In this lesson, students will explore several primary sources addressing the treatment of people with mental illness at Blackwell Island in New York in the mid to late 1800s.  After analyzing the sources, students will discuss our responsibility and the responsibility of government to people with mental illness and cognitive disability. Period film, photographs, maps, and a written account by pioneering investigative journalist Nellie Bly animate the lesson.

The lesson invites students to think about what life was like as a disabled veteran of WWI and to connect to background knowledge as well as personal experiences. The teacher will provide historical information and guide the class in a read-aloud from the perspective of a soldier wounded and recuperating in Italy from Ernest Hemingway’s “In Another Country.”

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? By focusing attention on the strategies used by these social reformers, the lesson engages students in critical thinking about the methods of reformers as well as their goals.

Care for veterans is relevant to understanding war and the role of government, and is critical to disability history. In this lesson, students gather information through a variety of primary sources on the experiences of veterans from the War of Independence through today. They ask, ‘How has U.S. government care for veterans changed over time?’ Using their evidence, students develop a proposal to today’s Veterans Administration that outlines how veterans should be cared for. 

This lesson guides students in exploring the Great Depression of 1920-1940 with a focus on the Dust Bowl, migrant workers, and the status of people with disabilities. The lesson is conceived as a research project in preparation for reading John Steinbeck’s novella “Of Mice and Men”, and could also be an interdisciplinary unit linking American History, English Literature, and Disability History. It can be co-taught by the subject teacher and the Special Education 

How do changes in the treatment of students with special education needs over time show society’s changing understandings of disability? The 19th century initiatives to provide supports for people with disabilities, including the founding of schools for students with cognitive, hearing, or vision disabilities, were an important component of the social reform movements in the period before the US Civil War.

This is a great simple civics lesson with three distinctive case studies: marchers with disabilities who took over federal buildings in a historic sit-in in 1977 (the 504 protests), young American volunteers in the Spanish Civil war in 1936, and a 12-year-old mill worker who was inspired to lead a walk-out in 1898. The lesson addresses new content in the 2018 US History II Framework for Massachusetts as it asks students, “did the protesters go too far” and invites them to consider the constitutional underpinnings of individual and collective civic engagement.

The Eugenics movement in the early 20th century United States, a pseudo-scientific amalgamation of social Darwinist philosophy and animal breeding management, gained widespread approval across the country and influenced many internationally, most notably in the the Nazi racial policies of the era leading up to World War II.

This lesson features both ancient texts referring to the lives of Roman soldiers after they were wounded in battle and images and recordings of American veterans. Students will compare how two societies separated by centuries think about and act toward veterans who live with a disability. The lesson includes activities that offer opportunities to move in the classroom, write, draw, collaborate, and learn from varied primary sources in written, visual, and audio media.