By Jamal Dillman-Hasso
In mid-June the William L. Clements Library offered a pilot program in conjunction with the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) for middle and high school History teachers from across the district. The workshop was designed to help expand the scope of History curricula at the K-12 level to topics that are traditionally underemphasized. It also aimed to deepen the public-facing offerings and outreach of the Clements Library, showcasing the ways in which the Library’s offerings could benefit historically-minded and curious members of Ann Arbor Public Schools faculty, staff, and students, as well as the broader community.
Teachers from several AAPS middle and high schools participated in the four-day workshop, focused on reform movements in the 19th-century United States. Each day featured specialist faculty members from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Miami University of Ohio presenting on a specific aspect of reform: religion, temperance advocacy, abolitionism, and women’s rights. Teachers then explored Clements-housed collection items related to the day’s themes, before working together on constructing curriculum.
A constant theme during the workshop was the interconnected nature of the four strains of reform activity. In the 1800s many people identified common interests between religious and women’s rights reforms, between abolitionism and women’s rights, between temperance and religion, etc. For example, attendees studied several pieces of pro-temperance art and literature that pointed to the deleterious effects that (men) drinking excessively had on the physical and economic health of women and children around them. At the same time, the sources curated by the Clements also often highlighted moments at which 19th century Americans considered reform in one sphere counterproductive to their own interests or desires for reform in a different sphere. On the fourth day of the workshop, participants studied a Susan B. Anthony letter in which she expresses frustration to Emily Howland that Black men were extended suffrage before white women were, taking this position not from solidarity or empathy but rather from racial resentment. Furthermore, all of the reform movements in question faced deeply entrenched opposition, and these opponents put their thoughts into writing. Many of those anti-reform materials can also be found within the Clements’ collections. Teachers left the workshop excited to begin to unmask these themes and the complexities and nuances of American 19th-century politics in their own classrooms.
After the workshop, participating teachers were invited to complete surveys about their experiences. One respondent, describing the experience as “phenomenal,” added that they “fully plan[ned] on incorporating many of the resources we looked at” into their classrooms as a way to pique student interest. Others mentioned that it “brings what we teach to life” and that “humanizing history is much easier to do when we use the appropriate artifacts.” Several other teachers mentioned that they appreciated the multimedia formats of many of the sources, including several visuals, maps, and cartoons.
Original copies of letters sent by Frederick Douglass to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society were of particular interest to many of the teachers. Nathan Smead, of A2 STEAM, mentioned that “having students experience history on that personal level is so engaging,” while Robert Lavelanet of Community High School said that it was “so powerful” to be proximate to the letters of a man who has become “larger-than-life.”
Clements Library Director Paul Erickson said of the program, “K-12 education is absolutely central to how students develop an understanding of the nation’s past, and of their connections both to that past and to America’s potential futures. All of us at the Clements Library were delighted to partner with the Ann Arbor Public Schools on this project and look forward to continuing to support the development of K-12 curricula based on primary sources held at the Clements.”
A website for the workshop will be made available shortly, in which teachers from anywhere in the country can access example lesson plans and curriculum designs, digitized versions of the primary sources used in the workshop, and other resources.
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The workshop was created through a collaboration between William L. Clements Library Director Paul Erickson, AAPS faculty member Joslyn Hunscher-Young, and AAPS staff member Jared Aumen. Organized by them and by Clements Librarian for Instruction and Engagement Maggie Vanderford and Clements Intern and University of Michigan History PhD candidate Jamal Dillman-Hasso