Teaching Hard History

Hi everyone!

Today’s class session has definitely got me thinking more about how to go about teaching hard history in my own future classroom. Honestly, teaching history has been the topic I am most worried about teaching my future students, as I do not feel that my own history lessons were adequate growing up. I am feeling much more prepared to tackle these topics, especially in K-2 classrooms. The quiz we took at the beginning of class was a wake up call to how much I did NOT learn in school when I was younger.

I found another excellent resource that has more focus on lessons discussing slavery for younger students: https://www.learningforjustice.org/frameworks/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery/k-5-framework

However, the question I am still stuck on is how to teach hard history if you are working in a state or school district that either wants you to not tell the whole truth, such as only focusing on the ‘good’ parts, or does not incorporate it in the younger grade curriculum at all?  What if your personal beliefs on what you should be teaching about hard history topics do not align with the curriculum of the school you work in?

My second question is, what other hard history topics are there that we should be teaching about? I would like to hear from fellow classmates as to what topics you believe will be challenging to teach.

Our class session yesterday was extremely informative, but I still feel like I have a long way to go to further educate myself on the topic of slavery, especially in Virginia. As future teachers, how should we go about getting this further education, specifically focusing on delving deeper into topics? What should we be expected to do to learn more about a topic? I feel like there is so much to know and understand about history and I want to make sure that I can teach my future students the truth and avoid the seven key problems that we spoke about in class when it comes to teaching slavery in America.

Thank you for reading! I am looking forward to seeing everyone’s responses. I hope everyone learned something new today like I did! I also hope that we can continue these hard and difficult conversations throughout the remainder of our class, because they are extremely valuable and needed.

Best,

Halle