Departments

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teaching history

  • SOURCE: Texas Observer
    6/21/2023

    Texas's History is Under Ideological Attack—from the Right

    by John R. Lundberg

    A retired oil billionaire is trying to wrest control of the Texas State Historical Association from professional historians because they no longer support a vision of the state's history that gives white Anglo settlers pride of place in a diverse state. 

  • SOURCE: PEN America
    6/13/2023

    PEN Condemns Censorship in Removal of Coates's Memoir from AP Course

    Several students reported their teacher using terms that mirrored the language of the state law—claiming the lesson "made them ashamed to be Caucasian"—resulting in the school board's decision to remove the book from an Advanced Placement Language course. 

  • SOURCE: SPLC Learning for Justice
    6/12/2019

    Teaching Hard Histories Through Juneteenth

    A celebration of freedom should put the work of the people who fought and struggled to achieve it at the center; thinking of freedom as something achieved instead of something granted. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    5/31/2023

    Can We Solve the Civics Education Crisis?

    by Glenn C. Altschuler and David Wippman

    Universal schooling created the potential for a unifying civic curriculum that, paradoxically, has been the subject of perpetual disagreement regarding its contents. A recent bipartisan roadmap for civics education that makes those disagreements central to the subject matter may be the only way to move forward. 

  • SOURCE: New York Magazine
    5/30/2023

    The Other Mothers Fighting the School Wars

    Although Moms For Liberty was the early entrant into the current battles over curriculum, race and LGBTQ policies in schools, other groups have mobilized their identities as mothers to fight the right's efforts. Historians Adam Laats and Stacie Taranto note that school politics have often hinged on who could leverage motherhood as a political force. 

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    5/23/2023

    Scholars Stage Teach-in on Racism in DeSantis's Back Yard

    Yohuru Williams and the Institute for Common Power, directed by Terry Anne Scott, convened a 24-hour teach-in in St. Petersburg to draw attention to the connections between inclusive history lessons and functioning democracy. 

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    5/18/2023

    American Students Deserve Better than the AP System

    Annie Abrams: "If we want to expand access to college, why aren’t we doing that by employing Ph.D.s? If we want to support high school teachers and strengthen curriculum, why aren’t we fostering collaboration? Instead, we’re outsourcing that work."

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    5/22/2023

    "Return to Rigor" Isn't the Answer to Restoring Student Engagement

    by Kevin Gannon

    A post-COVID reaction to the improvisations made on grades, schedules and deadlines supposes that students are suffering from too much flexibility, but a singular focus on rigor won't address the causes of disengagment. 

  • 5/21/2023

    Forget "Finding Forrester"—Our Best Teaching Can Be Ordinary

    by Elizabeth Stice

    Hollywood loves to tell the stories of singularly brilliant students pushed to greatness by similarly singular mentors with unconventional methods and unaccommodating personalities. This ideal won't help anyone teach the real students in their classrooms. 

  • SOURCE: CNN
    5/15/2023

    I'm Headed to Florida to Teach-In Against DeSantis's Education Policies

    by Kellie Carter Jackson

    This May 17 saw a 24-hour teach-in by historians in St. Petersburg, Florida, to protest the restrictions on curriculum, books and ideas pushed by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies. As a historian of abolition, the author stresses that denying people the pen may influence them to pick up the sword. 

  • SOURCE: Daily Beast
    5/17/2023

    Florida Just Banned Everything I Teach

    by William Horne

    Black historians during the Jim Crow era observed that the history taught in schools justified slavery, segregation, and lynching. A professor thinks that's where Ron DeSantis's vision of history is headed. Some politicians may think curriculum is a winning issue, but students and society will lose. 

  • SOURCE: NC Newsline
    5/15/2023

    North Carolina Introduces its own History Bill; Historians Call Foul

    State legislators say they are ensuring that students at North Carolina colleges are taught core concepts in American history. Historians Jay Smith and William Sturkey argue that, since the legislature would determine the content of a mandatory course it amounts to indoctrination and token coverage of Black history. 

  • SOURCE: Galveston Daily News
    5/3/2023

    Wealthy Texas Activist Sues President of State's Historical Association

    The suit by J.P. Bryan, a retired oilman and the executive director of the private Texas State Historical Association, which produces many important educational materials, claims that the board has too many academics and is too critical of the Anglo settlers of the state. Historian Nancy Baker Jones, the TSHA President, is the principal target. 

  • SOURCE: New York Review of Books
    5/2/2023

    1776 vs. 1619: Hillsdale College Enters the History Wars

    by Adam Hochshild

    If conservatives are against "woke" history education, what, exactly, are they for? There's much to be learned from the curriculum created by the Michigan christian college, which presents a jarring contrast with the themes presented in the new Hulu documentary series based on Nikole Hannah-Jones's 1619 Project.