that it allows students to choose the “important local community issues” that they will attempt to remedy (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 265).  Giving students this choice is inherently engaging, as they get to pursue an issue they care about.  Another strength, which Pope, Stolte, and Cohen discuss early in their piece, is Generation Citizen’s “ability to work within the public education system” as it is “aligned with state education standards in history, English/language arts, and civics for each state in which it operates” (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 265).  Not only has Generation Citizen’s compatibility with state standards made it so the program has gained “credibility and validity [within] the curriculum among school administrators and teachers, thereby increasing the likelihood of program uptake,” it has also made it so educators can better justify spending an extensive amount of class time on one topic/project (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 265). 

While it has its strengths, one of the inherent weaknesses of Generation Citizen is that its youth participants may not have their solutions or ideas heard by anyone who could implement major change.  Take, for example, two of Pope, Stolte, and Cohen’s four case studies.  In the first case study, students in Rhode Island attempted to change their school district’s busing system by having members of their community sign a petition.  Their efforts, based upon Pope, Stolte, and Cohen’s description, received no response from local officials, who could have changed the disliked busing system (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, pp. 265-266).  Pope, Stolte, and Cohen argue that the students’ experience was still valuable because it forced them to conduct “extensive research” which utilized “their critical analysis and higher-order thinking skills,” think cross-curricularly because their solution involved math and economics, and improve their “persuasive communication skills as they prepared to engage with governmental officials” and peers about their cause (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 266).  Undoubtedly, the development of those skills has value; however, it is disheartening for students to put in all this effort, to create petitions and conduct economic analyses, for their project to be overlooked by those in charge. 

The students in a separate case study had it even worse, as their project, which involved advocating on behalf of keeping their specialty high schools open, was disregarded, and their schools were closed (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 267).  Pope, Stolte, and Cohen are excited by this; they believe that students learned, through this failure, “that political change is difficult, and does not come overnight” and “hypothesize that the lessons learned from this experience will inform and motivate civic engagement and civic action in the future” (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 267).  While these lessons are, of course, valuable, the students who lost their school were, most likely, devastated that their project did not work and that their multi-media campaign was ignored.  There must be a way for students to still learn these lessons – that political change is difficult and that it does not happen overnight – while allowing students to feel empowered, and have their solutions heard by people who could implement their ideas and/or participate in the initiatives that they develop.  Here, then, is where the idea for a hybrid program, that takes the strengths of Generation Citizen and combines it with those of National 4-H Conference, emerges into an ideal civic action program for public education that empowers youth. 

A Merger: Student Choice of Generation Citizen with The Youth Empowerment of National 4-H Conference

            One of Generation Citizen’s biggest strengths, as established, is that it allows students to choose an issue in which they are interested.  That, plus its close alignment with state curriculums and standards, have made it gain popularity amongst educators.  The student choice found with Generation Citizen differs from that of National 4-H Conference, where youth only get to select their top three favorite topics from the list of roundtables, which was determined in advance by the federal partners.  This process, due to limited space in each roundtable and the finite number of facilitators, can leave delegates with a topic about which they are not passionate.  One of Generation Citizen’s weaknesses, though, is that the students can be left without their ideas being actualized or recognized.  While Pope, Stolte, and Cohen feel this is valuable, because youth are still enhancing critical thinking and communicative skills while also experiencing the woes of the democratic process, it is disheartening that students may leave this experience feeling as if their voice does not matter.  This, however, does not occur at National 4-H Conference, as all of the roundtables brief their federal agency, which makes delegates feel “empowered to create positive social change in their communities” because their thoughts were valued by federal employees (National 4-H Council, 2019). 

            This guaranteed feeling of empowerment is something that Generation Citizen cannot promise its participants; however, merging the Generation Citizen program model with that of National 4-H Conference assures that all students experience it.  To ensure that students can both chose an issue of value in their community and have an opportunity to share their projects with someone who can assist them in either further implementing their ideas or affecting change, the following sequence of events would be followed.  Students would complete the Generation Citizen program following the basic model shared above, where students chose an issue of importance, research how to take action, and then take the action they determined would lead them to success (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 266).  By having students follow these steps, the previously determined benefits of Generation Citizen programming, including student choice and the connections to the curriculum, remain intact. 

After completing these steps, students monitor the success of their projects for a given period of time determined by the teacher.  Students then, in accordance with the National 4-H Conference model of civic education, present their ideas to others.  To make this presentational experience most impactful and empowering, it is encouraged that educators try to involve community members, including students’ families and local government officials – like the town’s mayor and county freeholders – in this presentation.  In a science-fair-like set-up, community members, including these invited local politicians, would circulate from one group of students to the other, asking them about the issue they chose, how they attempted to remedy it, and the outcome, if any, of their work.  Ending the Generation Citizen project with a National 4-H Conference briefing-like presentation enables students to both learn the lessons associated with a failed project – that political change is difficult and far from instantaneous – while still leaving the experience empowered, as people within their hometown, and those governing their community, were interested in their work and valued their attempt to better the community.

To Make the Best Better

            As evident by their article, Pope, Stolte, and Cohen (2011) believe that the Generation Citizen program is an excellent framework through which students can take on an active citizenship role in their communities.  In accordance with the 4-H motto, to make the best better, this article aimed to, after establishing the history of both 4-H and National 4-H Conference, evaluate and then improve upon the existing Generation Citizen framework, and make it better.  By applying the presentational aspect associated with National 4-H Conference to the Generation Citizen framework, a new civic action educational model emerges, one where students not only have a choice in their “hot button” issue, but one where students leave the experience feeling empowered, despite the initial success or failure of their brainstormed solutions. 

At the end of their article, Pope, Stolte, and Cohen state that “schools can empower the next generation of young people in figuring out how to make a difference” by giving “renewed attention to civic knowledge, skills, motivation, and participation” (Pope, Stolte, & Cohen, 2011, p. 268).  The original Generation Citizen model, undoubtedly “empowered” teens by helping them figure out how they can make a difference, but their experience may not have been empowering, depending on the success and reception of their projects.  The hybrid framework, though, allows for instantaneous empowerment, through the presentation to the community, while also retaining the empowerment that comes with learning to take civic action.  Merging the two models together then truly is an attempt to make the best better, and demonstrates the benefit of sharing ideas between traditional, public education and cooperative extension education through 4-H programming.   

References

Hoover, T. S., Scholl, J. F., Dunigan, A. H., & Mamontova, N. (2007). A historical review of leadership development in the FFA and 4-H. Journal of Agricultural Education, 48(3), 100-110. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2007.03100

Iowa 4-H Foundation. (2012, April 16).

National 4-H Conference History. Retrieved from Iowa 4-H Foundation website: https://www.iowa4hfoundation.org/index.cfm/36964/4368/national_4h_conference_history

National 4-H Council. (2019). National 4-H Conference. Retrieved from 4-H website: https://4-h.org/parents/national-4-h-conference/#!about

Pope, A., Stolte, L., & Cohen, A. K. (2011). Closing the civic engagement gap: The Potential of Action Civics. Social Education, 75(5), 265-268.

Rosenberg, G. (2016). The 4-H harvest: Sexuality and the state in rural America. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press

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Wessel, T., & Wessel, M. (1982). 4-H: An American idea 1900-1980. Chevy Chase, MD: National 4-H Council.

by Alan Singer

The short answer, the wrong answer, is that the trans-Atlantic slave trade, slave revolts, and Abolitionist movements were not very important if high school students are preparing for the Advanced Placement® World History exam.

Ways of the World, A Global History with Sources (4th edition, 2019) by Robert Strayer and Eric Nelson is the Bedford/St. Martin’s Advanced Placement® aligned global history textbook, although a small note on the back cover alerts purchasers that the College Board, the group that owns the AP® trademark and markets the tests for high school students, “does not endorse” the “product.” Ways of the World is over 1,200 pages long, and although the authors cannot fit every piece of human history into one textbook, they certainly try. To help students and teachers decide what is important to know for the World History AP® test, pages are bordered with AP® exam tips, AP® “Digging Deeper” hints, and AP® analyzing evidence clues, themes, and comparison questions. In fact, overstressed students can probably skip the 1,200 pages of text and just look at the illustrations and the various “hints.”

The big problem for me as a historian and teacher, with the textbook, the AP® test, and the entire AP® program, is that every event and piece of information in human history seems to get equal weight, although the authors manage to ignore the role of soccer (football) and other sports as examples of cultural diffusion and global integration. Major historical forces that receive short shrift because they are buried in chapters with otherwise unrelated material are trans-Atlantic slave trade, slave revolts, and Abolitionist movements.

On page 709, in a two-inch high box in the lower right-hand corner of the page labeled AP® Exam Tip, students learn that “The abolition of slavery in the Atlantic world is considered one of the greatest political and social achievements of the nineteenth century. This is an important turning point to take note of.” It is such a major event that it merits two and a half pages of text and approximately 1,500 words. The textbook also has approximately two pages on the Haitian Revolution (703-705), two charts on the volume of the trans-Atlantic slave trade (637-b), and a sub-chapter on “Commerce in People: The Transatlantic Slave System” (612-623) that includes a map of the Atlantic world with slave trade routes, two graphs, three images, and a sub-section on the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on Africa.

In the AP® Exam Tip box on page 617 students are alerted to “Pay attention to this discussion of important factors in the development of the Atlantic slave trade.” However, coverage of the trans-Atlantic slave trade is imbedded in Chapter 14, Economic Transformations, Commerce and Consequences, 1450-1750 (pgs. 593-637). The chapter starts with details on “European and Asian Commerce” (594-603), “Silver and Global Commerce” (604-607), and “Fur in Global Commerce” (607-612), before the slave trade is introduced and covered as just another example of expanding global commerce. The chapter ends with a “Reflections” section comparing economic globalization in the past with the present. Missing is any discussion of capitalism as a transformative force in global history, the way the trans-Atlantic slave created the conditions for 19th century European imperialism and colonization in Africa, and the role played by the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the sale of slave produced commodities in developing the political, financial, and commercial institutions, the infrastructure, and the accumulation of capital that made possible the Industrial Revolution and European dominance over much of the rest of the world.

There are several other major educational and historical problems with the way Ways of the World presents the trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery and slave rebellions. More than half of the pages in the sub-chapter “Commerce in People: The Trans-Atlantic Slave System” are used to discuss the whether the “Atlantic World” is a meaningful concept, early enslavement of Slavic people, the Islamic slave trade, and slavery in pre-Columbian Africa. However, in one paragraph on page 616 students do learn that “The slave system that emerged in the Americas was distinctive in several ways,” including its size, inherited status, and race. Apparently, these distinctions are so important that they merit two sidebars, one calling for students to compare different systems of enslavement and another asking them to analyze evidence in a picture.

Information on slave revolts is scattered and initially minimal. On page 619 students learn that “about 10 percent of the transatlantic voyages experienced a major rebellion by desperate captives, and resistance continued in the Americas, taking a range of forms from surreptitious slowdowns of work to outright rebellion.” Chapter 16, “Atlantic Revolutions, Global Echoes, 1750-1900” (691-733), opens by stating “The Haitian Revolution was part of and linked to a much larger set of upheavals that shook both sides of the Atlantic world between 1775 and 1825” (691). On page 704 students are told that in Haiti “something remarkable and unprecedented had taken place, a revolution unique in the Atlantic world and in world history,” yet this “remarkable and unprecedented” event merits only two and a half pages, much of it centered on the horrors of the revolution and its destructiveness.

In the same chapter, Ways of the World’s authors finally address the movement to abolish slavery, another “remarkable transformation” in human affairs. Because of space, the section conflates two different movements, opposition to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and opposition to slavery, into one. While the chapter credits slave revolts for their role in propelling abolition, it does not explain how and why the abolitionist movement was finally successful. Much credit is given to “Enlightenment thinkers” and religious dissenters, but economic transformation in Europe and the United States brought about by the Industrial Revolution is ignored.

As a historian in a teacher education certification program, I evaluate student transcripts to see if they meet minimum state certification requirements for social studies. New York State requires a minimum of two courses in American history, two courses in Western Civilization (European history), and two courses in “Non-Western” history (something other than the United States and Western Europe). In recent years more high schools are offering and more students are taking AP® history classes using textbooks like Ways of the World. Unfortunately, many students use AP credit to substitute for genuine college history classes where they actually analyze historical events and trends. Textbooks like Ways of the World and the proliferation of AP® courses that focus on memorizing minutiae and test prep may also explain why students don’t want to major in history when they get to college.

by Sean Demarest

Dungeons & Dragons (or D&D) is a role-playing game invented by Gary Gygax and first published by TSR in 1974. To those that have never played it must look so strange. There is no board and weird multi-sided dice. The game allows each player to come up with their own character and go on adventures in a fantasy world. Their characters choose between a race and a class (common races being humans, elves and dwarves and class being essentially jobs like barbarian, cleric or wizard). A Dungeon Master (commonly referred to as the DM) serves as the game’s referee, storyteller and essentially creator of the world the game occurs. They maintain the setting in which the adventures take place and play the role of the inhabitants of the game world. The characters form a party and they interact with the setting’s inhabitants and each other. Rolling different numbered sided dice, they work together to solve puzzles, battle monsters, and gather treasure and knowledge. The more they play; the characters earn experience points (referred to as XP) in order to rise in levels. As they rise in levels their characters become increasingly powerful over a series of separate gaming sessions.

During the 1980s a fear swept over the United States and other parts of the western world of an evil that was considered a threat to all Americans, but especially the American youth. No, this threat was not the Soviet Union and their nuclear arsenal; it was Satan himself. The Satanic Panic took place mostly in the 1980s but has early roots in the mid-1970s. It was a response by concerned parents and conservative groups to what they saw as a corruption of the youth by different aspects of popular culture. The notion of “we must protect women and children” became prevalent in society and among lawmakers (Jenkins, 2006, pg. 271). This movement offered many scandalous images for the media to terrify the people with. Big name news personalities, such as Geraldo Rivera hopped on the topic with his two-hour program, Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground. It seems almost every level of news from the local paper to the nationally televised 60 Minutes ran segments and articles on the dangers threatening youth. The common images of “children and teenagers being stalked by sex rings, seduced by drug dealers… and [being] ensnared by evil cults” (Jenkins, 2006, pg. 129) filled the airways. Concerns about cults and satanic influence over the youth greatly increased by the mid-1970s. For some this eventually devolved into a fear of actual satanic cults and a hysteria not seen since and often compared to the Salem Witch Trials.

Parents looked for anything they could blame for what they saw as corruption of the youth. One of their biggest targets was in fact the game Dungeons & Dragons. Many crimes and suicides were blamed on the game. The original being the disappearance of seventeen-year-old college student, James Dallas Egbert the III, which Private Investigator William Dear would say was caused by the boy’s obsession with Dungeons & Dragons. Egbert was eventually found in Louisiana (after an attempted suicide) and returned to his family. He would later die by suicide on August 16, 1980. Dear wrote a book about his investigation of Egbert’s disappearance in 1984 and wrote many more stories about his other investigations. His latest book published in 2012 O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It, argues that O.J. Simpson’s son killed Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman (Ewalt, 2014).

For almost the entirety of Dungeons &Dragons’ shelf life it had a connection with the lonely outsider. This is what also pushed players of this game away from the mainstream and made it a “cultural bugaboo – seen, along with Satanism and heavy metal music, as a corrupter of youth” (Ewalt, 2014, pg. 157). Which is why the irony of it being used in the classroom should not be lost on anyone. A role-playing game that was once feared and banned from several schools being used to teach is genuinely funny.

How can Dungeons & Dragons be used in a classroom? The question is, how can it not? The game is built around working together with others to solve a problem. Most Dungeons & Dragons games are really an extended exercise in problem-solving—just with the most zany, mind-bending problems you never imagined you’d face. These challenges can be anything from fighting a horde of zombie hamsters or convincing a giant not to step on you. A creative teacher can use this set up to sneak a lesson into the game. For example, say during the game the students’ characters go into a dungeon and need to solve a puzzle to get inside. This puzzle could be math equations or even chemistry related questions. Another example could be that students’ characters help reform the government of a small town after a dragon attack. This will allow the class a chance to learn about basic civics. This may seem farfetched, but it has been done before. Ethan Schoonover is the Technical Director at the Lake Washington Girls Middle School (LWGMS) in Seattle. He is also the Dungeon Master of the Dungeons & Dragons club turned Dungeons & Dragons class.  Initially while playing Ethan would supplement math into the games, having students calculate their own modifiers, calculate the size of the chambers they were in and one example of them calculating the volume of the mist based on the size of the room and depth of the fog itself. He also sees the great potential in using the role-playing game to teach other subjects, such as history, ecology, political science, etc. (Knox, 2018)

Dungeons & Dragons may be the largest name in role-playing games, but it is far from the only one. Patriots, Loyalists, and Revolution in New York City, 1775-1776 is a roleplaying game used to teach pre-American Revolutionary war and the build up to the war. Students assume the roles of actual historic patriots, loyalists and moderates. The classroom is transformed into New York City in 1775, where Patriot and Loyalist forces fight for advantage among a divided populace. Confronted with issues like bribery, the loss of privacy, and collapsing economic opportunity along with ideological concerns like natural rights, the philosophical foundations of government, and differing definitions of tyranny, students witness how discontent can lead to outright revolt. It is just one of several Reacting to the Past games that take students into the past and try to interact with the content they are learning.

            A similar approach to this can also be done with Dungeons & Dragons. The role play and basic gameplay mechanics of the game can be applied to practically any setting from a fantasy world of elves and dragons to the dangerous streets of the French Revolution. The idea of students embodying characters or historical figures can go very far in engaging students in the content. Is there a level of engagement higher than being in the content? That is what this role-playing gaming mechanic popularized by Dungeons & Dragons can offer a classroom.

Role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Reacting to the Past can be incredible tools for an educator to use. Giving their students a chance to either fully immerse themselves in the content or simply go on a fantasy journey with their lessons dropped in throughout. The irony that a game that was so feared a little over thirty years ago being used successfully in the classroom to promote hands on learning should not be lost. Using this game to fully dive into content should be used in every classroom.

References

Ewalt, D. M. (2014). Of Dice and men: The story of Dungeons & Dragons and the people who play it. New York: Scribner.

Jenkins, P. (2006). Decade of nightmares: The end of the Sixties and the making of Eighties America. Oxford University Press.

Knox, K. (2018, May 23). This Girls Middle School D&D Club Is a Font of Inspiration. Retrieved from https://geekandsundry.com/this-girls-middle-school-dd-club-is-a-font-of-inspiration/.

Offutt, W. M. (2015). Patriots, loyalists, and revolution in New York City, 1775-1776. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

by Ryan Pierson

Starting in the 1950s, in an unsubstantiated panic parallel to the Red Scare, known as the Lavender Scare, several thousands of LGBTQ+ people were fired or intimidated into resigning from jobs in the federal government. Because LGBTQ+ people were seen as “sex perverts” and security risks, they were banned from federal employment in 1953. What followed was years of persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation, ruining their careers, often outing them, and sometimes even driving them to suicide.  Given the lingering effects of the Cold War-era discriminatory practices, the federal government’s failure to compensate for its wrongdoing is particularly egregious.  It is important to come to terms with the implications of this witch hunt and its long-term effects on LGBTQ+ American lives. During the Lavender Scare, the United States government committed a blatant violation of the 14th Amendment by systemically targeting LGBTQ+ American government workers on the basis of their sexual orientation, setting the precedent for modern employment discrimination and lack of government protections for LGBTQ+ people. 

Figure 1: Perverts Called Government Peril.  19 April 1960.  New York Times.  https://www.nytimes.com/1950/04/19/archives/perverts-called-government-peril-gabrielson-gop-chief-says-they-are.html 

Although living in a heteronormative society has never been easy for LGBTQ+ people, the Lavender Scare represented a particular harmful manifestation of anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry fueled by fear that they were traitors.  During the Cold War, when tensions with the Soviet Union were at an all-time high, fear of Communism ran rampant in America.  Communism was seen as counter-culture in America, as was homosexuality, so the two were often linked.  Additionally, people believed that LGBTQ+ people were vulnerable to blackmail because they feared their sexuality being exposed (Gleason, 2017).  The first NSA defection proved to fuel the fire by acting as supposed evidence.  When cryptologists Bernon F. Mitchell and William H. Martin left the NSA to work with the Soviet Union in September 1960, they became symbols of one of Americans’ worst fears- disloyal Americans aiding the Soviet Union.  Because they were accused of being gay, the situation was further complicated.  Although there was no evidence for this accusation, the hatred Americans had for these two men extended to all LGBTQ+ folks (“The First NSA Defection,” 2013).  In keeping with a traditional facet of bigotry, all members of the marginalized group were held responsible for the actions of a few.  This fueled the assumption that all LGBTQ+ people were unfit to serve in the State Department or other government positions.  As demonstrated by the news article above, sensational headlines perpetuated these myths in an effort to try to convince Americans that the federal persecution of LGBTQ+ people was necessary for national security. 

Figure 2: C.D Bachelor.  31 March 1950.  Washington Times Herald.  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cgzgel0WYAAy4FF.jpg

As much as some government officials fed anti-LGBTQ+ narratives to the people, the people also put pressure on the government.  In the 1950s, the US government faced immense pressure from its citizens to expose information regarding findings of LGBTQ+ workers in the State Department.  The cartoonist who created the above political cartoon accused Truman of duplicity, claiming that he had extensive knowledge of “traitors and queers in [his] administration” but refused to share this information with the American people.  Americans largely viewed LGBTQ+ people as security risks so any action by the government seen as protecting them, such as not releasing information about their employment in the government, was viewed as support for a dangerous group. 

Additionally, there was also general hatred for LGBTQ+ folks, as there has been throughout the history of the world in certain cultures.  The artist uses the term “queers” to refer to LGBTQ+ people, which, although it has developed to have varying connotations, was distinctly a slur at this time.  This confirms the homophobic viewpoints of the author and the general approval of anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes in American society.  At some points in American history, LGBTQ+ people have found ways to live out their identities, albeit covertly.  However, the 1950s was a time when suburbs bloomed, as did conformity in America.  Because being LGBTQ+ subverted the norm, those within the community were hated and even their private relations were seen as a risk to the social and moral order.    Given the fear and anger that permeated American society, the government felt empowered to persecute LGBTQ+ folks as they wished.  After all, very few people would stand up for themselves or act as allies given the deeply homophobic culture, so the US government had no check on its power from the American people.  As a result, the Lavender Scare could bulldoze through the lives of LGBTQ+ people with very few obstacles in its path. 

Figure 3: If You Don’t Want a Man Let Him Go- Don’t Ruin His Entire Life in the Process.  17 April 1965.  ABC News. https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/ABC_first_gay_rights_protest_02_jef_150417_4x3_992.jpg

During the Lavender Scare, LGBTQ+ people were not just fired; their lives were ruined, as explained by the sign carried by a protester in a march in front of the white house against the mistreatment of LGBTQ+ federal workers.  After the passage of Executive Order 10450, which banned all people deemed security risks including “homosexuals” from working in the government or for government contractors, LGBTQ+ people found their lives forever changed.  The US government understood that LGBTQ+ people were deathly afraid of being out because it could mean institutionalization, rejection, ostracization, or violence.  Hence, those who were suspected or known to be gay were often interrogated and threatened, their strength broke down until they resigned out of fear and intimidation.  Others who did not resign were not only fired but sometimes outed to their families (Gleason, 2017).  Without due process, they were deprived of their lives as they had known them and their liberty to keep their personal relationships private.  They were also deprived of their economic well-being; many LGBTQ+ people found themselves unable to find a job in the government sector.  Those who were forced out of the military often received dishonorable discharges, impacting their abilities to find any well-paying job.  Even as American citizens, they were denied access to jobs, military service, and privacy, all of which are crucial aspects of life and liberty.  However, the US Government did not stop at simply violating LGBTQ+ people’s basic 14th Amendment rights; government officials also pushed some to suicide and then attempted to cover it up.

Figure 4: Find Victim in Gas Filled Home.  8 September 1954.  The Morning Herald, Uniontown, PA. 

Some LGBTQ+ folks, when faced with the decision between being outed or resigning to a life of economic difficulty and shame, chose the only way out they could see: taking their own life.  The number of suicides linked to the Lavender Scare is difficult to estimate because the circumstances of these people’s deaths were largely kept secret.  Media would sometimes report deaths of federal workers but the cause of death was often omitted or if it was reported, the circumstances that caused it were not revealed.  For example, in the case of Andrew Ference shown above, a thirty-four-year-old man who killed himself after two days of intense questioning that led to him admitting he was gay, his family was not made aware of the events that led to his death until two years after his passing  (Johnson 159).  Any common newsreader would find no indication of government involvement with the above death because it was very explicitly excluded from the story.  The fact that the government was averse to news of the reality of LGBTQ+ workers deaths being revealed, suggests that it knew on some level that its policies were partially responsible for them.  After all, while there was minimal mainstream resistance to the Lavender Scare, the grassroots movement against it could potentially grow if it was revealed that the government essentially blackmailed people into committing suicide.

Figure 5: State Maps of Laws and Policies: Employment.  28 January 2019.  Human Rights Campaign.  https://www.hrc.org/state-maps/employment

While the anti-LGBTQ+ bans in federal organizations were officially ended in 1995, LGBTQ+ workers are far from protected.  American homophobia has shifted away from anti-Communist fervor and towards general bigotry often with a religious veil.  Although the specific motives are different, it all comes from the same root: disgust or fear of those who are different.  This prejudice still has far-reaching effects for LGBTQ+ people and for some it may feel as if the Lavender Scare never really ended.  Only 21 states and DC, shown in dark purple, protect against employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, while 8 states, shown in medium purple, protect against employment discrimination on these bases for public employees only, and 4 states, shown in light purple, protect against employment discrimination for public employees only on the basis of sexual orientation.  This means that in 17 states, shown in gray, there are no protections for any LGBTQ+ workers and workers in the private sector are not protected in 29 states (Human Rights Campaign).  In many places in America, LGBTQ+ people can still be fired for living openly.  This situation sounds eerily familiar to the days of the Lavender Scare in which LGBTQ+ people could only be open about their identities in largely underground groups.  Evidently, the fervor that created anti-LGBTQ+ legislation during the Lavender Scare has left a legacy of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in the realm of employment protections. 

State governments and employers across the nation continue to violate the 14th amendment similar to the federal government during the Lavender Scare.  Civil Rights law has improved since the Lavender Scare, but LGBTQ+ workers in the Midwest and Southeast have not been able to enjoy the fruits of these improvements.  The 14th Amendment guarantees that all people should be equally protected under the law.  Yet, LGBTQ+ people are denied employment protections under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which explicitly outlaws discrimination on the basis of, among other factors, sex  (History.com).  Given that the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that discrimination on the basis of sex stereotyping is discrimination on the basis of sex, LGBTQ+ people should be protected (Gulati, 2003).  After all, the idea that a woman should love a man and vice versa is one of the most prevalent sex stereotypes, and LGBTQ+ people face discrimination for subverting that stereotype.  The law clearly spells out protections for many groups of people and LGBTQ+ people should be included.  States that refuse LGBTQ+ people protection under these laws are violating the 14th Amendment because they are denying them equal protection under the law, despite the fact that they are rightful citizens of the United States.  Clearly, the hatred and aversion to change that fueled the Lavender Scare and the 14th Amendment violations that resulted from it are still alive and well in present-day America, exemplified by the striking lack of employment protections for LGBTQ+ people.

During the Lavender Scare, the US government deprived LGBTQ+ workers of their life and liberty without due process by firing, blackmailing, and outing them, hence violating the 14th Amendment.  The anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment that fueled the Lavender Scare has evolved to cause continuing employment discrimination today.

References

“The First NSA Defection.” (2013). Cold War & Internal Security (CWIS) Collection. J.Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University. Retrieved from https://blog.ecu.edu/sites/cwis/2013/09/first-nsa-defection-1960/  

Gleason, J. (2017).  LGBT History: The Lavender Scare. National LGBT Chamber of Commerce.  Retrieved from https://www.nglcc.org/blog/lgbt-history-lavender-scare.

Gulati, S. (2003).  The use of gender-loaded identities in sex-stereotyping jurisprudence. New York University Law Review.  Retrieved from https://www.nyulawreview.org/issues/volume-78-number-6/the-use-of-gender-loaded-identities-in-sex-stereotyping-jurisprudence/

Johnson, D.K. (2009).   The Lavender scare: The Cold War persecution of gays and lesbians in the federal government. University of Chicago Press. 

by Jamie Megee

Creating an environment in which students are constantly engaged in the content is something that first year and veteran teachers both struggle with. To combat this struggle, implementing different types of primary sources into our lessons would be useful. Walt Disney propaganda cartoons to be extremely interesting and found them to be useful in the classroom.

Using sources such as animated cartoons, posters, and even feature films, can be a way to engage students in topics they may otherwise find boring or irrelevant. Using content from the Walt Disney Company would be a fantastic way to teach different topics. As documented in several biographies, the layout of certain parts of the Disney parks, and themes throughout the films, cartoons, and characters, Walt Disney was a huge patriot. Disney was a huge fan of the Revolutionary War period which many students find irrelevant. It happened so long ago, why does this matter? Why does this matter to me? 

 Answering these questions can be very difficult for the first-year teacher. Of course, educators in the field of social studies can agree that we have found something that has engaged us with the content. As a student, I remember finding films a very exciting way to engage in historical events, people, and themes.

Historical Background

“Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood,” Walt Disney. The Walt Disney Company is generally associated with childrens’ movies, theme parks, and lovable iconic characters and the Walt Disney brand has been a consistent influence in American and global entertainment culture. During World War II, the Walt Disney Production Studio was one of the companies tasked with creating propaganda to enlist the American people into supporting the war effort on the home front. The Disney Production Studio took a firm anti-Nazi stance, evident in the animated shorts created during the era. One of their most influential and memorable pieces renowned worldwide was entitled Der Fuehrer’s Face. This cartoon aired in 1942 and went on to win an Academy Award the following year. This film was widely accepted and enjoyed by many throughout America and around the world.

Der Fuehrer’s Face was a cartoon primarily produced to promote American ideals about fighting the Nazis and how Americans should feel about the war. This is an example of how the Disney Company was promoting American ideals since its earliest days. One of Disney’s most beloved characters, Donald Duck, finds himself waking up in a dystopian German town living as a Nazi and as a lover and supporter of Adolf Hitler. He lives a day in the life of a worker in a demanding factory forced to show his adoration of “der fuehrer” in a never ending wave of demanded heils to show the conditions of life in Germany during the war. Finally, Donald wakes up back in America surrounded by strong images of American patriotism and is thankful to be alive in the wonderful nation. This firm anti-Nazi stance helped push the Walt Disney brand into the spotlight and homes of Americans who had access to television or attended movies.

The Walt Disney Production Studio was involved in the creation of different types of propaganda in support of America’s entrance into World War II. This helped rejuvenate the nation in a time when faith was fading. The Disney brand created pins, buttons, and patches for several branches of the military. They also designed paintings for airplanes based off of one of their newest characters: Dumbo the Flying Elephant. Because of all of this work in defense of the American cause, it is clear that Walt Disney Productions was promoting patriotism and freedom. At this time, the American people needed reassurance that the government and military were leading the United States to victory on the frontlines.

According to historian John Wills, “Disney Culture promotes a distinctive fantasy and simulation, facilitated by media, technology, and control, and mass consumption.” This mass consumption is what would define Walt Disney Productions as the large corporate entertainment company it is today, but the support of the American cause during World War II would be what propelled them into the American household and global spotlight in their early days. This article will analyze the cultural impact of Disney Production Studios and its propulsion into the American mainstream by promoting the “ideal America/n” between the years 1939-1945 and into the modern era. At this time, the short form cartoon was becoming more easily accessible to families and Disney quickly grew into the multi-faceted culture producer and influencer it is today. The Walt Disney Studios successfully created propaganda that pushed the brand into the cultural spotlight and helped launch it into having more influence in American culture. Walt Disney’s parks also represent the ideal America and helped to promote this message to a growing audience.

Educational Application

Because the Walt Disney Company is so widely renowned and beloved, using the content in the classroom to explain different themes would be beneficial and could reach almost every student in that class. With the growth of the Disney streaming service Disney +, the content is more accessible than ever. For example, a lesson around the issues of redlining could focus on the opening few scenes from “The Princess and the Frog.” This film shows two families, one white and rich and one black and struggling. Visualizing this issue through a cartoon could help students see the differences in towns very close to each other, but separated by their economic or racial demographics.

Using these films can also reach different themes in a way that makes them interesting for students. Themes such as determination, bravery, “doing the right thing,” “the importance of family,” “the importance of finding yourself.” All of these themes can be found in Disney movies and films. These themes are important to students in middle and high school because a lot of these things are what they are going through themselves. Connecting these themes to content can be difficult, but making those connections is what will bring students into the content and make it more relevant to them.

Teachers can also use these films to go through historical periods. For example, using Mulan to discuss Chinese heritage could be a good way to introduce that topic. Of course, that film has its flaws (as all films do), but this could be a way to quickly introduce the topic. Also, you could use the films and its flaws at the end of the unit or lesson as a project. Students could rewrite parts of the film to make it more historically accurate. Taking films with flaws and turning it into a way for students to show their command of the content through editing or rewriting would be a great way to assess student learning while also keeping them engaged in the content.

Something that could be used more frequently, though, would be the propaganda that the Walt Disney company created during World War II. This propaganda could be used in a Document Based Question. Having links to videos to analyze in a DBQ would also be a very engaging and different way to analyze documents. Seeing their favorite characters in a different setting may take some getting used to, but it would be a good way to get students involved in a DBQ. Of course, this is not their favorite task, but if we add different styles of documents such as comics, cartoons, and animated characters.

As educators, it is our responsibility to engage students in content that may not seem relevant or exciting to students. Using different sources such as cartoons, comics, or other characters that students are used to is a great way of connecting with content. There are several applications for using Disney films and cartoons. Using these in the classroom to teach themes could be helpful in connecting with students about problems or challenges they may be facing in their daily lives. This is not so much a content based connection, but this could help students understand more of what they’re going through.

Content wise, there are also several different applications. Using the films to discuss histories of different areas or cultures could be a way to introduce the topic at the beginning of a unit. Following a unit with a film could be beneficial if students were asked to change the film to make it more accurate. Disney’s propaganda films created during World War II would be appropriate to use in a document based question or for a primary source analysis activity. This could be a way to get students to practice this skill with something they seem more familiar with.

References

Disney, W.E. (1943). Der Fuehrer’s face. Cartoon. Walt Disney Production Company. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/bn20oXFrxxg

Sammond, N. (2005). Babes in Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the making of the American child, 1930-1960. Duke University Press, London.

Spangler, T. (2019, November 13). Disney Plus hits estimated 3.2 million app downloads on launch day.” Variety, November 13, 2019.

Watts, S. (1995).  Walt Disney: Art and politics in the American century.” The Journal of American History, 82 (1), 84-110.

Wills, J. (2017). Disney culture. Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ

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Taina Santiago

In 2015 the film Straight Outta Compton was released, proving that NWA as well as other rappers of this decade had a lasting impression on American culture. Rap music continues to deliver stark political messages as well as reflect the struggles of the community it represents. At the start of the 1990’s the “War on Crime” hit the black community disproportionately harder than any other community. At the same time, gangsta rappers began to speak out on what it meant to be a criminal.

In using their words correctly within the classroom, two things can be accomplished. First, the war on crime era can be taught and contextualized in a way that acts as built in engagement for students. Analyzing the music gives kids a sense of cultural lexicon that is still current and relevant. Furthermore, it provides students with a baseline for public opinion on the era. Being so contemporary there is difficulty finding scholarly sources that culminate the black American experience in the 90’s. Popular culture is public opinion and rap music deals with these trickier issues head on.

The secondary benefit of using rap music to teach the War on Crime is that it is an easy way for teachers to relate to a more diverse classroom, by assisting students in evaluating their role models. Public reactions to NWA and other rappers proved to be polarized. Understanding both sides allows students to contextualize their idols today, specifically rappers and musicians under the same lens.

Context

The War on Crime refers to an era in American history, spanning from the 1970’s to the end of the 1990’s wherein the American government hyper focused on the prevention and punishment of crimes. In 1965, President Johnson addressed what he referred to as an increase in “street crime” and created the Office of Law Enforcement Assistance (Flamm, 2019). The primary goal of the Office was to partner local police departments with federal crime bureaus. As a consequence, crimes that would typically be resolved on a local level and would have smaller sentences, were now reviewed on a federal level and resulted in stricter prison sentences. Just as well, crimes that would have otherwise been resolved through community service or public scrutiny were for the first time subject to prison sentences (Thompson, 2010, p. 713). This, of course, led to more individuals being incarcerated and for longer periods of time.

The “War on Crime” was punitive in nature, focusing heavily on punishing lower priority drug crimes. In the 1970’s, New York’s Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who had long been in favor of a rehabilitation first approach to drug crime, passed a series of stricter drug laws that lowered tolerance and increased jail time in convictions (Thompson, 2010, p. 707). This ultimately led to a higher incarceration rate, which translates to more families being affected. These harsher drug laws quickly spread across the nation. Thompson (2010) writes that “While in 1970 there had been only 322,300 drug-related arrests in the United States, in 2000 that figure was 1,375,600,” also noting that by the end of the twentieth century there were more Detroit residents incarcerated than there were Detroit residents holding unionized jobs in the auto department (p. 709). The “War on Crime” fed into the prison industrial complex in America.
            The prison industrial complex is unique to American culture. What makes it more unique though, is how it has found its home in implicit racism. By the end of the twentieth century, one in fifteen black men had been incarcerated at some point in their lives, compared to one in one hundred and six white men within the same age rage (McCann, 2017, p. 126). The War on Crime disproportionately affected communities of color, but none more than the black community.

The rise in mass incarceration changed the family dynamic of the black community, making criminal behaviour a cornerstone of their identity. Thompson argues, “The  criminalization  of  urban  space  and  the  imposition  of  lengthy  prison  terms  not only  rendered  an  increasing  percentage  of  urbanites  unable  to  contribute  to  the  cities where  they  grew  up  but  it  also  made  it  difficult  for  them  to  provide  for  the  dependents they  left  behind” (Thompson, 2010, p. 716). Increased incarceration rates meant that many parents would find themselves with a criminal record. This affected their families on two fronts. First, that during their sentence they would be missing from their households. The rise in the single parent home increased dramatically as the twentieth century closed (Thompson, 2010, p. 711). Families struggled to support themselves on a one parent income. The secondary effect mass incarceration had on families was the newfound inability of parents to re-enter the workforce due to their criminal records, as Thompson alludes to above. Families who were already struggling in poverty stricken neighborhoods were now forced to find creative ways to earn an income, which often led to committing more crimes. This, in turn, led to more people being incarcerated and the creation of a police state in poor urban communities.

The effects of the war on crime are still evident in urban classrooms. Students today have parents who felt the direct impacts of the time period. When dealing with a topic so close to home for so many people, it is important to navigate with care. The easiest way to do so is to connect it with something the kids are familiar with and enjoy on an overall level.

Implications

The police state created a cultural stigma around black people. The idea became that they were inherently violent, and inherently criminal. The advent of the gangsta rap genre created a caricature of what a Young Black Male from a poor, urban community should look like. Analyzing this persona gives a glimpse of what type of image the black community portrays and how that legacy has carried on to children today.

When N.W.A released their debut album Straight Outta Compton in 1988, they addressed these issues. On the first track, the titular song, Ice Cube sings,

“Straight outta Compton, crazy motherf****r named Ice Cube

From the gang called N****z Wit Attitudes

When I’m called off, I got a sawed off

Squeeze the trigger, and bodies are hauled off” (Jackson, Carabby, Wright, & Jerald, 1988)

The very first impression displayed here is glorification of intense violence. Ice Cube hailed from a community where this type of violence was not only familiar, but expected. The lyrics continue to tell a story where the men engage in more violence, as well as mentioning and advocating for illicit drug usage.

            This impression is what Bryan McCann refers to as the popularization of criminality. McCann described the phenomenon that NWA popularized in saying, “The mark of criminality circulated in white civil society in ways that mobilized affect as fear of racialized bodies and communities, but NWA attracted affective investments from audiences with playful, even joyful performances of black criminality” (McCann, 2017, p. 36). NWA’s third track on the album, titled “Gangsta, Gangsta”, provided the framework for what they believed to be the experience of the black gangster growing up in urban Los Angeles,

“Since I was a youth, I smoked weed out

Now I’m the mothaf***a that you read about

Takin’ a life or two, that’s what the hell I do (Jackson, Carabby, Wright, & Jerald, 1988)”

The music is melodic, catchy and strikes the youth as fun. The men do not lament over their hardships. Instead, they create a larger than life personification of that hardship and market it as the authentic experience. All of the things that the establishment, be that the government or on a smaller scale the police, expected them to be was culminating in this persona.

            Other rappers followed the same trend, personifying what they felt to be formative traits and experiences of growing up in an urban, black community. 2Pac was well known for his often depressingly honest depictions of day to day life.

Very quickly, the message gangsta rappers sought to deliver became problematic. Their representation of self and poignant resistance to violence challenged the authority of the establishment. This became evident as government agencies, namely the FBI, spoke out against the rappers’ music.

The analysis of rap music allows students to engage with materials that may be familiar to them. They are interesting, and honest depictions of the ways in which the war on crime affected black America.

The War on Crime stigmatized black communities and provided shallow justifications for racist generalizations of the community. Black families have since become known for single parent households, criminal activity and ex-convicts. While, statistically, many of these were realities for black families, public opinion fails to rationalize these connotations in light of the context of unfair and discriminatory legal malpractice. A community so disenfranchised struggled to break these stigmas under a system that did not allow them room to breathe.

Gangsta rappers were not attempting to turn culture on its head, nor were they trying to redefine or correct the stigmas surrounding them. Instead, they provided social commentary on the persona they were expected to have and created the larger than life caricature of the black gangsta. This persona contributed to an overall fear of the black community. Tricia Rose writes in “Fear of a Black Planet” Rap Music and Black Cultural Politics in the 1990’s, “Rap music is fundamentally linked to a larger social constructions of Black culture as an internal threat to dominant American culture and social order” (Rose, 1991, p. 276).  To understand a diverse classroom it is imperative to uncover the layers of struggle that minorities face in America. Engaging and connecting with kids comes with this understanding.

References

Flamm, M.W. (2019). From Harlem to Ferguson: LBJ’s war on crime and America’s prison crisis. Stanton Foundation: Columbus, OH.

Jackson, O., Carabby, A., Wright, E.L., and Jerald, L. (1988). Straight Outta Compton. Ruthless Records: Los Angeles.

McCann, B.J. (2017). The mark of criminality: Rhetoric, race, and gangsta rap in the war-on-crime era. University of Alabama Press: Tuscaloosa, AL.

Rose, T. (1991). “Fear of a Black Planet”: Rap music and black cultural politics in the 1990s. The Journal of Negro Education, 60 (3), 276-290.

Vol. 60, No. 3, Socialization Forces Affecting the Education

Thompson, H.A. (2010. Why mass incarceration matters: Rethinking crisis, decline, and transformation in postwar American history. Journal of American History, 97 (3), 703-734.

by Mitchell Bickman

In the 2019-2020 school year, the Uniondale and Oceanside School Districts on Long Island entered the fourth year of a unique and innovative program that is designed to grow in all students a stronger awareness and understanding of issues facing our communities and our nation. The Bridges program fosters empathy, and collaboration amongst students. It is our belief that engaging students in the evaluation of contemporary issues related to race, economics, and politics will lead to well-rounded, active, and engaged citizens. In Bridges, we encourage difficult conversations and ask challenging questions, and we welcome different points of view with the understanding that we can agree to disagree with civility. We tell students to get beyond your comfort zone, to get to know people different from yourselves.  It’s in that space beyond comfort that true education occurs.

We believe that in education there is not one set formula for success. This reality makes teaching one of the most exciting yet challenging professions that exists. Over the past two decades I have been extremely fortunate to work with a group of educators and leaders that are amongst the most passionate and inspiring individuals in this profession today. What sets them apart from others is that they shifted their instructional focus from student engagement to student empowerment, carving out time and space for students to explore their passions. In order to truly empower students, two major shifts have to take place. The first being a focus on student agency, where students are given ownership over the direction of their learning. The second and perhaps most important is that teachers have had to gradually shift their role from that of the expert (or sage on a stage) to that of lead learner, acting in a role that on the surface may appear as more of a moderator or facilitator. Through this approach to teaching student learning no longer exists in a vacuum, but rather it connects to other disciplines in a meaningful and authentic way, allowing teachers to create a more cohesive narrative for students. While there is not a singular pathway towards fostering empowered students, a hallmark of Oceanside’s program is taking informed action.

Due to the demands placed upon K-12 curricula, and the subsequent time constraints it engenders, taking informed action happens least often in classrooms across the country. Our work flips this model with the belief that taking informed action needs to be at the heart of curriculum development and instructional practices. This work is built on the premise that it is critical to provide students with thoughtful and deliberate opportunities to critically and deeply evaluate issues that impact them on a local, national, and global level. As we continue to orient our lessons and units to promote divergent thought and foster argumentative skills, it is more important than ever that we provide students the opportunity to take their new knowledge, skills, and understanding to the world. One of the most common examples that comes to mind would be for students to engage in writing letters to elected officials. However, this is just one of many actions that can be taken by students as they begin to assess their world and take action. Other actions can include:

• organizing a book club to dig more deeply into an issue
• organizing a fundraising event for a cause related to an issue
• Inviting community stakeholders to a classroom forum
• inviting guest speakers to debate an issue
• presenting to elementary school classes
• creating an advocacy campaign (morning announcements, Edmodo, lobby presentation during lunch periods)
• working collaboratively to create a class or team resolution
• organizing a community service project
• interviewing an expert or activist

These ideas are often starting points for larger more meaningful experiences that students can engage in, which is the purpose of Bridges.

The Bridges program began in the Fall of the 2016-2017 school year with a cohort of sixty diverse middle school students. It has been designed to unfold over the course of six years (currently in year four), extending through a student’s senior year in high school. It is our hope that as students move through their high school years, they will take ownership over the direction of a shared service-learning project that will take learning out of the classroom walls, into students’ lives, their community, and perhaps the world.  

Our Story

The Bridges program was born out of a conversation held between Oceanside and Uniondale High School seniors centered on Race in America. At the time of this conversation the news cycle was dominated by Michael Brown, an eighteen-year old teenager from Ferguson, Missouri. Our schools came together via a shared connection we had from a Hofstra University professor, Dr. Alan Singer. Long Island is one of the most racially and economically segregated regions in our nation. The demographics of the Oceanside School District and Uniondale exemplify this reality as Oceanside’s student body is close to 85% Caucasian, while Uniondale a ten-minute bus ride away is almost 100% Latino and African American. Our districts rarely interact beyond the world of sports, so we believed a conversation on Race in America between seniors who were at the time about the same age as Michael Brown would be worthwhile for everyone involved. In addition, many of these students would soon be leaving their segregated communities, and entering college in the fall, a broader world with others different from themselves. Over the course of this hour-long conversation, students shared raw, powerful, and at times emotional experiences about what it was like growing up white, black, Latino in their respective communities while at the same time discussing police culture, racial profiling, and other related topics.

While this conversation was a powerful one, we recognized that one discussion like this is not going to change the world or even these communities. Hopefully it helped students think about issues that are often in the background but never up front, especially in an interracial setting. As they go off to college, maybe these young people will have a new sense of possibility for the future. The desire to extend the conversation and start it at an earlier age led to the creation of the Bridges program an ongoing relationship between Oceanside and Uniondale Middle Schools (and now high schools) where teachers and students come together to make this vision a reality.

            Bridges serves as an opportunity to address the growing racial, religious, and ethnic divide on Long Island, where communities remain isolated despite often being very close to one another.

            Starting in seventh grade, students at Lawrence Road Middle School (Uniondale) and Oceanside Middle School apply to Bridges via an essay asking which societal issues they wish to see addressed by the government and which they would like to address themselves. Each year of the program is broken up into several meetings. These meetings are designed to first develop trust between the students, then inform them on a topic, allow them to discuss it, and ultimately take informed action regarding the subject.

            Bridges students (“builders”) meet to discuss the present events of the day in an environment designed to foster alternative opinions to their own. The project is a six-year journey, with each year organized around a shared theme. Year One focused on immigration and how it affects us on both a personal and national level. Year Two and three has focused on the Age of Protest, the idea of protest, what a “worthy” cause may be, and when it is “right’ to voice protest as a private citizen, public official, or even a celebrity. As students grow and mature, more complicated issues can be addressed, and deeper action taken.

            The long term goal of the program is for students to develop lasting relationships with others who on the surface may look different from one another, but have more in common than they initially thought, and while they may not always agree, we look to foster the tools for civil discourse, leading to individuals working together to take informed action. It is our hope that students can garner a shared perspective and mutual respect in a time of intense difference, experience cultural events together, bond, learn new things, and have the opportunity to go on trips to explore their college options as the program grows.

            The Bridges program was also briefly profiled in Teaching Tolerance (link: https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2017/big-ideas-for-social-studies-learners). Since the national magazine came out we have been contacted by teachers in Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, and New Jersey and have helped them to lay the foundation for similar programs in their schools. We also believe that this program can be a national model for schools that we can help build through presentations and publications to inform districts/states of this work.

Too often teachers shy away from issues because they are deemed sensitive or controversial. This program will show teachers that they can embrace these issues head on regardless of resources at their disposal.  The program presents a unique opportunity for schools to bridge racial, religious, and class divide that often exists between suburban and urban school districts in a manner that is cost effective regardless of budget. It also presents a flexibility that would allow schools which adopt the program to tailor it based upon the needs of their respective communities or in response to current events and world news of the moment.

The ultimate legacy of Bridges will be the relationships it creates between adults and children who likely would have never interacted were it not for the program despite living in neighboring communities. A more powerful impact Bridges will have is in shaping an enlightened student who is capable of seeing civic issues from the other side of the spectrum as well as mobilizing their views in a way that takes informed action.

From a social-emotional standpoint the program has met its intended goal from conception – creating relationships between students from different backgrounds through discussion and debate, and by creating lasting out of school relationships between students who often had not met someone unlike themselves before. Students socialize outside the program, and within the program find a voice for their growing identities, developing leadership roles, getting a chance to have a voice where in other forums they may feel “drowned out”, and planting the seed of activism by creating change in their own communities.

While Bridges is still in its infancy, the program has expanded with our second cohort of middle school students who began this work last year. Our first cohort are now high school sophomores and have begun to suggest ideas about what they can do to frame out and address issues in their local communities and beyond.

Bridges is no doubt ambitious in its scope and length of time until completion, so we have created several other district wide experiences that exemplify taking informed action. Several other examples of student activism in the Oceanside School District include “A Day Without,” a Driver and Pedestrian Safety Campaign, and the upcoming “World We Want Fair.”

At the heart of Bridges and these other programs is student voice and choice.  When student agency becomes the central focus and/or integral to one’s instructional practice students become empowered as change agents who actively seek out problems to solve, not waiting for someone (often adults) to tell them what to do.

by Ben Szczepanikby

In the New York Times in 1952, Joseph R. Toven, from Mount Vernon New York, wrote a response to an editorial about Senator Joseph McCarthy. He did not take kindly to the words that were said about the senator. He wrote, “Senator McCarthy has accomplished a great deal in awakening the sleeping minds of many Americans whose use of the newspaper was confined to the comics and the sports pages; he has succeeded in disillusioning many false idealists who thought no evil such as communism would dare to threaten our way of life” (Toven, 1952). One can feel his disdain for the New York Times for writing about the Senator and criticizing him. He said “Mr. McCarthy has made a rather great contribution toward the security of our country; at the expense of a few hurt prides, deflated egos, and flushed Reds, he has helped stem the disease that is communism. He has cried “wolf” justifiably and should be thanked-not damned” (Toven, 1952). This man has a clear love for McCarthy. A love and passion not only for him but also for what it best for his own country.

In today’s political society we see a polarization of Americans and their political party affiliation. As of the beginning of October 2019 Republicans and Republican leaners sit at 41% and Democrats and Democrat leaners sit at 48%. Leaving true independents at 11% (Gallup, 2019). While the true independents have increased since the poll began in January 2004 there is still a big divide between the two parties. What makes a big impact on these people who affiliate to one side are where they get their news from. 

Newspapers and news networks today often have a bias to one of the two political parties in America. When it comes to news networks, critics say CNN and MSNBC have a bias towards the Democratic Party while Fox News has a bias towards the Republican Party. With newspapers the New York Times and the Washington Post are more liberal and the Chicago Tribune is more conservative. Even in the 1950’s The Chicago Tribune supported the Republican Party and The New York Times favored the Democratic Party. Especially when it came to Senator Joseph McCarthy.

            Newspapers were able to observe McCarthy and his career as a senator and formulate opinions on him. Some of those opinions were pro-McCarthy and others were anti-McCarthy. the Chicago Tribune was biased towards McCarthy and the New York Times was biased against McCarthy. During certain events that involved McCarthy in the 50’s both newspapers would write a report on that said event and the reports would be polar opposites. For example, the censure hearings of 1954.

            In 1954 Ralph Flanders called for a debate in a censure of McCarthy and accused him that he was abusing his powers as senator (Stone, 2005. Pg. 1403). It was a very intense couple of weeks and tensions rose within the hearings. But on September 27, 1954 a six-member committee agreed to change the word from censure to condemn. Stone wrote, “McCarthy roared that he was the “victim” of a Communist conspiracy and that the Communist Party “has now extended its tentacles even to… the United States Senate” (Stone, 2005, 1403). More debates continued about the misuse of McCarthy’s power as Senator. “Following a nearly month of debate, the Senate on 2 December approved the censure resolution. By the decisive margin of 67 to 22, the Senate voted to condemn McCarthy for behavior that was contrary to senatorial traditions and ethics” (Raines, 1998, 14). After this censure hearing he was able to keep his Senate seat but his life as a politician started to decline till his death in 1957 (Raines, 1998,14).

Even after he had been condemned the Chicago Tribune still defended him from this censure. A reporter from the Tribune named Edwards defended him with gusto. “No evidence had been established to show that McCarthy “obstructed the processes of the senate,” as charged by the Watkins committee, the Dirksen amendment stated. Moreover, failure to move to bar McCarthy from his seat, in January, 1953, after his reelection in 1952, precluded senate consideration of his conduct in 1952, it continued” (Edwards, 1954). Even after he was voted out from the first censure count the Tribune defended him as if his tactics that he used as Senator were wrong.

The New York Times report seemed happy with the results of McCarthy being condemned in December of 1954. “In the ultimate action the Senate voted to condemn Senator McCarthy for contempt of a Senate Elections subcommittee that investigated his conduct and financial affairs, for abuse of its members, and for his insults to the Senate itself during the censure proceeding” (Leviero, 1954, 1). The results of this, according to McCarthy, had no effect on him. The times asked him an interesting question though after the last hearing. “He had referred to the session as a “lynch party” (Leviero, 1954, 1). Compared to a certain president it is interesting to see that another politician who called an event where people were against him and tried to get him out of his seat a Lynching. It is often said that history repeats itself. But it was Mark Twain that said “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.”

This is where opportunity knocks on the door. This could be a perfect lesson about what Americans are seeing on the news today about the possible impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. Both men are accused of abusing their power as a government official. The media was all over McCarthy in the 50’s and the media today is all over Trump as well. So why not take this opportunity to make a connection to the past and also to what is going on today?

The first step is to go over what exactly was McCarthy being accused of in 1954. Explain that he was accused of abusing his power as Senator when hunting for communists in the early 50’s. Then, giving out the articles from the Tribune and from the Times about the censure hearings of McCarthy in 1954 and comparing and contrasting them together to see what these two newspapers are reporting. Then, compare those articles to two modern day articles about the impeachment of President Trump. The next step is to address what exactly President Trump is accused of. Explain that he is accused of abusing his power as President. Then, hand out two modern-day news articles about the impeachment. One from Fox news, a conservative news network, titled Varney: Impeachment efforts boost Trump’s Chances in 2020. The other article from CNN, a liberal news network, titled Trump assaults facts to survive Impeachment. Then compare and contrast as to what both articles are talking about. After showing all of these articles to the students explain the overarching theme of Mark Twain. That history doesn’t repeat itself. But it does rhyme.

Social Studies teachers have an opportunity in their hands right now to really connect an event from the past to an event that is of similarity today. Opportunities like this don’t happen very often. So it is up to us as educators to grasp this moment in American history where we can teach them to make a connection from the past to what is going on the American government right now. It’s happening right in front of their eyes and it would be a wasted opportunity if social studies teachers did not use this to their advantage within the classroom.

References

Collinson, S. (2019, December 11). Trump assaults facts to survive impeachment. Retrieved December 11, 2019, from https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/11/politics/trump-impeachment-strategy/index.html.

Connor, F. (2019, December 10). Varney: Impeachment efforts boost Trump’s chances in 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2019, from https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/varney-democrats-made-huge-mistake.

Edwards, W. (1952, December 2).  “McCarthy censured, 67-20.” Chicago Daily Tribune. Retrieved from http://library.rider.edu:4048/login?url=https://athena.rider.edu:2278/docview/178834312?accountid=37385.

Gallup. (2019, October 31). Party affiliation. Gallup. Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx.

Toven, J.R. (1952, September 15).  Senator McCarthy praised. The New York Times, 15 Sept. 1952.

Leviero, A. (1954, December 3). Republicans Split. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/12/03/96511735.html?pageNumber=1.

Raines, R.R. (1998). The Cold War comes to Fort Monmouth: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and the search for spies in the Signal Corps.” Army History, 44 (14). Retrieved from http://athena.rider.edu:2111/stable/26304812.

Stone, G.R. (2005). Free speech in the age of McCarthy: A cautionary tale. California Law Review, 93 (5), 1403. 93, no. 5. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30038489

by Andy Beutel

War and terrorists. These were the two words my students most commonly associated with Islam, Muslims and the Middle East. Projected on the screen in the form of a word cloud that enlarges the most often repeated words, it was clear to all students that the majority of them had negative associations with Islam. Unfortunately, this is a trend I’ve seen year after year among my students.

I teach seventh grade social studies in a high-achieving public school district situated in an affluent, suburban, and conservative-leaning town in northern New Jersey. The school is somewhat diverse in relation to the neighboring school districts but the student body is nearly 80% white and the majority are Christian and from families earning a household income well above the state average. For most of the students, my class is their first exposure to contemporary social and political issues beyond what they have seen on social media or heard at home and this is especially the case with topics related to unfamiliar cultures and places.

One my overarching goals as a teacher is to help students think critically about the world in which they live or develop what Freire (1997) described as a “critical consciousness.” I seek to expose them to issues of social injustice like discrimination, war, and inequality and help them to analyze issues from multiple perspectives. I want them to be able to think beyond their bubble and understand their place in the broader society as it compares to those who are underserved. At the same time, I try to empower them with the skills to analyze societal challenges and consider creative ways those challenges could be addressed. However, as Swalwell (2013) noted, it is difficult to engage in this type of teaching with this population of students while avoiding the alienation of students and accusations of indoctrination from parents and administrators. To achieve this goal, I teach social studies by having students analyze different types of primary and secondary sources, synthesize information they are learning with their prior knowledge, write for conceptual understanding rather than factual regurgitation, and consider how the past is relevant to the present (Downey & Long, 2016).   

I approached the unit I teach on Islam and the Middle East through this lens. Out of my 110 students I taught last school year, only three were Muslim. I tried to teach in a way that valued the culture of those few students while also challenging the misconceptions and stereotypes of the majority of my students. As part of the introductory lesson, we discussed the differences between extremists and typical adherents to a religion and then students responded to an analogy comparing Muslims to ISIS with Christians to the Ku Klux Klan. My goal in my first lesson was simply to have students be willing and able to recognize that not all Muslims are terrorists.

From there, students learned about the history and beliefs of Islam. They analyzed the similarities and differences between Islam, Christianity and Judaism, the spread of Islam and its influence in parts of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. They studied the lasting contributions of Muslim civilizations and empires and saw how life in the Middle East one thousand years ago was a much different place than what they see and hear today. Unfortunately, I have found over my years of teaching world history that most of my students don’t develop empathy for people today by learning about people from the same place in the past.

I have consistently struggled with how to approach teaching the Middle East in the modern day in a way that helps them critically understand the issues while also challenging their negative assumptions about Muslims. Part of my goal is to help students understand the complexities of the conflicts and the involvement and culpability of the United States in those conflicts. Students are not wrong in associating the Middle East with war – for their entire lifetimes the US has been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and in recent years wars in Syria and Yemen. Even as I write this there is speculation of the US starting a war with Iran. But the students need to understand that most people living in these places are simply trying to go to school, work, have families, and live their lives free of violence and persecution (much like people in their own country). To that end, I approached this part of the unit differently than in previous years. Rather than focusing solely on current events articles and video clips, I had students read part of a young adult fiction book.

The book is called Refugee and it was written by Alan Gratz and published in 2017. The book is broken into three separate but similar stories of refugee children set in different times and places. The story I assigned to my students was about a fictionalized 12-year-old Syrian boy and his family who fled the war in Syria in 2015 and journeyed as refugees to Germany. The story integrates information that the students learned in class including the geography of the Middle East, religious and cultural aspects of Islam, and the conflict in Syria. Additionally, the book raised key questions about topics we explored throughout the year such as migration, war, and human rights. Finally, I thought reading this book would help students empathize with people who have different life experiences from their own, specifically refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East as well as those seeking asylum at the southern border in the United States. Ultimately, my hope was that by reading this story it would help to de-otherize marginalized refugees of color for my white, non-marginalized students.

            During each class period over the course of seven days, students read parts of the story, responded to reflection questions, and engaged in a critical discussion with their peers. As hooks (1994) asserted, when all students are actively engaged in critical reflection and dialogue with others it helps them better understand themselves and their world. Some of the topics students discussed included the idea of loss, the complexity and effects of living in a place at war, living without a home, how refugees are viewed by others, and the criminalization and imprisonment of refugees. Students also considered decisions made by the characters like leaving one’s home country and entering a country illegally. After finishing the story, the culminating questions I asked the students were:

• Do you think refugees (people fleeing their home country due to persecution, war or violence) should be free to move to a country of their choice? Why or why not?
• Do you think countries that are wealthy, free and relatively safe (like the US, Canada and many in Western Europe) should be taking in more refugees? Why or why not?  

In the end, there were quite a few students who wrote responses^[1] that demonstrated empathy and support for refugees, including a desire for their own country to do more for these people. For example, in response to the first question about whether refugees should be free to move to a new country, Amelia wrote: “Yes because nobody owns a country and if someone wants to live there they can.” Similarly, Sydney wrote: “Yes I do believe that refugees should be free to move to a country of their choice because I feel like they should be able to be free and have their own choices.” Responding to the second question about whether countries like the US should be taking in more refugees, Megan emphatically stated, “Yes! If we can take in more refugees, we should! Reading this story made me realize the hardships they have to go through. I think it is absurd to have a law banning refugees from Syria. These people are just trying to find a home, and it’s ridiculous to ban them.” This group of students represents those with the most support for refugees. However, not all students adopted this perspective.

Many students wrote responses indicating some empathy and support for refugees but with conditions and limitations. For instance, Abby reached this conclusion: “From reading this book, I learned just how hard it is for people to have freedom. I gained a new understanding on all the Mexicans trying to come in. Although I still don’t want them in, I feel bad. I think that refugees should be able to have freedom but don’t be waiting for months to get into my country.” Here, it is clear that Abby developed empathy for refugees but is not willing to go the next step and see her country support and honor the freedom of refugees.  Mike wrote in response to the question about freedom of movement: “I believe it shouldn’t be free, but based on the refugee’s assets and how useful they are to the country.” Mike was rather ambivalent to the plight of refugees on a human level but saw the question of entry into a country through a utilitarian lens, only wanting people to come into a country if they add value for the people already living there. Both of these responses reveal some sympathy for refugees but also a view of the United States as belonging to them as American citizens rather than others seeking entry.  

A handful of students remained obstinate in their completely negative view of refugees. The most obvious example of this is Sarah who wrote in response to the question about whether refugees should be free to move to a new country: “No. They could be carrying diseases and spreading them throughout all different countries. They could also be terrorists so there should be a background check. Lastly, some people could be spies working for enemies.” This response is disappointing on several levels but further justifies correcting misinformation among our students and emphasizing the importance of facts and evidence to guide our views.

On balance, the majority of students both enjoyed and learned from the book study. For example, Nicole said, “On a scale of 1-5, I would give it a 5 because usually I don’t like reading books but this was different. I loved this. I think it fits right into social studies and we should read more like this. I learned that life could be crazy and a big journey especially for kids my age too. I gained new insights and perspectives by reading this book.” Nicole was a struggling student all year but this activity enabled her to better access the information about refugees and make personal connections to the content. While the analysis of non-fiction texts is essential to the teaching of social studies, this response validates the integration of fictional texts as a supplemental resource. This book in particular was ideal for in-class reading with my seventh grade students. The late elementary/early middle school reading level allowed my struggling readers to be successful and the two other refugee stories in the book created a built-in supplemental activity for my stronger readers.

            After the book study, students completed an inquiry-based research project as a final assessment for the unit. They had the choice of focusing on either cultural practices and misunderstandings, countries in conflict, activism, or refugees in the Middle East today. Many students chose to learn more about refugees after reading the book. Through the project, students were able to dig deeper into their topic of choice through focused research. As part of the assignment, students wrote reflective responses about why they chose the topic they did and how they are affected by the issue. Hannah wrote the following in her reflection:

“Syrian refugees really interests me because before I did this project I saw Syrian refugees as terrorist (sic). But after I did this project I know now everything they go through. This affects me because now I won’t take anything for granted. For example, I am able to go out with my friends without my parents being worried about me getting shot or something bad. But Syrias (sic) can’t even leave their house for two minutes without getting asked to recruit or getting shot or having an air missile dropped on them. This also affects me because illegal Syrian refugees have been coming into our country for the wrong reasons and killing legal people in our country. This could affect me because the person that they could decide to hurt could be someone that I love and care about.”

This single response captures both the possibilities and limitations of critical teaching and learning in an affluent, suburban, majority-white public school setting. Hannah began the year with strongly negative views of Muslims and refugees but through the book study and research project she developed a more nuanced and empathetic view of refugees. However, despite that new perspective, her default was still to assume that Syrian refugees are a threat to the country and her family.

            For nearly all of my students, the issues of war and human rights are far-removed from their everyday lives. For that reason, the social studies classroom is an invaluable space for critically engaging with these questions and topics and confronting the racial stereotypes that permeate our society. Progress on this front is both necessary and possible through the use of carefully-selected texts, student-centered research projects, guided dialogue and reflective writing.

References

Downey, M. T., & Long, K. A. (2016). Teaching for historical literacy building knowledge in the history classroom. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of the oppressed (Revised 20th anniversary ed). New York: Continuum. (Original work published in 1970).

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.

Swalwell, K. (2013). Educating activist allies: Social justice pedagogy with the suburban and urban elite. New York, NY: Routledge.

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^[1] All student names have been changed to ensure privacy.