The Positive Use of Culture in the Classroom

I define culture as a specific set of beliefs that are inherent to a population and expressed through such modalities as religion, artistic expression, oral tradition, education and common goals and values.

I define ethnicity as a connection based on common hereditary or cultural ties.

I define diversity as the distinction made between one thing and another.

I am a part of many different cultures:

I am a working MOTHER

I am a STUDENT

I am a TEACHER

I am a UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST

As a working mother I belong to a culture that shares the common goal of providing income for her family, as well as a safe and nurturing home life for her children.

As a student I belong to a culture that is striving to make a better tomorrow for itself. I am working towards a goal of increased knowledge, self confidence and the ability to give back to society.

As a teacher I belong to a diverse culture with the common goal of educating our most precious commodities: children. I strive to bridge ethnic divides and build roads to a future where all student cultures can work together towards the betterment of humanity.

As a Unitarian Universalist I belong to religious culture that strives to live the following principles in order to realize a more perfect world:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
The cultures that I identify with will have a varied impact on my expectations for my students and for me as a teacher.

As a mother I have cultivated a strong sense of nurturing, and am particularly in tune to Maslow’s Deficiency Needs for all people. In my classroom I hope to provide a safe environment where children can feel free to explore without the fear of reproach. I hope to understand from what environment my students are coming to me from and how I can encourage them to do their personal best.

As a member of the student culture I am not a stranger to the uncertainty that can surround a person when they are about to learn a new subject or engage in new social situations. I understand that it can be difficult to concentrate when you don’t know your teacher or classmates very well. I also understand that the way one student learns is not necessarily the way another does and I would strive to create lessons that entertain many learning modalities and that are sensitive to ethno-cultural diversity.

Within the teacher culture I have learned that one of the most difficult jobs a teacher faces is not to pigeonhole students. In the adult education classes I once taught, my student body consisted of prisoners, retirees, single parent welfare recipients, and students from isolated rural communities. There is an ill-conceived notion surrounding these types of students, suggesting that they were unable to grasp the material due to their backgrounds. This is nothing more than a cultural bias that has been perpetuated throughout history. It is my belief as a teacher that there is golden potential in everyone and the ability to succeed is directly related to the type of encouragement and tools given to the individual.

As a member of the Unitarian Universalist culture I have developed a strong sense of moral conviction to see every man, woman and child as equally good and worthy of all of life’s bounty. I strive to follow the principles in every aspect of my daily life, especially in my teaching. As a teacher with a spiritual background that is rich in democratic justice and respect for all living things, I hope to create a class environment that upholds each student as a precious individual capable of great things. I hope to show my students that their diversity is what makes the world beautiful and that their uniqueness is a gift to honor and share.

In the fall I will look out amongst those glorious faces in my classroom and recognize the tapestry that will become our class “family.” As I make note of the rich cultural and ethnic diversity of our group, I will begin to plan a year that takes time to understand and celebrate these differences in ways that promote pride and tolerance. As the year progresses I will share personal stories and listen to theirs, allowing the students to know that I care about who they are and where they are coming from. We all feel safer and happier when we believe we are understood. My goal as a teacher will be to understand, to acknowledge, and to uphold and to cherish.

Thoughts on my hero, John Dewey, and the Progressive School Movement

“I believe that education…is a process of living and not a preparation for future living” – John Dewey

John Dewey was an American Philosopher and Educational Reformer who was inspired by the Pragmatists of the late 1800s. He initiated a philosophy of education broadly known as Progressivism and practiced his theories in his Laboratory School at the University of Chicago. Chief to his philosophy was the conviction that schools become an extension of home and vice versa.

Dewey felt that the making and eating of breakfast was a familial activity that acted as a great bounding off spot for further lessons in social interactions. The two major tenets of the progressive philosophy were continuity and interaction. With the preparation of breakfast the students were addressing continuity, which allowed that each experience be nurtured by a previous experience; thus lending itself to gradual learning. With the interaction principle, Dewey’s students would have been challenged to look at every experience as one to be revised, adapted or refused all together if new information proved it to be false. When students prepare their own breakfast they will learn mistakes, such as not enough milk in oatmeal makes it too lumpy or a high toaster setting burns bread.

On a little side note, it always irks me when I hear people complain about the free and reduced lunch programs in the public school system. Dewey’s first understood that the hierarchy of needs must be met first (i.e., breakfast for hungry children) and then used the fulfillment of that particular need as a conduit for positive learning experiences. Children require food and shelter before they can move on to complexities such as knowledge acquisition. Yes, there are people who cheat and milk the system and they deserve karmic retribution for doing so, but their children should not fall victim to the sins of the father or mother. When children are in school they should feel safe and have full bellies.

The Progressive curriculum sought not to set specific standards, but to teach to a child’s desire to learn within their natural environment. It sought to be child-centered, with the teacher guiding all learning through peer teaching, small group work and continuous opportunities for interaction with the community at large. It believed that every child should develop a deep moral commitment to society. The curriculum should never introduce subjects abruptly just because it has been previously mandated that studies such as reading and writing should be mastered by a certain age. Cooking, sewing, and manual training should be part of the curriculum, as they were important parts of a child’s daily experience.

If you’ve taken a close look at the education best practices of the day, you’ll see Dewey stamped all over them. It took us 100 years to come full circle when we could have just stayed on the same path and continued to perfect these time honored ideas and solutions. Education spends a lot of time and effort breaking things that work, while ignoring things that are already broken. Having just finished teaching Physics to children, who for the most part, had never heard of the curriculum concepts in their lives, I can tell you how counterintuitive it is to introduce something abruptly! It sets children up for failure, as there is little foundation for them to get their footing on before we are testing them on abstract concepts and moving on. I am in favor of a spiral curriculum that integrates the sciences every year. After all, science does not exist in a vacuum. Physics cannot be grasped without Chemistry and Chemistry stands on the shoulders of biology. Earth Science teaches integral lessons about systems, as does astronomy. The sciences are happy bedfellows, yet we insist on isolating them from each other and feeding them whole to rightfully scared students!

Dewey felt that the curriculum should build on a child’s past experiences, while enriching his social life. Progressive educators shared a conviction that a democracy meant that all citizens would be actively engaged in social, political, and economic decisions that affected their lives. Therefore, they believed that a curriculum that taught children how to build upon everyday experiences through critical thought and testing would create a better world. There is still a lot of talk about critical thinking skills going on today, but no one seems to figure out how to incorporate it into the curriculum. I offer that it is not something that should be looked at as an offering to the curriculum – but instead as the only way that the curriculum is delivered. We should never tell students how to think. Not when they’re 3 and in preschool and not when they’re 16. There should be a lifelong commitment on the parts of parents and educators to promote an environment of discovery, where mistakes are as vital as successes. We are behind in education in our nation not because we don’t have the ability to master content, because we manage to do that once we figure out how to take tests, but because our children fail at critical thinking. In our global economy those who know how to innovate will be the leaders of tomorrow and those that only know how to wait around for the instructions will be left in the shadows.

Dewey’s idea was to make the curriculum as experiential as possible. The teacher was to guide the student through developmentally appropriate familiar activities that promoted social awareness, and to then encourage them to apply their knowledge outside of the classroom with meaningful connections to the community. The teacher should understand the uniqueness of each child’s experiences and guide every student individually, while maintaining a strong classroom community. Understandably, this isn’t an easy task in the modern classroom. Progressive educators of old were not dealing with the same standardized tests, countless learning programs, demanding parents, administrators with their hands tied or NCLB. However, all teachers should at least recognize this as part of their job description and work a little each day to make their classrooms into families. Dewey knew what types of homes children of the depression were likely coming from. Those homes still exist today. In my group of 90 students I had one anorexic, three whose parents were dying of cancer, 1 removed because of abuse, 5 on anti-depression medication, 2 whom had recently lost a parent and 7 who were suffering because of their parents very nasty divorces. These were the children I KNEW about.

The purpose for the Progressive School was to provide a place where all children could be developed socially and emotionally, regardless of their personal backgrounds, and recognized for their individual talents and creativity. When children are developed in such a way that they approach each situation with a critical mind and perseverance for truth they are able to interact with society in ways that can change the world. I believe this whole heartedly and will wave my Dewey flag high in hopes of attracting others to the good fight.

Thoughts on Inclusion in the Classroom

Teaching is an incredibly difficult job when done well. Classrooms are like societal microcosms, requiring teachers to not only be at the top of their game concerning academic standards, but also to be sharp interpreters of all types of personalities, cultural differences and learning styles. Given that all of this is taking place in a school that is most likely up against a wall when it comes to test results and funding issues, it’s hard to imagine adding one more thing to the mix. Yet, I would argue that a teacher is not fulfilling their professional promise when he or she is not embracing inclusion in his or her classroom.

Where do you begin? How do you integrate all the appropriate adaptabilities into the classroom without detracting from advanced learners? How do you engage advanced learners without your lessons being at the expense of children with learning disabilities? An even more important question that has come up for me is why have I chosen to teach in the first place, if not to meet the challenge of giving every child the best chance to succeed? There are small groups, visual aids, ideal classroom environment, and all the other countless ways to differentiate material, but even more importantly, the children need to be taught how to be in balance with one another, regardless of learning and social abilities. When children realize that they are all there for each other, the journey becomes richer for all.

Teachers admit that it takes a lot more work to have an inclusive classroom. The level of organization that is needed is very high, and the ability to field curve balls is tantamount. Finding the extra time is difficult. Teachers are so often relegated to “teaching to the test” that all they’re planning time gets eaten up in preparation for exams. Clearly, if inclusion is to truly work, it will take a definitive team effort between teachers and administrators. When inclusion works it’s an amazing model of how education can uphold all children. When it doesn’t work however, it’s nothing short of chaotic, and can be devastating to the educator who is trying their best to make it happen. Therefore, Principals must understand that if teachers are to be successful in inclusive classrooms they will need extra time for planning, a strong system of moral support, extending training as often as possible, a grounded connection to all of their student’s parents, and access to as many learning tools as the school can provide.

The part of me that is a teacher, the part that is attracted to this profession on a deep, spiritual level, knows that inclusion is a necessity. Inclusionary practices make me a better teacher. An inclusion classroom turns out students who are more tolerant, socially aware, and equitable in all of their endeavors. That, of course, leads to a better society, where we embrace each others differences and experience everyone from the opinion that they have something to teach us. Ultimately, preparing students to live well in the world should be the goal of every teacher, so inclusion, and all that it stands for, becomes a contract for a better world.

Thoughts on How to Honor Culture in the Classroom

Creating a classroom environment that accepts and encourages all the cultures of the students is a job that requires a lot of patience and understanding. A teacher must really get to know what backgrounds her students are bringing into the class’s melting pot. When cultures are respected, taught, and understood, a classroom becomes a wonderfully diverse family that learns the important lesson of tolerance. Many older children have already formed cultural biases and overcoming them will be a special challenge. They also will have moved pass many of the culturally specific hands-on activities used by elementary teachers. The key then will be, to motivate them in ways that they can relate to. I feel that a few good motivational tools that would allow a student to open up about their culture without putting them in an awkward “expert” position would be the use of poetry and music, and the discussion of heroes that aren’t a part of traditional American Ideology.

Free form journaling or expressive writing such as poetry, are excellent tools for both the student and the teacher. Many years ago I had an English professor that had us write in our journals everyday. She collected them each week to make sure that the work was there and also to provide encouraging comments about our entries. The only rule she had was that we always had to write one paragraph of four or more sentences. Sometimes she would assign something particular to journal about and other days we were free to do stream of consciousness writing. I recently found those journals and was amazed at what a great tool they had been for my professor to really get to know her students. Each assigned writing task had asked us to probe topics such as religion, past educational experiences, our home lives and what we perceived as our place within society. Even for the times that I chose to only write one paragraph in my journal, the entries were rich with information about where I had come from thus far. I can tell from my passages that the exercises were cathartic, giving me a chance to explain things that had either been stereotyped about me or had simply been ignored or misunderstood. I would definitely use the tool of expressive writing as a way to understand the many cultures of my students.

Music has always been freeing to me and I’ve found it to be a bridge when I’m relating to adolescents. When I taught an eighth grade Coming of Age class at my Church and found that sharing my love of music with my students provided an excellent opportunity to learn about their cultures. I had one student who loved punk rock music from the seventies. When I asked her how she was introduced to it she told me her Mother had been a rock and roll correspondent for a magazine, and that response led to an in depth conversation about how her Mother’s work had been a major influence in creating the culture in which the student had grown up in. When another student observed this interaction, she asked me if I knew any Iranian music. I had heard of some, but didn’t know it in depth. When I asked her if she was familiar with it, she told me yes, because her father was Iranian. I hadn’t known this fact before. I asked her to bring in a cd to share, and this sharing during another class period facilitated a great discussion about culture and music involving the whole class. Music also can be the voice for students who aren’t as open in class. They may not be able to verbalize what they are thinking, but they are happy to have lyrics describe their dreams and fears. Using music as a teacher requires the ability to go past the “noise” and get to the heart of what is being said. Sometimes in adolescence a “mixed tape” can be a window into that child’s soul.

I think that it is also extremely important to highlight American heroes or visionaries that aren’t your typical European males or from the stock group of women and African Americans. We live in a country whose tapestry was put together with thousands of multicultural threads. The amount of societal contributions that goes unsung is astounding. In a tapestry, the threads are woven tightly together, so why is it that we insist on highlighting certain cultures with a separate month instead of integrating everyone’s stories into our daily lexicons? I suppose “honor months” are a step in the right direction, but they are far less than what we should be doing to highlight our rich cultural past. On any given day we should be teaching our children about people such as Subramnyan Chandrasekhar, an American East Indian who won a Nobel Laureate in Physics in 1997 or Ellen Ochoa, a female Hispanic astronaut who flew on many important shuttle missions. The list of possibilities is as varied as the students in any given classroom, and more so. If students hear about people from their cultures that have made positive and lasting contributions to society I think they will be filled with the kind of pride that generates sharing. Culturally diverse children should be given the same opportunities to relate to heroes that Caucasian children have always had.

As a teacher, I desire to keep my eyes and ears open for the cultural cues that will allow me to create an accepting and engaging classroom. I understand that sometimes the cues aren’t forthcoming and I will have to employ gentle tactics that allow my children to share without the fear of someone expecting them to know everything. By incorporating writing lessons, sharing music, and highlighting “the uncommon heroes” of American culture, I believe I could leave the door open to the kind of interactions that bring a greater sense of belonging to everyone in the classroom family.

Being a Caring Centered Multiculturist Teacher in a Standards Based Environment

The idea of being a Caring Centered Multiculturist Teacher is definitely appealing. When reading the definition of such a teacher it is apparent that this method of teaching requires a lot of consistency and the willingness to fail before succeeding. While I fully believe that people, especially children, are good and capable of having loving interactions with others; I’m also aware of the many outside factors that would affect a student before they ever made it into a caring centered classroom. These factors could work in negative ways that would make it difficult for the student to be immediately receptive to this teaching approach. However, if a teacher believes that change is possible and continues to cut through the negativity and misunderstandings, he or she can create a learning environment that honors honesty, trust, positive relationships and a compassionate curriculum.

I place myself in the caring centered category because it is very reflective of how I strive to live my own life. Of the principles I live by, the ones that resonate most with me are respect for the interdependent web of life, the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings, “justice, equity and compassion in human relations”, and “the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.” These principles aren’t always easy in rough times, but because these are hard days it is all the more important that people work towards justice, tolerance and peace. These lessons should not only be reflected at home, but by teachers as well. Children spend the better part of their weekdays in school, so it is the responsibility of all those they come in contact with in the school environment to be working towards the goals of caring centered multiculturism.

I used to work for an online University that has many prisoners as students. I had a good deal of prisoners enrolled in my Paralegal course. Working with prisoners made me even more aware of how important it is for a teacher to be sensitive to the backgrounds of his or her students. So many juveniles that wind up incarcerated were in environments that were the exact opposite of caring centered. While I am not justifying their reasons for imprisonment, I do think that if many of them had grown up in a more positive, equitable environment they would have had more of a fighting chance to live well within the world. Many of my prisoners were bright and eager to learn. They responded well to my encouragement and were appreciative of the time I took to listen to their academic concerns. I often question, “If all children had the opportunity to having caring centered teachers throughout their academic careers, would we really see so many drop outs, or juveniles in corrective facilities?” I have to answer that while it is a problem in need of more than one solution, the idea of all children experiencing care, support, and respect in their learning atmospheres certainly would be a tremendous help.

The Assimilationist and Human Relations teachers base their classrooms on societal conformity and the traditional acquisition of knowledge. These teachers are more comfortable being the authority figure. The Human Relations teacher will go one step further than the Assimilationist to get his or her students to be respectful of each other and of themselves. Social Action Multiculturist and Caring Centered Multiculturist teachers are similar in that they place a high value on justice and equitable relationships. They value the democratic process and a curriculum that is expressive of all cultural groups. Where the Caring Centered teacher goes one step further is in the overall approach to the style. Caring centered teachers seem to be gentler in their presentation, being more approachable and perhaps less political.

Caring Centered teachers are set apart from all the others in that their approach to teaching remains foremost about the child. While the curriculum seeks to impart lessons of honor and compassion, the teacher does not let this agenda get in the way of his or her students’ needs. They do this by being easy to talk to, good listeners, sensitive to a student’s life experiences, and knowledgeable of the students’ personal cultural experiences. In this way, the student feels comfortable enough to participate fully, as they are having all their needs, not just their academic ones, met.

I love the idea of caring centered teaching. I think that it is a difficult task, but I don’t think it’s an idealistic one. It may sound so because we have moved so far away from the core of what caring really looks like that we’ve become skeptical. Ten minutes in a caring centered classroom would change the minds of even the most hardcore non-believers. Getting a classroom to be caring centered could be a long uphill road, but one worth traveling down because of the rich reward of the happy, creative, compassionate children that could be waiting on the other side of the hill.

Reflecting on History Education – as a student and a teacher

As I begin this reflection of my personal experiences with History Education, I am sitting on the front porch of a preserved 1920’s sharecropper’s shack in Greenwood, Mississippi. The shack is part of a group of 5 others that were donated from old plantations around the state. The aim of the project is to deepen peoples understanding of a particular aspect of the cultural landscape of early 20th century southern history. There are cotton fields planted near up to the front door and then again for a mile beyond the back door down to the Tallahatchie River. My 9 year old son is running through the light rain on his return from hunting animal tracks in the rich delta mud. We are here, not because I particularly wanted to sleep in a renovated three room shack for the night, but because my son Dax wanted to know more about Blues music. The majority of Delta Blues musicians came from humble beginnings in shacks such as these. I have come to know that in order to understand the past one must understand the culture and narratives of history’s players. I knew that the closer I could bring Dax to the stories of the blues musicians, the better chance I would have of engaging him in impactful experiential learning.

The history of Blues music is a rich tapestry that was first woven by African American slaves on Plantations in the Deep South. The music comes out of hardship and yearning, small joys and deep spirituality. The Blues responded to the hardships of the Great Depression in a visceral way that spoke to so many people struggling in the Delta after “King Cotton” was knocked off his throne. Because I know that Blues music does not exist in a vacuum, and because I know that history needs to be experienced outside of a textbook to be purposeful, I have brought my son to a place where he can “live history.” As he is seeing and touching, he is asking questions. The answers to these questions have lead to discussions that allow Dax to make associations and obtain new learning. Since he is coming by his knowledge in this fashion, I believe that the next time Dax listens to the lyrics of a favorite Blues song he will have a richer experience due to his layered understanding of the music’s origins. He will be able to make connections to historically significant events, such as the realities of sharecropping and the Great Depression, in a way that is meaningful to him.

Perhaps I understand that the past is most appreciated when it can be experienced through the senses because I grew up in the lap of history on a mountain farm in Northern New Jersey. I knew that the Lenni Lenape Indians had once hunted on the land that was my back yard. As a child I would go on “archaeological expeditions” to find arrowheads and other artifacts. My mother would take us out to the creek and talk to us about the Indian spear fishing, and then she’d let us try it for ourselves. I also grew up knowing that in 1777, General George Washington had stopped at a place right down the street from my house called Washington Rock, to monitor British Troop movements. At some point, Washington and his men had marched through the land that was my backyard on their way to the winter encampment in nearby Morristown, NJ. My father used to send me and the neighborhood kids out into the pasture to practice marching and camping out under the stars while he told of famous Revolutionary War battles. I never forgot how much fun it was to find dress up clothes around the house and pretend to be soldiers on our long march. This was learning that involved imagination and play, not just the memorizing of and regurgitation of facts. This is the education that has stayed with me some thirty years later.

I was very fortunate to go to schools that valued inquiry based learning. Throughout my education I remembered history classes being vibrant and relevant. When I was very small I remember learning that the Lenni Lenape Indians had used the trails behind our school to go back and forth to the Passaic River. Our teacher brought us out to those same trails and we broke branches off of a birch tree and tasted them. She explained how the Indians had also chewed on the birch branches. I remember running home to tell my parents about chewing on a tree branch the way that Indians had done a long time ago. Since I had been given a chance to “put myself in the scene”, so to speak, this learning experience became embedded in my psyche and made me enthusiastic to find out more about the Lenni Lenapes. I wondered what else they did that I could experience. As I got older I remember having to do lots of projects in social studies classes. The teacher did not provide a list of projects and ask us to choose one. Instead, she would ask us what from the unit we were interested in exploring further, allowing each of us to take ownership of our projects. This approach not only resulted in well presented material, but also students that were proud of themselves and excited about what they had learned.

As I got older and was able to be both critical and analytical in my thinking, I recall my history instruction beginning to try to make sense of things. In much the same way that Physics tries to explain how and why things work, a study of history sought to explain why things happened and what the consequences of those events were. As I mentioned earlier, history is about connections. Humanity is inexplicably connected. Our actions as nations, cities and individuals have had and will continue to have a major impact on the shape of the world. I clearly remember my 9th grade History teacher, Mr. DiGanci, having us read an article that described the “butterfly effect.” The article explained how the flap of a butterfly’s wing in Indonesia could affect the weather half way around the world. He then said that studying history was a way to understand and appreciate the connectivity of the world. He taught us that negative events, such as wars, were not isolated, and that positive events could change lives on a global scale. Mr. DiGanci had the knack of teaching at our level. He related everything he could to our very modern lives. He encouraged us to see patterns and similarities, and always, always to ask “why?” and “how?”.

I also recall Mr. Schmeiser, who had a totally different approach to Social Studies education. He thought that art, music, and games were the best ways to learn history. We made up songs to remember everything from capitals to oceans. Even though we were teenagers, we appreciated his unbridled joy at singing out the Presidential candidates running the year Lincoln was elected. I remember painting geographical murals and playing a lot of trivia games. You couldn’t help but want to learn what Mr. Schmeiser was teaching, as he clearly sent the message that history was fun and alive. Students don’t easily forget using their bodies to try to form continents faster than the other group, or participating in debates as famous people from the past.

All of my past experiences in history education have shown me that history can be fun, informative, and relevant when presented in a multi-sensory manor that encompasses all of Gardiner’s intelligences. Textbook-only learning is a stale remnant of back to basics history lessons. History is happening all around us; all the time. While a good text is certainly an integral aid to learning, nothing can beat a student experiencing history through the full range of his or her senses. There is so much to see, hear, smell, taste and touch!

Our city of Atlanta and the surrounding metro areas are excellent resources for teachers who want to show their students actual historical evidence. Why just read about the intriguing Etowah Indian mounds when you can go visit them? The height and grandeur of these early structures can’t be fully comprehended and appreciated in two dimensions. In kind, pictures of artifacts can never replace the chance to see a real mummy’s tomb or the chance to use an ancient mortal and pestle to grind corn.

History can not be considered without culture. The very food that people eat has, at times, determined the direction of civilizations. Students should have the chance to learn about the culinary histories of various countries through the experience of preparing, sharing and eating native cuisine. While they sit down for a communal meal, perhaps the teacher might read a folktale from the country being studied, or play indigenous music. The students might dress in native costume. This approach makes history tangible to all learners.

I know that I have been fortunate in my history education. I have heard many tales of students bored to tears by the subject. To many, the study of history is a long string of seemingly random dates and wars, coupled with a heady dose of speeches made by old, dead, white men. Yet, history itself is anything but random. The past is a giant jigsaw puzzle, that when pieced together, not only explains previous events, but holds instructions for the future. To conceive where we’re headed, we must first understand where we’ve been. We need to tell the stories, see and feel the evidence and experience the cultures with all of our senses; letting history “get down into our bones.” As teachers, we need to understand that knowing the official start date and Major Generals of the Civil War can never be as important as understanding the reasons why the war was fought in the first place, or the way it affected and still affects the lives of Americans. We have to set lessons loose from the restrictive pages of books, so that students can have ample chances to come face to face with history. We also need to let students become historical detectives and discover the facts in meaningful ways, instead of feeding them the evidence in a long stream of exposition. Finally, we need to respect the students’ abilities to have meaningful discussions about the decisions and consequences of the past, so that they might become critical, global thinkers who understand how vital their own ideas and actions are to the unwritten future.