Teachers have been striving to make their curriculum more fully reflect the history of all members of a community, to tell the stories not only of kings and generals, but of the young and the old, women and men, and those with both extraordinary and ordinary abilities and challenges. The lesson added to our resource library this week is an example of how to bring this perspective to the study of the Ancient World, using the words of writers at that time, as well as images of artifacts, and drawing comparisons with examples from U.S.

The instrumental role Dorothea Dix played in reforming prisons and mental institutions, and the actions of Horace Mann in his campaign for free public education are at the center of this lesson. How did improvements in conditions for people in the public charge, whether prisoners or people institutionalized because of disability, come about? How did the the idea of who gets to be educated change?

Arriba España!

As the Spanish Civil War raged between 1936­-1939, struggles between competing ideologies played out on the streets as well as in the trenches. As much of Europe prepared for another global war, the military and social clashes in Spain served a dress rehearsal for potent new tools of propaganda as well as deadly new weapons and tactics. Spanish political factions: fascist, communist, anarchist, republican, nationalist, and socialist – all sought support from the Spanish people as well as allies abroad.

Exploring Emerging America’s Windows on History Program

Since 2006, Emerging America’s Windows on History program has mobilized more than 30 research teams of K-12 students with their teachers and in partnership with historical societies, museums, town and college libraries, expert individuals, and other very local resources. Students learn to think historically as they track down primary sources to tell the story of their communities and their place in the world.

Exploring Emerging America’s Windows on History Program

Since 2006, Emerging America’s Windows on History program has mobilized more than 30 research teams of K-12 students with their teachers and in partnership with historical societies, museums, town and college libraries, expert individuals, and other very local resources. Students learn to think historically as they track down primary sources to tell the story of their communities and their place in the world.

"What is the dog doing there? It really would run away when it heard the guns fire. So why did Paul Revere put it in the picture? Well, most people like dogs. So we think he wanted people to take the side of the Americans by thinking, 'Those mean British are shooting at a dog!'" - Fifth graders, Morgan Elementary School, Holyoke, Massachusetts

Exploring Emerging America’s Windows on History Program

Since 2006, Emerging America’s Windows on History program has mobilized more than 30 research teams of K-12 students with their teachers and in partnership with historical societies, museums, town and college libraries, expert individuals, and other very local resources. Students learn to think historically as they track down primary sources to tell the story of their communities and their place in the world. This is the third in our series of close-ups on these sites.

Guest Post: Rusty Annis, Belchertown, Massachusetts, Teacher

In Fairbury, Nebraska–pop. 5,000–where I grew up in the 1960s, there lived literally zero black people. It was not by chance: the Klan and its allies had driven blacks out of much of the rural Midwest. (My parents' Civil Rights advocacy found scant welcome in my home town. But that's another story.) When I was in 6th grade, my older, wiser brother (a 9th grader) handed me the Autobiography of Malcolm X and set me on a journey that compels me still. More recently, two scholars in our Teaching American History (TAH) program reset my world view as powerfully as my brother did back in 1971.