A simulation of an auction during a fifth-grade lesson about slavery last week is just the latest illustration of why we need better ways to teach hard history.
Teach and learn about the struggle to integrate Central High School with video clips of Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the Little Rock Nine, and with accompanying lessons and texts.
Charles E. Cobb Jr. is a distinguished journalist, educator and activist. As a field secretary with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) he originated the idea of freedom schools as a part of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. He began his journalism career in 1974 as a reporter for WHUR Radio in Washington, DC. In 1976 he joined the staff of National Public Radio as a foreign affairs reporter, bringing to that network its first regular coverage of Africa. From 1985 to 1997 Cobb was a National Geographic staff member. He is the coauthor, with civil rights organizer