Hello!
Thanks to the Lilly Teacher Creativity Grant program I get to spend 6 weeks this summer in Washington D.C., and thanks to my wonderful husband, Tom, I can blog about my experiences!
Why would I want to go to Washington D.C. for 6 weeks? I guess the most obvious answer is why wouldn't I??? The Lilly Foundation wouldn't have accepted that answer and neither should you! I am forever telling my students to "explain", "support", "provide details" so I guess I have to do the same thing or they would
never let me live it down!
The best answer I can give is also the title of both my Lilly proposal and this blog...I
do not want to become like the history teacher in the movie
Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Although Ben Stein played the teacher for comedic effect, I have had way too many people tell me how much they disliked American History in school because it was boring. I cringe every time I hear this because our history is so fascinating! I want others to marvel at the fact that we, as a nation, though flawed have turned out as well as we have.
However, after 15 years of teaching I have begun to worry that I am slipping toward Ferris territory, and something has to be done to stop it! Hence, the trip to D.C. I have taken wonderful groups of students there for 3 day whirlwind experiences, but I always leave wishing I had more time to see things that are more interesting to me than they would be to the kids. I don't just want to tour the National Cathedral, I want to attend a service; I want to see a play at the Kennedy Center and not just the Hall of Flags; and now that the Smithsonian American History Museum is open again, I want to get lost in there!
There is a wide spread misconception that history is about names and dates, but it is really about the imagination. Picture Mrs. Robert E. Lee standing on her veranda at her plantation, Arlington, and being able to see the dome being built atop the U.S. Capitol and knowing her husband is off fighting against the very government it houses. What must that have felt like? How can we put ourselves in her shoes if we don't have the time to reflect on it? That is what 6 weeks in Washington D.C. will do for me: give me some breathing space and time to get excited again, use my imagination, and reflect.
What a wonderful gift I have been given!
