Kimberly Jones, co-author of I’m Not Dying With You Tonight
And Nikole Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer this year for her work on the #1619 Project.
Series: WPH Know your history (5)
Kimberly Jones’ “How Can We Win” speech
Category: History
Series: WPH: Militarizing Racism (3)
What is our history and current situation of militarizing police?
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsWe CANNOT normalize this… https://t.co/kJaHMTyQGH
— 🇯🇲Black🇭🇹Aziz🇳🇬aNANsi🇹🇹 (@Freeyourmindkid) June 2, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFor those unfamiliar, @ProblemAreasHBO spent its entire first season examining policing in America and what reforming it looks like.
— Wyatt Cenac (@wyattcenac) June 3, 2020
Recently, @BarackObama spoke about the need to be specific in trying to bring about reform.
Our show tried to do that along with some dumb jokes. pic.twitter.com/0QI2Mwpo6M
A man was murdered by the state in broad daylight, with witnesses. And maybe, this time, most of us in the United States finally, finally realize that we have gone over the edge of the abyss. While many of us screamed over the injustices, for others, cruelty was the point. We’re not there yet. We’re not anywhere near a place of peace and equality in our nation. When we address the militarization of our police we must address the grip of fear instilled in us by Republicans. They’ve used fear and the military force to keep us silent. Privilege benefits from the silence.
The Trump era is such a whirlwind of cruelty that it can be hard to keep track. This week alone, the news broke that the Trump administration was seeking to ethnically cleanse more than 193,000 American children of immigrants whose temporary protected status had been revoked by the administration, that the Department of Homeland Security had lied about creating a database of children that would make it possible to unite them with the families the Trump administration had arbitrarily destroyed, that the White House was considering a blanket ban on visas for Chinese students, and that it would deny visas to the same-sex partners of foreign officials. At a rally in Mississippi, a crowd of Trump supporters cheered as the president mocked Christine Blasey Ford, the psychology professor who has said that Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump has nominated to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, attempted to rape her when she was a teenager. “Lock her up!” they shouted.
The Cruelty is the Point by Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, October 3, 2018
In a recent interview, Ben Carson had the audacity to parse out that it wasn’t “tear gas” that was used. Listening to him support Trump was too much. He got so many things wrong. But in the Cabinet of the Damned, Carson played his role well: he’s Black, a doctor, and is brought out to play some role I can’t describe. The naive, innocent voice? The gentle portrayal of Trump? It certainly isn’t a role any other Trump supporter can play, not even his complicit, birtherism wife. She really doesn’t care, do you? Well, Carson does:
“I am very disappointed with the fact that people have used this as an excuse to vandalize and tear up the neighborhoods of the people who are so vulnerable and are least able to afford such things,” he says. “And, you know, I understand the anger and the wrath, but I do not understand why they can’t see that they’re hurting the very people they purport to be standing for.”
Ben Carson, Here and Now interview https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/06/03/ben-carson-protests-coronavirus
Carson: it was White Nationalists. He needs to read Langston Hughes.
Resources:
Series: White People Homework (2)
This series for June of “White People Homework” I’ll be writing a post a day, sharing resources and readings. Today is Dr. Kendi’s article in The Atlantic, “The American Nightmare.” He reviews the history and impact of Plessy V. Ferguson, a Supreme Court decision that impacts our nation today, and wasn’t overturned until Brown v. The Board of Education on May 17, 1954.
If I was able to teach this unit (and what next year will look like is ever-changing), putting together how-tos on how to annotate texts with big questions. The “then and now” approach to teaching history makes the most sense to me. The essential or guiding question when studying Plessy v. Ferguson is how did this decision in 1896 maintain and institutionalize racism in our nation through today? I believe our nation is broken right now. Truly broken. The nightmare Dr. Kendi refers to is our nation then and now.
“We don’t see any American dream,” Malcolm X said in 1964. “We’ve experienced only the American nightmare.” A nightmare is essentially a horror story of danger, but it is not wholly a horror story. Black people experience joy, love, peace, safety. But as in any horror story, those unforgettable moments of toil, terror, and trauma have made danger essential to the black experience in racist America. What one black American experiences, many black Americans experience. Black Americans are constantly stepping into the toil and terror and trauma of other black Americans. Black Americans are constantly stepping into the souls of the dead. Because they know: They could have been them; they are them. Because they know it is dangerous to be black in America, because racist Americans see blacks as dangerous.
The American Nightmare by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, The Atlantic, June 1, 2020 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/american-nightmare/612457/
When Plessy again refused, he was taken a half-mile down to Elysian Fields Avenue for booking at the Fifth Precinct Station. Members of the Comité met him, and a judge released him on temporary bail. The next day a story in a New Orleans daily described Plessy as a “snuff-colored descendant of Ham.” After a hearing, Comité member Paul Bonseigneur plunked down a $500 bond (raised by putting his own house in hock) to guarantee Plessy’s appearance for trial. Plessy was 30 years old. The future of constitutional rights for Blacks in America would ride on his day in court.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/plessy-v-ferguson/
*Snuff-colored descendant of Ham: From Noah’s Curse to Slavery’s Rationale The use of Christianity as a means of racism, bigotry and justification to enslave others will be addressed in these posts. I have no opinion as a secular individual. Many of my friends practice a range of faiths; however, family members who have shown themselves to be Christian Nationalists are no longer welcome in my life.
Further Reading:
Plessy v. Ferguson
Zinn Education Project: Plessy v. Ferguson: The Organizing History of the Case
Plessy V. Ferguson: How ‘Separate But Equal’ Reverberates Through The 21st Century
The offer still stands: if ten people who reach out to me want me to buy them a book on the list, who will read it in good faith and love, I’ll be happy to buy you a book. If you want one for your classroom, you can message me on Twitter @mrskellylove
reimaginginginginging
//www.instagram.com/embed.js
How Moderate Teachers Perpetuate Educational Oppression
This is one of the most critical think pieces on education I’ve read in a long time, published in Medium by Lisa Kelly.
A moderate teacher often uses the rhetoric of maintaining high standards without interrogating themselves —holding students to high standards of what? As my comrade G.T. Reyes wrote, “Educators …if you’re still asking about how to “hold students accountable,” I would suggest you first ask yourself — accountable to what? This might sound crazy to some of you, but maybe you are wanting students to be accountable to learn their place within white supremacist, capitalist schooling.” Many credentialing programs teach that it is racist to expect that black and brown children are less capable than white children, which is absolutely true. However, this doesn’t mean that the solution is to expect any student to reproduce capitalism or whiteness.
From school uniforms to accountability, how white teachers continue to uphold white supremacy and colonialism comes in wave after wave. During this time of emergency remote learning and teaching, the number of teachers who are aghast at students turning in blank documents (they did this before, by the way), terrified of students cheating, not being accountable, on and on and on…ladies: you are exhausting. And students continue to act like, well, students. The cat and mouse game of “gotcha” is part of the teacher-student dynamic: but does it have to be?
The first answer that comes to my mind would be — schooling that is centered on relationships. Not relationships that are about getting kids to like you enough to want to produce for you. But relationships built on understanding the unique humanity and the community that each child brings to education.
Every year, sometimes at several check points, I give students surveys to express and provide confidential opinions on my teaching, what they liked, what they wish would change, etc. And overarching themes emerge: they want to wear what they want, and learn about things that will empower them in the moment, in an unknown future, and that feel relevant and worth their time. (Gee, almost like this generation understands existential crisis or something.)
As I continue to grow as an educator, I am mindful that I will always need to push against racist ideas and bias. I am fortunate to have a spot on the Wednesday webinars with Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi on their collaborative book, Stamped. I am going to ask my admin if we can use this as a book study for next year: if not the entire staff, then perhaps my immediate ELA colleagues would be interested.The essential piece of all this is as we’re reimagining schools, beware of who’s trying to hold teachers “accountable” and who is building authentic relationships. Those people service in complicity to hold teachers and students accountable, too. Look for those who include teachers’ and students’ voices, who have experience in making those connections. We cannot underestimate the danger we’re in right now. And personally I am struggling to hold onto hope. As the person said in Samantha Bee’s video, I now consider myself to be, as Meehan Crist quotes, an “Undefeated Despair.”
Keep focused: what brings us to teaching, what brings children to learning, and what are the most critical things to teach? That’s it. I am thinking about entire semester of simply reading critically for argument and bias, and how to have fluency and accuracy in detecting bias and agendas. Looking forward to digging into this resource, too: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/
PS Something that popped up from the past — it’s a charter school, but am wondering–you know–https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/47694/to-engage-students-and-teachers-treat-core-subjects-like-extracurriculars
Backyard Civil War: Cinematic Blues
Searching for appropriate Civil War documentaries and film that are not white-centered.
Let me flash-forward a bit: today while conferring with a student, we were talking about reading and what makes it interesting, and I confessed that when I was her age I wouldn’t have been that interested in some of the same things I am now. She asked if I really like “this stuff” [history], and I said, yeah, I really do. But that’s how reading and inquiry work: once you start learning about things, the knowledge expands exponentially, and it’s fascinating for me.
And it’s fraught with potential harm. History, when done right, lays out the facts, graphically, painfully, and with an attempt at objectivity. Considering my own woeful and anemic history instruction in high school, and it’s never too late to learn, my time is spent reading as much as I can about key moments in history. Okay, and an occasional Drunk History episode.
But I can’t show Drunk History to middle school kids. (Although one kid told me he had seen the Robert Smalls episode -I just smiled.)
Trying to create a meaningful Civil War unit that’s engaging, informative, and inquiry-based and squeezing it in between wonky testing schedules, end-of-year ennui, etc. has been a prickly challenge. I scoured documentaries, Crash Course videos, etc. and the only things I’ve found are Glory (I know–I know–just wait) and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reconstruction series. (If this link doesn’t work look this up on PBS and make a donation!)
Glory has a lot of issues, primarily the White Savior trope.
And for teachers, it’s also rated R.
Before I go on: please — if you know of any Civil War documentaries or films that are good, not a snooze-fest (I love you, Ken Burns, but remember, these are 13 and 14 year olds), please–tweet @mrskellylove.
Most Civil War era films are incredibly violent, (as were the times), and determining at what age is appropriate to show visual representations of war is my question. I don’t want to inflict harm: reading about a violent past is not the same as a visual/audio one sometimes. Film does do something for students that is part of the comprehensible input piece for students, especially ELL students. When done well, it can help build context. When done poorly it can destroy all relevance and credibility. Anachronisms and gratuitous violence/magical realism (looking at you, Tarantino) abound in poorly made films.
Now perhaps Lincoln@Gettysburg (what the heck, @ symbol?!) might be good. I don’t know. But try to find movies or well-paced documentaries on the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment and I’m coming up short. For real, film makers. You’re blowing it here, big time! Students need well-made movies that show the broader scope of American history versus the current fair of white-centered narratives.
And this is a great historical narrative:
The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first military unit consisting of black soldiers to be raised in the North during the Civil War. Prior to 1863, no concerted effort was made to recruit black troops as Union soldiers. The adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation in December of 1862 provided the impetus for the use of free black men as soldiers and, at a time when state governors were responsible for the raising of regiments for federal service, Massachusetts was the first to respond with the formation of the Fifty-fourth Regiment.
http://www.masshist.org/online/54thregiment/index.php
The formation of the regiment was a matter of controversy and public attention from its inception. Questions were raised as to the black man’s ability to fight in the “white man’s war.” Although Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew believed that black men were capable of leadership, others felt that commissioning blacks as officers was simply too controversial; Andrew needed all the support he could get. The commissioned officers, then, were white and the enlisted men black. Any black officers up to the rank of lieutenant were non-commissioned and reached their positions by moving up through the ranks. On 28 May 1863, upon the presentation of the unit’s colors by the governor and a parade through the streets of Boston, spectators lined the streets with the hopes of viewing this experimental unit. The regiment then departed Boston on the transport De Molay for the coast of South Carolina.
Adding a curated collection is past and present images helps contextual history. Shared this the other day:
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsWest Point is about to graduate its largest class of black women @CNN https://t.co/N0ppt57k4S
— Kelly Love, NBCT (@mrskellylove) May 18, 2019
But a big mistake I made was not keeping my admin in the loop. She came in when I was showing a clip of Glory for context, and long story short, it’s a no-go, and she also banned us from showing Unbroken, which is our current novel study. (Going to be a long few weeks.) Oh well.
A request — any thoughts you have about Civil War films and resources would help. What I did in 2015 with 7th grade humanities isn’t working with this group. Monument debates, curated content, films and documentaries — nothing is sparking them. I might read Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen or have them listen to Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (one of my favorite all-time Civil War female protagonist zombie books!)
And if your advice is to just stop, let it go, run out the clock of the year…I can’t do that.
Oh, and if you’re looking for a great resource while planning curriculum, CoP has you covered:
Backyard Civil War: Text Pairing
The Atlantic Slave Trade, and historical fiction novels Homegoing and Octavian Nothing series.
Ultimately, it’s about using as many varied resources as possible–texts, historical fiction, primary sources, graphs, charts, etc.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsWhen they say “both sides”, reply with this. pic.twitter.com/Y7TByK8r72
— Joshua Lander (@lander) May 12, 2019
Backyard Civil War
In 2015, one of the best years of my teaching career, I taught 7th-grade Humanities in a tech academy setting. Part of the joy was the freedom to create curriculum. (Once in a while there is someone who thinks a teacher-created curriculum is a threat to western civilization, but those voices usually belong to those who don’t understand agency, autonomy, and professionalism.) Sitting down with a partner, myself, or a PLC we strive for engagement, purpose, and relevancy. The rigor is embedded in the engagement, and engagement doesn’t always look like what is on the evaluation check-boxes. Teacher-created curriculum is rigorous, meet standards, and is not a ‘free for all’ with loose morals and questionable, dubious pedagogy.
And though I may not necessarily be the best at holding my tongue, and I’m over exuberant and think everyone wants to be my friend, and sometimes days go sideways, I am pretty darn good at this, creating curriculum.
But my scholars are not the lottery-chosen selected students of four years ago. They’ve been through a few years of mandated curriculum that lacks representation and includes a workbook of worksheets for the work that is not working. Many still struggle with the basics: writing a cohesive paragraph, writing a short narrative, and most tragically, reading with engagement. They look at my stacks of #projectlit books and no matter what I’ve done, if they didn’t come to my class seeing themselves as a reader I failed at convincing them they are. (This failure is gnawing at me, but that’s a reflection for another time.) I have one scholar whose mother told me their house is full of books, they read constantly, and this girl has read almost every one of my #projectlit books. But she came from other schools/states and never experienced the soul-crushing death march through an EL workbook.
The Plan:
The new bulletin board is my road map for what we’re going to deeply cover. The aggregate of my history teaching philosophy is “then and now” and Zinn Education resources as well as Facing History provide ample discussion and texts.
1. Share the work of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on the Reconstruction.
2. Focus on Frederick Douglass and his work.
3. How the Civil War affects us today (which I typed up after scholars did the work – see #8)
4. What can we do (a short list)
5. “32” curated facts and resources document (work in progress) Google doc link here. Scholars share and participate in finding resources – some we share together and others they find on their own.
6. Enduring Understandings: Civil War – a war between citizens of the same country 1861-1865: The Civil War (United States) continues to be of the most impactful events of our nation. Some of the notes on the anchor chart are captured questions from students and me.
7. Big Facts https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_JlDhuTp20S58z4dQ2_ngS6OAS_kCL8JLDQU6zcr04o/edit?usp=sharing
8. Sticky note responses from scholars on how the Civil War affects us today.
But before we get to the Civil War: Studying 19th Century Societal Reformers…
We watch this Crash Course video, took Cornell Notes, and then created our own “21st Century” utopias. Students are still working on them, but the process is to combine the tenants of civilization along with our current state of technology and hopes.
Guess what? Yup – when students discussed their utopias they quickly dissolved into dystopias. But all in all, their Utopia projects are pretty cool:
Video resources:
https://www.pbs.org/weta/reconstruction/
I know the Ken Burns seminal work on the Civil War is amazing, but it can be a bit…boring. This is a fairly comprehensive list of resources, and my goal as their history teacher is not to overwhelm, but to allow time to process, internalize, and recognize when and how oppression occurs now so they can be guarded, skeptical, knowledgeable, informed and VOTE.
Articles for now: Poll taxes, voter suppression,
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/04/alabama-voting-poll-tax
This is a work in progress: still collecting and curating resources for my scholars, and seeking their guidance, too, as they make connections.
And for that man who still has the Confederate Flag on the back of his pick-up truck: I see you. You’re on the wrong side of history. Again.
Classroom Congress
How to teach #civics
The idea:
This year I’m charged with teaching U.S.History. The schedule allows for 1/2 of a class period, the other half devoted to IRLA. In 2015, I created a Humanities block course for ELA/US History and believed I could draw from that for this year. And I’m not sure exactly why, but believe there are many reasons, that didn’t work.
Back to the curriculum design drawing board.
To the basics and critical information: voting and what Congress does, and does not do. Or won’t do.
Donating a total of $150 over three class periods, for $50 each, the students formed committees on which Bill they wanted to promote. A simple explanation of the contents of the Bills, and then I had the four corners trick.
Using this template: http://www.princetonmodelcongress.com/delegates-write-bill
and this shared Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qlITc_B27UZAM4ou6vbIdYqnMhgGcMxQ0YX6ltRO4ds/edit?usp=sharing
Once they created their shared Google Doc with each of the committee members, they began the process of crafting the WHEREAS/HEREBY and ENACTMENT CLAUSE statements. One area I wanted them to practice is the Comment on a Google Doc: for example, each committee member needed to insert a comment on the Bill. The comment could be what they contributed, what they agreed or disagreed to, what was changed, etc. The purpose was twofold: one, to build their skills with collaborating documents and more importantly, to see their ‘fingerprints’ on the work. I ended up with mixed results.*
Finally, they were read to present their bills to the Classroom Congress. Each committee stood up and stated their proposals. I presided as both Executive Branch and overseer and role-played the part: each student was called “Honorable” before their name, and address in formal voice protocols and procedures. Clarifying questions could be asked, but not open to debate. Motions were carried and votes were tallied:
Second Period, true to their altruistic nature, voted for Bill #3 to buy cases of Cup of Noodles and water any student in need could have. They learned a valuable lesson about coalitions: the more people were in the Bill 3 group, therefore won. Elections have consequences. If you want to effect change, you must get people on your side.
Third Period, also true to their nature, voted for the supplies, which infuriated the Snack Group. The Snack Group is comprised of competitive, intelligent girls from the class, and felt the supplies would be a waste of money and only serve a few. I may need to use my Veto power here. Not sure.
Fifth Period didn’t let me down either. Only one boy voted for his own Bill, (supplies) while everyone else voted against their self-interest and voted for snacks. I say self-interest because every student in the room recognized of all the classes, they throw, break, destroy and damage my supplies. There was one committee who didn’t want the money at all, that they didn’t “deserve” it. I told them if they wanted to make that case they could, and that turning in a blank paper wasn’t acceptable.
Fascinating.
On Monday, I’ll have them write a reflection, and then tell them I’m going to Veto all of them and they have to get a 2/3 majority vote to overturn the veto. JUST KIDDING.
But not about the reflection. Here is a Google doc link draft: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BT3AH1cL6SnQ8xXBXLGzjDlJiALptUgPcpzntsX-pQ4/edit?usp=sharing
One thing I would normally do is create a rubric ahead of time to add to the daily instructions/targets. Any ideas or additions you have to this process, please share in the comments on this blog. This was a successful trial run of my first Classroom Congress and made the week go by fast and fun, and I snuck in a lot of informational text. It made this somewhat dry process engaging for all of us. Plus: SNACKS!
Resources:
https://lowenthal.house.gov/legislation/bill-to-law.htm
Deep down.
Today I was observed for the last 40 minutes of my last class of the day on the first day back from winter break, and that was perfectly fine. I trust my evaluator completely and know that the feedback I receive will be informed and valuable. In our time -constrained worlds, though, I am not sure I’ll have the opportunity to tell her all the things leading up to the moment where she came in.
So here is where I get to reflect–this space is a good thinking space.
Today I began a unit I created from scratch. I use the steel-cased, reinforced, V-8 engine with multiple air bags of UBD, or Understanding By Design. It’s adaptive, flexible, and meaty. For my vegan friends: packed with protein.
Since I’m Humanities this year, and love cross-content, real-world connections, this past summer, before news of Zika broke out, I thought I would do a yellow fever unit, and how diseases impact history. My Enduing Understanding is: “Disease shapes the course of history, and often societies’ responses to health/disease are culturally based.” One of the essential questions is: How did our new nation handle health/disease?
And I’m using a classroom set, with an in-class reading of Yellow Fever: 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. I could only get my hands on 30 copies, so I told the students a few things:
1. We only have 30 copies; I can’t get more (a book angel gave me her 12 books from her classroom library, so now I have a few extras: bless you, book angel!)
2. We will work on stamina: stamina is the ability to focus on text during a time. The reason we work on stamina is mental training, just like we’re training for a sport. It’s endurance. It’s getting in the zone and not wanting to stop reading.
3. I told them my insights about students who say “I HATE READING.”
*They hate reading because they kept reading logs
*They hate reading because they don’t have choice
*They hate reading because someone shamed them when it was difficult
*They may struggle and not know why
But this is what got them: I told them no baby is born hating to read. Every baby loves to communicate, to look at their parents’ faces, to babble and blurb, and every baby loves stories.
They became believers. But they also don’t know how much I have to fight this current trend of just reading passages. Robert Zaretsky, who teaches at the University of Houston, wrote this article, “Taught to pass tests, they don’t know how to read books” concerning how college students are ill prepared to read and discuss novels.
Today, we are reaping the results of this strategy. Among its many catastrophic consequences has been its impact on student literacy. Like a koan riddle, we might soon be asking if a textbook war can take place if no one knows how to read. The decline of reading among American youth is reflected by a growing raft of books with titles like “Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It,” “Why Kids Can’t Read” and “I Read It, But I Don’t Get It.” These books, written by teachers, confirm what my conversations with my brother-in-law, a bright and dedicated Houston-based high school English teacher, long ago revealed: Forced to teach to the test, he can no longer encourage students to reach for the texts as sources of wisdom and wonder.
I am trying not to let that happen on my watch.
Close reading has an important place in instruction, there is no doubt, because…it’s not new. It’s as old as stories themselves. So I created a quote log that serves a few purposes: it provides 3 lenses to consider:
1. The author puts a quote at the beginning of every chapter: why? How is it significant to the chapter once read?
2. Talk about character/plot events: how are the characters responding to the events?
3. Look through the medical/health lens; was there anything in this chapter that related to health?
They will not be doing this alone. We will read independently, and burst forth with conversation. We will learn everything we can about the medical practices of the time, and how science and superstition can devastate or be our savior.
And they will read the entire book.
A few kids are hooked after the first chapter: who can’t relate to a pouty teenage girl who’s annoyed her nagging mother is waking her up to do chores? This response is universal.
One thing Zaretsky may want to try is what I did– remind his college students they love stories. And if he wants them to read stories worth telling, which he does, they will.
She's a witch!
You know those Facebook click-bait headlines that describe a phenomenon that happened 10, 15, or more years ago? They make even a 19-old-year feel nostalgic for when they were in high school, or even nostalgic for last week. I am always heartened by Monty Pythons references–those were my ‘memes’ back in 1978–I recognized fellow nerds by our signal of knowing movie lines from Monty Python movies, specifically Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There is a scene where the villagers collect a witch, and proceed to adjudicate her fate, based on the logic if both a duck and wood float, and if she weighs less than a duck, ergo ipso facto she’s a witch!
(Hold that thought.)
Today I started a unit on the Salem Witch Trials, but not satisfied with merely doing a ‘word-search-coloring-book’ unit, I complete a full scholarly search, watch videos, remember my high school reading of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, etc. I want my students to have a rich and savory understanding of all things 1600s – from what was happening in Europe (what did they take with them) to the New World (what did they leave behind?). The framing of the unit is from the standpoint of the roles of women and children in the 17th century, and who has power, and who does not, and how does the term ‘witch hunt’ still haunt us today, and how is it embedded in our culture?
As the concepts and questions are being introduced, and we discussed an article they were assigned to read and annotate (as much as they could) The Witches of Salem based on a book by Stacy Schiff, many of my students did, and some didn’t, get through it. What surprised me was who did manage to read this lengthy article–one girl completely surprised and amazed me, and added annotations all over Cotton Mather’s face! (Another testament to choice, metacognition, and process!)
In 1692, the Massachusetts Bay Colony executed fourteen women, five men, and two dogs for witchcraft. The sorcery materialized in January. The first hanging took place in June, the last in September; a stark, stunned silence followed. Although we will never know the exact number of those formally charged with having “wickedly, maliciously, and feloniously” engaged in sorcery, somewhere between a hundred and forty-four and a hundred and eighty-five witches and wizards were named in twenty-five villages and towns. The youngest was five; the eldest nearly eighty. Husbands implicated wives; nephews their aunts; daughters their mothers; siblings each other. One minister discovered that he was related to no fewer than twenty witches.
In that paragraph, what did most students say surprised them? The dogs, of course. How could you convince a dog of witchcraft?! No one seemed too concerned with the five year old.
The other things they noticed or questions they raised were mostly about why didn’t the women simply do some magic and get out of this predicament?
Ah, those teachable moments.
Most witches are not the Hollywood/fairy tale sort, mostly benign, and kids: magic isn’t real. (You just ruined my childhood, Mrs. Love!)
When I explain that to the Puritans, who carried over very real beliefs of devils and sinners, and manifestations around every corner of evil, and came from the legions of those executed in Europe from the 1300s to their present times of the 1600s, the witchcraft scourge was still very much in their waking conscious.
The other questions we asked included just how does one determine if a person is practicing witchcraft? And one student, so sweetly, shared about how you can weigh a duck versus a suspected witch, and that’s how you tell.
And that, dear readers, is how history works.
Postscript: I gently corrected her and said that was from a comedy movie, and it was just in fun. She seemed somewhat disappointed. And you know what? I am now, too.