Historic Places: Common Ground for Teachers and Historians

Abstract

T1 eachers searching for ways to capture student interest and spark learning ... Historians eager to instill an enthusias tic, yet critical understanding of the stories and lessons from the past . . . Historic places form common ground where educators and content specialists can reach out with great advan tage to each other and to the students they both care about. At the same time, the most effective exploration of this territory com bines knowledge, skills, and training from both disciplines. It is this natural affinity between historians and educators that the National Park Service's Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) program seeks to encourage and assist. Educators have contributed to every phase of the TwHP program, and it is an example of the benefit derived from working collaboratively. As authentic remnants of the past, historic places provide both an emotional link, which generates interest and excitement, and an intellectual gateway into investigating and understanding people and events in history. And the best part is that we can find these places all around us in the communities where we live. The National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places lists and maintains documentation on more than 72,000 such places, containing more than a million significant historic properties within their boundaries. Although the National Register includes national park sites and national historic landmarks, there has always been a special emphasis on places important to the towns, counties, regions, and states in which they are located. Approxi mately 60 percent of the listings represent sites of local signifi cance, and 30 percent are places meaningful at the state level. For every national icon like Mount Vernon, there are literally thou sands of places that reflect state and local individuality. About ten years ago, the National Register began promoting places as effective tools for enlivening traditional classroom in struction. Consultation with a wide range of educators resulted in the launch of TwHP in 1991, and the program owes much of its success to the initial and ongoing contribution of educators and other partners. In the beginning, teachers, curriculum specialists, professors of education, and leaders of education organizations, along with historians, historic site interpreters, preservationists, and others met to offer invaluable advice about structuring a program teachers could really use. From teachers we learned about time and budget constraints; limited opportunities for field trips despite their acknowledged value; the lack of training in using nontraditional sources, such as historic places; and the need for credible and convenient teaching materials. The group recommended the development of such materials as the most immediate, helpful service we could provide. Fay Metcalf, a former classroom teacher and Ph.D. historian, developed the prototype TwHP lesson plan format and wrote the first several lessons. Subsequently, educators have continued to write, review, and edit TwHP lesson plans. Classroom teachers and other educa tors have written lessons individually or in interdisciplinary teams on sites such as a rancho in southern California, an artist's home and studio in New Hampshire, a Cuban neighborhood in Florida, and the Indiana headquarters of a company founded by a spectacu larly successful African American entrepreneur, among others. Field testing by classroom teachers has resulted in revisions that help individual lessons appeal to students and better fit curricula, and that incorporate more teacher-friendly features into the overall lesson plan design.