Recently, the eighth graders of Parkway West Middle School’s Gifted program went through the White House Decision Center at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. The library is a long way away from their hometown of St. Louis, so the teens had to catch their charter bus bright and early on Friday, November 8th. “It was strange to be at the school before anyone else!” said student Betsy Wait, giggling during the interview. On the way, the students ate lunch and then performed the Truman Library’s simulation for about four hours. Mrs. Carter, the instructor of the program who is very dedicated to her students, reported that “The kids were tuckered out. By the time they arrived at West Middle, it was almost 10’ o’ clock at night!” Long and challenging, the field trip was an expedition that took the students to the outstandingly historical Truman Library, dedicated to 1950s President Harry S. Truman.
The Truman Library trip was necessary to synthesize all that the gifted 14- year-olds had learned, and it was also done in a long- standing tradition for West’s MOSAICS program. As the gifted teachers in Parkway can select the enrichment activities for their students, the White House Decision Center program is one of the favorites of Mrs. Carter. “We have been going to the Truman Library for many years now, and the students always learn so much.” Like a “Game Day”, the trip also put what the eighth graders had been working on for more than a month into a real situation. “We learned about the Korean Conflict, held discussions and problem-solving scenarios, and wrote an essay,” said Paul Krauss. The students, like many classes before them, used their trip to the White House Decision Center to reenact Truman’s briefings about the K...
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... few future plans inspired by the trip. To start, Instructor Donna Carter is most definitely coming back next year. “There’s no reason not to!” she exclaims, “The trip is always one of the students’ favorites.” The students have also been moved by the experience. “I think I might come back with my family sometime. There was an interesting museum attached,” said Solomi Inje. Other students express an increased interest in government positions. “A job like what I did on the trip would be very interesting and intense,” said Ronny Fields. In the end, West Middle MOSAICS definitely recommends the White House decision center and the Truman Library to everyone. For more information, visit www.trumanlibrary.org .
In a thoughtful moment on the trip, student Laura Wetzel declared, “It is never a bad time to learn something new!” The students of Parkway West Middle all agree.
With a cultural background like Mike’s, survival in the American educational system is a difficult struggle at best. However, Jack helped fill in some of the critical cultural blanks. “He slowly and carefully built up our knowledge of Western intellectual history – with facts, with connections, with speculations” . And Jack served as more than simply a source of numb...
Truman’s accomplishments in his domestic policy were impressive, considering the hardships the nation was experiencing as World War II came to an end, and the resistance of Congress (which was greatly made up of Republicans and conservatives) to liberalism. The president was able to pas...
Baseball Saved Us exposes children to the grim aspects of the internment camps. It does not hesitate to point out the overcrowded living quarters in the desolate conditions of the desert camps or that Japanese Americans had to discard most of their belongings before leaving their homes. Yet, it is through these realistically dark details that this book teaches one of its most valuable lessons to children. Children need to know that Japanese Americans were unfairly persecuted and interned. Oftentimes history textbooks gloss over the Japanese American internment camps. Baseball Saved Us attempts to elucidate this overlooked subject and teaches children about the wrongful treatment of Japanese Americans during and following WWII. In describing the horrible conditions of the camps, this book serves as a positive ethical influence on children because it shows them how unfair it was for people to be forced to experience these hard...
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. “Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman and the Surrender of Japan.” Taking Sides: Clashing View in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras & James SoRelle. 15th ed. New York, NY. 2012. 289-298.
James Loewen’s, Lies My Teacher Told Me, criticizes the shortcomings of American education that is associated with inaccurate histories in textbooks. First, the fact that students do not have high regards when it comes to American history textbooks, proves how unreliable the education system is. In addition, textbooks are often to blame, because they are too dull, and are rather—boring (Loewen 384), which is why it has become a requirement for students to read books, because no one wants to read those uninteresting books. Even history textbooks, they cover redundant materials which make the subject more and more uninteresting to the students. It makes the students less motivated to learn. Moreover, he also argues that the problematic issues lie within the bureaucracy. They make the decisions on what the students will learn or which textbooks they will be reading. So far, they have not done a good job. At times, history textbooks were often censored and handpicked. It may even be completely different from the rest of the [history] textbooks. These censored textbooks, often keep the students in the dark when the controversial issues are removed (Loewen 389). It really undermines the freedom of speech and emphasizes that, often, key pieces are left out that is critical to the historical event, such as exemplifying that many of his college students have never even
We began with the typical touristy attractions; the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Soho, Central Park, and shopping. We had been planning this trip for months and had poured over every detail. From the time the plane landed, we were living by a minute-to-minute schedule. This was a well organized trip and The Great White Way was not on the agenda. Or so we thought.
In “Lift Off” (2016), Donovan Livingston argues that education symbolizes the injustices and oppressions that have plagued America since its founding, but is also the key to success. Livingston displays this ideal by comparing slaves trying to learn (“any attempt...punishable by death”) to his own experiences in the classroom (being labeled as “disruptive, talkative, and a distraction”), by contrasting the fact that his past makes him unable to sit still and stand aside, to the fact that when faced with students similar to Livingston, educators often raise their voices in an attempt to silence them, and by alluding to a number of historical events that were fueled by education (such as Harriet Tubman’s quest for freedom, and the American Dream).
In the beginning, Stanley explains the conditions that the children and their families face such as a limited income and lack of support. The conditions later cause a rejection of acceptance from classmates at school. Even though the conditions the Okies faced were relevant to the 1930s’, the same struggles are still relevant all across classrooms in America.
Zinn, H. (2007). Why Students Should Study History. In W. e. Au, Rethinking Our Classrooms, Volume 1 (pp. 179-181). Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools.
Whenever I walk into Foellinger Auditorium, it’s usually to attend my econ lecture, but this time is different. I’m not going to listen to a lecture about how the economy works, but instead to listen to a family that caused the nation to rethink the educational system. The famous Brown family was going to give a talk about the famous case that carried their name and forever put them in history.
High school history textbooks are seen, by students, as presenting the last word on American History. Rarely, if ever, do they question what their text tells them about our collective past. According to James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, they should be. Loewen has spent considerable time and effort reviewing history texts that were written for high school students. In Lies, he has reviewed twenty texts and has compared them to the actual history. Sadly, not one text measures up to the author's expectation of teaching students to think. What is worse, though, is that students come away from their classes without "having developed the ability to think coherently about social life"(Lies p.4). Loewen blames this on the way that today's texts are written. This paper will compare one text, The American Pageant, to Lies.
Learning is one of the most important concepts that I hold dear to my heart. In order to advance in life that is something you must be able to do. I have learned many different things from various places, but in this year alone, I have learned a tremendous amount of material in honors English 1301. Not only did my professor, Mrs. Minkel, give me the tools needed to make successful scholarly papers, although it came with some challenges, she also provided her students with the tools needed to be a great student overall.
Through this same lens, I chose to take classes that helped diversify what I learned so I always stayed interested and never found class tedious, just as Curious George would in his adventures. Outside of school, I keep myself in check by traveling and trying new things because on top of my natural curiosity, I am a true explorer. Like George, I love the enjoyment of participating in what life has to offer, even though it may cause mischief along the way. After all, satisfying curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in
When President Truman walked in to the White House he had problems and decisions lying ahead of him that he knew little about.In his first few days of briefing from advisors and committee he had said,”I have to decide Japanese strategy-shall we invade Japan proper or shall we bomb and blockade? That is my hardest decision to date .but I’ll make it when I have all the facts. “(Takaki 26) As you can see Truman had no intention of making uneducated decisions and he was by no means in a rush to bo...
Steve prefers to work with middle aged children, for younger children make him uncomfortable and older children are too political. Prior to the case study he had low expectations for the children, for he believed the parents are not educating their children enough. As a result, during the first school trip he ignored the new format and preceded giving the group a traditional tour of the museum. During the second school trip Steve was an “roaming expert (Allen and Crowley 94)”, so he would walk through the exhibits, as a source of guidance, but also as an observer. Therefore, during the second visit Steve had the opportunity to realize how educated and excited the children were about the museum and its exhibit, for the children had learned about this topic prior to entering the museum. At my internship at the Historical Society, I got to observe a second grade walking tour and I remember being mesmerized about how educated the children were about Frederick’s history, but also how the students were applying the information they obtained in class into the tour. Both Steve and I learned that in-classroom preparation prior to visiting a museum can truly make an education program more rewarding for the students and the museum