Howard Zinn

Friday, January 29, 2010

On Wednesday Howard Zinn, author of our class book A People's History of the United States, passed away at the age of 87.

Howard (he wouldn't approve of being refered to as "Zinn") was a personal hero of mine. He grew up in a working class Jewish family in Boston and served as a bombadier in World War II. Following the war he became a civil rights advocate and a professor at Spelman College. He was later fired from Spelman for participating in a Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee protest against the college's orders. He was insubordinate, and I loved him for that.

In 1980, while teaching at Boston University, he published A People's History. His argument was history was subjective and not objective. He argued most governments supported the status quo and not the people. He argued no writer is without bias and nor should they claim to be.

I didn't agree with everything Howard said or wrote, but I admired him nonetheless. He was a tireless advocate for peace and social justice.

I would tell Howard to rest in peace, but he wouldn't want that--he'd prefer to protest and raise some hell.

While our students might dread hauling around his voluminous book, he was an outstanding writer whose impact influenced generations of future leaders. I hope our students learn from his example--and whether they agree with him or not--we can all gain hope and inspiration from his example.

Updates for the Week of January 25th

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Hi All,

I have a few updates for everyone listed below:

1. Progress Reports
2. History Fair
3. What we've been up to

1. GRADES
Progress Reports go out this weekend. The reports are a combination of the 1st and 2nd trimester grades. Because the 2nd trimester hasn't been completed yet, the 2nd trimester grades are not weighted as highly as the 1st trimester grades (confused yet?). So here's an example:

1st trimester percentage: 60%
2nd Trimester percentage: 80%

If the trimesters were equal, the average would be 70%--a C--but since we are only half way through the 2nd trimester--the 2nd trimester grade is worth half as much--so the progress report percentage would be 65%--still a D. So while a student's percentage went up--the grade from first trimester remains the same (for now--if the work level continues, then it would go up for 2nd trimester report cards).

If you have questions about grades, please feel free to email me at mpond@mrpond.org.

2.HISTORY FAIR
It was ambitious to have a research essay and History Fair completed in the same trimester, and I'm realizing one assignment needs to be cut. After speaking with the class, History Fair will now be optional (except for students in the U.S. History Skills Colloquium). Students who compete in History Fair (and I still STRONGLY encourage it) will receive significant extra credit.

Our school fair will be held on February 24th. and those who advance will compete in the city regionals at the Illinois Institute of Technology on March 13th.

3.WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO
Last Thursday we had a classroom simulation for the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 (I encourage you to ask students about what they learned) and it went very well. On Monday we discussed women's rights in the 19th century--including the Lowell Mill strike and powerful, yet largely unkown women like Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Blackwell, and to a lesser degree, Sojourner Truth.

Students are presently working on a Primary Source Poetry Slam to understand slavery and how to use evidence to make an argument. On Monday students will present a poem based on the life of a former slave. Students are using the Library of Congress' "Born in Slavery" website to research slave narratives collected during the Federal Writers Project. A link to the site can be found here.

When creating their poem, students can ONLY use the words of the ex-slave--they may, however, re-arrange the words any way they like. They must have at least 16 lines of no more than 8 words per line. We'll have a classroom stage and set for students to perform on and students can earn extra credit for coming in period costume. A sample poem that I wrote with the words of Mary Reynolds will be posted at the end of this blog.

On Thursday we'll have a Civil War re-enactor coming in to show us what life was like for soldiers and surgeons in the Civil War. It should be pretty cool.

That's all for now--please email me with any questions and check out the sample poem below:

Mary Reynolds

They was things past tellin’
I got scars on my old body
Niggers, men and women
I seen them put in the stock
Hands screwed down in the holes
Feets tied together
Naked behinds to the world
The overseer beat them with a big whip
A big whip
The massa look on

They cut the flesh and bones
They cut flesh and bones
So they never get up again
They cart them down to the graveyard
Bury them shallow
The buzzards don’t come around
And niggers mourn now
But them days was no time for mournin’

We prayed
We prayed
One day we’d only be slaves of Gawd
We prayed
We prayed
Gawd don’t think different of blacks and whites
We prayed for the end of tribulation
We prayed we could have special
Special meat to eat

I prayed
I prayed to rot in the ground
Cuz I hated when they beat me
Beat me for no reason
Beat
Me naked as the day I was born

Slavery was the worst days
And I got scars on my old body

Holler if you hear me!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."~excerpted from: The Declaration of Independence, 1776

Our nation was born out of protest and since then, various protests and rebellions have led to the end of slavery, the 8 hour workday (and weekends), women's suffrage, and...at least in theory...equal rights for most.

I'd like to hear of any instances where you or a family member participated in or witnessed some type of protest and/or rebellion. Please post your stories here and in the next few weeks we'll have an online conversation about these protests and the ones we discuss in class. I look forward to hearing from you!

Kicking off the New Year

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Tomorrow is the first school day of the new year and we're diving right in. We've got a lot of work to do for History Fair--which will most likely be held the first week of March. We've also got an interesting unit on Protest & Rebellion which will seek to answer a fundamental question: when, if ever, do people have the right to rebel against authority?

To help answer this question students will write 5 "Recipes for Rebellion" and a 5 page research paper. The instructions for this project are here. I also have a sample recipe I created to give students an idea of what their recipes could look like. This is also available on my website here. I encourage students to be creative with their recipe designs and thorough with their research. Their recipes will help them write the research paper, so the better the recipes are, the better the paper should be.

We will do a lot of multi-tasking this trimester with this unit and History Fair. I plan on devoting some class time to work on both History Fair and the research for the essay to ease the homework burden.

I'd like to invite all of you to talk about the essay and History Fair projects at home. And please, if you have any comments or questions feel free to post them here or email me at: mpond@mrpond.org

Happy New Year!