I only have four classes and an advisory this year, I got a little help on the schedule as I took on other responsibilities. So not having students until almost 10:30 was a different experience for me.
The first assignment was to “draw America at its inception”. An activity I picked up from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s book An Indigenous people's history of the United States. I was very impressed with My first class’s response. with few exceptions most students caught the instructions and attempted to draw the 13 colonies. My other blocks not so much. It provided for some fun discussion and brought Home a critical point of historical study, “what happened before matters”. This is an exercise in unconscious buas and erasure. The America you and I know did not come into its physical borders until the very end of the 19th Century. Its easy for us to miss all that came before if we don’t make an effort to see what we aren’t shown.
The exercise also provides the perfect jumping off point for My focus of Historical study… “How far back do you want to go?” This question has to be addressed before any valuable historical study can take place. In the US History course I teach there are clear beginnings and endings of events but there was always something before that event. And something before that. That isn’t to say you just perilously Fall down the wormhole of time and history, but understanding what was before, and acknowledging all elements of a culture’s history not only begin, but are usually a continuation of some other process or situation.
Four classes one eclipse, one advisory, and one dismissal later, day one is in the books. I’ve got some wonderful students this year and I am excited to see what They can do and what they will accomplish.
