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.
Susan is a program director at Primary Source, a global education nonprofit based in Massachusetts that develops curriculum resources and professional learning opportunities for K–12 schools. Zeiger has authored books and articles, including Entangling Alliances: Foreign War Brides and American Soldiers in the Twentieth Century.
Julia is a writer and editor based in Washington, D.C. She is a reporter for The Nation’s Health newspaper at the American Public Health Association and a communications fellow at the advocacy group End Rape on Campus. Her writing has appeared in ReadersDigest.com, People.com, Parents.com, Healthline and more.
This piece is to accompany the Teaching Tolerance article "Getting the Civil War Right." Some historians have called the period of Reconstruction that followed the Civil War the "second American Revolution" and the 13th
It is Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. An African American woman boards a city bus downtown. She sits down in the first available seat. When white passengers begin boarding, the bus driver orders her to get up and surrender