Organization of American Historians conference
The Texas Panhandle was represented by seven participants at the OAH conference in Washington,D.C. in April 2006. We were pleased that Dr. Shaffer was able to join us on the first day of the conference. As always, the OAH offered provocative sessions which encourage critical thinking and debate! Our teachers occasionally were amazed (and dare I say, horrified?) at some of the sessions. The off-site sessions offered such rarities as a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Archives, the nuts and bolts of digital access to the Library of Congress, and other useful and fascinating topics. For my part, best of all was simply being in the nation’s capital and actually seeing all the things we teach our students.
Warning: The opinions stated herein are not necesarrily the opinions of management!
Amazed and horrified is putting it mildly! It was amazing how few sessions were applicable to the teaching of history at the secondary level. It was horrifying to see how personal agendas were pushed forward at a national conference that supposed to feature some of the brightest minds in historical thought. I embarked on the journey to DC full of enthusiasm and interest, expecting to be infused with a wealth of knowledge from the creme-de-la-creme of the historical universe. Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed upon the rocky shores of reality. There were some sessions (albeit very few) that I felt had some relevance to the classroom, were interesting, and were able to challenge me. The OAH conference was a mixture of name tag shopping (having “high school” on your tag was the equivalent of wearing a cow pie around your neck), snobbery, argumentativeness and elitism, at its worst. The highlight of several of the sessions I attended was when a member of the audience claimed that speaker was wrong and then a full fledged argument broke out. With both sides shamelessly promoting their own book on the subject, and haranguing one another.
However, the trip to Washington DC was perhaps one of the best experiences I have had in professional development (Thanks Danna). Simply being exposed to the environment of Washington DC is an invaluable learning experience (including the highbrow elitism of the OAH). The six of us walked endless miles, literally, through American history. The sights and sounds of DC are a learning experience in and of themselves. You cannot explain – compare – or recreate the feeling of standing in front of the Vietnam War Memorial, the Holocaust Museum, the Marble Halls of the Supreme Court and so many others in person. It is something that has to be experienced. I think we all came away with similar thoughts and feelings about our trip. DC was great, OAH…not so much.
Ah yes the trip to Washington DC. What a feast for the senses. DC was such an interesting and worthwile experience. One I will not soon forget.
My PACETAH bretheren, you should count your blessings that our TAH grant is coupled with university faculty who are responsive and enthusiastic about working with secondary teachers to help further the teaching of history.
After you attend a “conference” of professional historians like the OAH you feel sort of like gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe…and now you know the rest of the story.
Washington Hilton- This hotel was the site of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1984. I found it interesting to try to find the exact spot that happened. Robert Hayes talked to the doormen and discovered that a small building had been erected over the door that Reagan exited. Otherwise the area had not changed much. I found the contrast to that site and the location of the killing of Abraham Lincoln to fascinating, even being at both sites in the same day. That was the starting of a very challenging week, full of adventure. It added to my knowledge of the national capital in many different ways.
Dana Beck started out by teaching us how to ride the Metro. This is the modern and very clean mass transit train that goes under much of Washington. I had heard much about this modern wonder but to experience it was another thing indeed. If you grow up in the Texas Panhandle there is not much chance to use mass transit. With the cost of fuel going up that statement might change. All five of us bought a $20.00 pass each, which lasted through out the trip. There is a sense of freedom to not have to worry about a vehicle, just get you pass and go. In fact the speed of the Metro would get you across town in amazing speed, no worries about traffic jams. I found that waiting for another train was not much longer than waiting for a traffic light. From a $1.35 to $2.50 one could go to Alexandria, or the Stadium or Capital Hill and so forth.
National Archives-
It was a trip on the Metro returning from Arlington that we hurried back for our first meeting. The five of us ( Cadenhead, Daily, Hayes, Hulsey and myself) It was an introduction to the historical organization and an explanation of its history and goals. From this meeting we scattered out to take in many of the different sessions. I will describe the sessions which I attended.
I attended two events at the archives. The first was a before hours tour of the historical organization by the Archivist in charge of Education Experience. By entering the back way to the archives it let us see new areas within the National Archives that I had not seen on my two previous trips. We got time to see the documents without a large crowd. Since this archivist had indeed seen the back side of the Declaration of Independence I had to ask or my students would not have forgiven me. The expected answer, there is nothing on the back except possibly an archival number. We got to view the brand new training and conference room built to educate teachers about the use and wealth of the archives.
Days later I attended a meeting, in the National Archives, on digital storage and access of important records. It was in one of the meeting rooms just off the main exhibit hall. To get to this meeting I had to bypass the line of tourists by going backward through the exit. The guards sent me up to the second floor and there found the room by the good fortune of running into the presenter. This meeting gave participants a chance to review the experience gained by bigger institutions in getting their records on line. It discussed the difficulties in getting more of the records of institutions compatible with internet usage.
A Wed Morning session, Clashing Identies: Arrow Rock, Mo. This seminat was presented by members of the Central Missouri State University. It looked at the old site of Arrow Rock Mo. that is very famous and the starting point on the Santa fe Trail. It was in area of slavery. In fact slaves build the old cobblestone streets that still exist today. Presentations were made on the historic aspects of the Arrow Rock by Jeff Yelton, Delia Gillas and Jon Taylor. Gillas delt with the African American experience that existed in the community as slaves. Paul Rorvig discussed techniques in teaching of American Historical places in the K-12 classrooms. They gave many ideas that I plan to use in the future.
More on the sessions in Washington
Strategies for effective Teaching of US History. A session that included Analyzing History by David Settje, Primary sources by Robin Bowden and History Matters by Kathleen Riley. There is much to digest here but overall good sessions and might be used in the actual classroom.
The War that made America. A look at the PBS documentary that was done in a different way. Eric Strange the producer was there with Fred Anderson who wrote the book. A difference in heir film was to use more dramatic actions scenes and not to use talking heads and still photos. A very enjoyable session
No Calm before the storm: Mexican American Politics after 1940. This session presented by Marc Rodriquez and Neil Foley (UT) explored civil rights of Hispanics after WWI
.
Vital Nation by Jeffery Brown (U of New Brunswick ) explores the Vitalism movement of the Progressive Era. It had too many references to obscure intellectual ideas of the turn of the century. I like intellectual history but this was much too miniscule. Tone down the words young man.
Oral Histories (collecting, editing and presenting.) gave by Bradley K Klein and Tony Cirne. This breakout session was very informative on the techniques of Oral history.
A Sense of Place- Workshops for teachers at Mt. Vernon and the Hermitage. Among the presenters was Claire Griffin of the Bill of Rights Institute. She beento our Bill of Rights sessions at region 16. This was a very good session and make one was to the attend the workshops at the historic sites.
I attended a session on teaching Immigration in the United States history survey course. The presenter from the University of California gave maybe the best paper that I saw. His topic was teaching immigration to students in the introductory level of American history. I believe his topic was relevant to secondary teachers, especially AP teachers, because he approached it from the point of view of teaching students with largely no background in American history. His approach was very much like what we do as secondary teachers. I think that the most important thing that he said was that it is more important to get the kids hooked with an idea rather than try to teach the breadth of the subject. His students tend to be hispanic, therefore his focus was on the role of hispanics in immigration inthe US. He showed how dry statistics and pieces of history that would otherwise be boring could woven in to a good lecture on the subject.
The National Archives
As previously mentioned we spent some behind the scenes time at the National Archives. It was one of the official sessions we attended. I found that session to be very valuable if not too brief. The National Archives is attempting to make archival information more readily available to teachers through it’s website and onsite outreach programs. When we were on the tour we saw the meeting room that was being set up to accomdate a group of social studies teachers to develop primary source material and to train teacher how to access information from the National Archives. The Direcor of Education explained to us that many of the resources were going to be made availabe in a variety of formats for our use in the future.
Datline: Washington Hilton. 4/19-22/06. Organization of American Historians and the National Councilon Public History. I am afraid the state of professional historians nationally is indeed in ill. Thanks for our local historians at WT. I agree with David Daily. I also must mention that the Smithsonian History Museum is also not in a healthy contition. The professionals have trivilized artifacts and promoted their interpertation. Reading comments on the internet (after getting back) many others have noticed this slap at presenting real artifacts of our national history. A great example is how they treated WWI. It got an area half the size of a small classroom. I did enjoy the Star Spangled Banner and the cars and machinery on the first floor. I loved the old Rumley tractor and old #1 Case steam engine. Other Smithsonian museums are indeed much better with the exception of the Indian Museum. It could and deserves much better handling. In conclusion see you in Independance.
Much like David Daily and David Hutchison have stated. I was not impressed with the OAH conference. So many of the break sessions had no value for teaching secondary socail studies. Upon our afternoon arrival to DC. Dana instructed the five of us guys on how to ride the Metro system. I was amaized at the size and speed at which the trains moved. One thing that did impress me was how helpful people were in DC. Any time that we looked lost someone would offer help on information as to where to go.
My first experience of DC was the old Post office. It was there where all five of us guys learned that it is much better to take the elevator than the stairs. The view we all took in was worth the climb. After leaving the Post Office all five of us walked towards the White house, all along the way I kept looking at the way in which federal building all had that look of collums and granite. When we got close to the White House we could not get very close, cause President Bush was there. It wasn’t until several days later that David Hutchison, and Robert Hayes and my self was able to get a much closer look. From there we proceeded to move toward the Vietnam Wall. By the time we were done here it was time for us to head back for our break out session. This was an informative session for any one who had not been to the OAH cofference before. I really did not get much out that session. After that session we had a recieption to attend. Boy was that fun!!! Because I taught secondary social studies I was a no body. You had to be a college professor to be somebody!
Day two really had no sessions that really drew my attention. The five of us went to the Smithsonian’s: now at the smithsonian of Air and Space WOW! what a place and the things I saw words do not due justice for what I learned. From the Air and space we went to American History. At the American History we went to the 2nd and 3rd floors, I was really not too impressed with these two floors. Some how we thought that we had gone to all of the floors but we did not know that until a few days later! From the Smithsonian of American History we went to Arlington Cementery, we spent most of the afernoon looking around and watch at the tomb of the unknown solider. From there we had to hurry back for break out sessions. I felt that these were a waste. The one I attended was on Migration, and how to address migrating students in todays classrooms. All I got of the session was nothing that could help me in any way or form in my class room.
One thing that I really did enjoy was going and eating and visiting with Dr. Shaffer, I am very thankful for our WT staff that we work with. In everything that I saw and did I got more out of going out to the Supream Court, National Archives, Smithsonian’s, the Lincoln memoral, Arlington, the White House and Capital Hill, than what I did in any of the break out session.
When we do come back I would like to go back to the National Archives and do some personal research of my own interest.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that I wasn’t in Texas any more upon our arrival in Washington D.C. Learning to ride the metro trains and being in such a different world amazed me.
The OAH conference was yet another experience. Being around the historic intellects present I was quick to realize the being a secondary history teacher was being on the lower part of the food chain.. The sessions that I attended were informative yet lacked for me as an educator.
The best part of these days spent in D.C. where the countless hours of visiting historical sights thanks to our tireless tour guide David Hutchison. We walked miles and miles and miles visiting such things such as the Smithonian, The National Archive Building where we got to see the Declaration of Independence and other such documents that built our America. To be taught of these things, then teach of these things and to now see these things makes it all real. The emotions at the Korean war Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial were astounding. Walking the majestic halls of the Supreme court and visiting the Holocaust Museum amazed me that people really lived that and yet some believe it didn’t happen. Lincoln’s Memorial, Capital Hill, to see the snipers on top of the Whitehouse to protect our President. Oh what an experience.
Thanks to Danna and to the TAH grant for allowing this small town, history teacher, from Texas this experience for me to share with students in my classroom. This trip will go into my repitua of “as an experience I won’t forget”.
I would like to sum all this up by the weeks following my trips to Huntsville, Austin and Washington can only be appreciated by the students that I teach. In this brief time they have learned that there are 9 prisons in Huntsville and they are glad they don’t live there. They have learned their coach saw where the National Champions practice football every day. And last but not least, after in D.C. I taught my students how to ride an underground train to school every day. I hope my students appreciate me and I hope they appreciate the experences that the TAH Grant gives me to share with them. That’s who I am there for.
FYI…
No achole, smoking or cussing were involved while writing this blog.
I will have to agree with my fellow travelers, the back drop of Washington DC was wonderful, I learned more from the walking around the monuments and the walking tour of the National Achives than that of the meetings.
However the better of the meeting I found was that of the public History. People who work with the public in national and state parks as well as other public forums. The speakers spoke to us as fellow teachers rather than talk down to us as the most did from the OAH. They did not try to impress us with their papers nor their us of vocabulary!
The two of the best out of about twelve that I attended was with a viewing of a video called “Negro with a Gun” the story of Rob Williams and the birth of the Black Panthers, very much an eye opener, one that I know I will be getting for myself.
The other was with a traveling Train display of photos of Lincon. After the lecture, Bart and I stayed and talked with the presenters and we all shared ideas that would work for them and help us in our classroom.
The best part of the trip was the touring with these other men and the discusion of our forefathers and the history of the city. Thanks Guys!
Good Luck to all in what you do in the future!
Rob
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