I had never know how important source material can play in the course of a young persons education until middle daughter came home from school on Martin Luther King Jr. Day when she was in the seventh grade. I asked Emily about her day and what they had done to celebrate the life of Dr. King. She said to me, "It was fine, but why do we only hear the 'I had a dream' part of the speech? I want to hear the whole thing." After hearing this I walked towards our families bookshelves and began to beam with pride. I was proud, that with this question my twelve year-old daughter had taken ownership of her own educational process. I was even prouder of my wife and I for raising children in a home that had multiple books with transcripts of that speech in them, ready to be read.
Not all children are this lucky. I was not. I can remember during the summer months of my youth that my mom would take my sister, brother and I to the local library for their vacation reading program. But I cannot remember seeing my parents read books. I did not have instant access to volumes and volumes of books. So, although I may have been encouraged to read I was not given the tools. Today's young people have all the information of the world at their finger tips through the Internet, but there is no substitution for reading a book.
I want to more than historical dates and geographical names. My goal is for students to immerse themselves in history. Whether is visiting historic Williamsburg on an educational vacation or delving into the actual source documents form the Salem Witch trials. To encourage this in my classroom I have set a goal of taking a 1000 book library with me where ever I teach.
My hope for this blog is that you will fallow my next four years as I return to college as a middle-aged student. I will share funny stories and challenging times and hope that you will feel inspired to help add books to our library. Here are the things that you can do to help:
- Purchase books found on the Wish List page from my Amazon Wish List. I don't care if they are new or old copies of the book and my address is already preset for shipping.
- Suggest books to be added to the list by commenting on the List Suggestion page. My goal is to keep the wish list to as much source material as possible. Meaning, straight from the subjects own words. Feel free to suggest whatever you like as long as it deals with U.S. or World history.
- Read and comment on my blog postings and book reviews. Comments are very welcome. It will let me know I'm not out here on my own.
- Share this blog with anyone you think would enjoy it. It takes a village!