Using Political Cartoons to Teach History in the Homeschool - "A Union Christmas Dinner"

 

There are many visual resources at the Library of Congress that are free to use when teaching history in your homeschool. These include archival images that can be probed for their message as well as for what they can tell about the time they represent. These clues are hidden in the fashion, décor and more. Political cartoons are one category of historical images available at the Library of Congress. There are also photographs, etchings, maps and more. This blog points homeschoolers to a political cartoon that was published in Harper’s Weekly in 1864[1] called “A Union Christmas Dinner”.

It depicts President Lincoln standing at the door of the White House dining room. A large table is set. Half the seats are taken already. The president is inviting the Confederate states to return to the table, to reunite with the country. The unanswered question in the cartoon is whether any additional guests, shown behind the door, will take their seats. There are no holiday decorations in the picture. That is because Christmas did not become a federal holiday until 1870 when President Grant signed it into law along with Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July.

Ask your students why they think the cartoonist set this on Christmas. Perhaps he was thinking about how the angels in the Christian Christmas story proclaimed a similar invitation in their message to the shepherds. They said that in the City of David, a savior had been born. They clarified that His birth heralded peace and good will to men. The shepherds hurriedly took the announcement as their summons and invitation to go and see that wondrous sight. Later they were followed by the magi. It is a familiar story. Perhaps that was in the cartoonist’s mind when he drew the Union Christmas Dinner.

Abraham Lincoln did not share a Christmas message with the American people. He did not send an official White House Christmas card. He did not put up a Christmas tree or decorate the White House. But he did lead a fractured nation to a new peace. He did release the people bound in slavery to new freedom. Then, just a few months after this cartoon was published, his life was taken by an assassin’s bullet.

An interesting creative assignment for your students after they have been introduced to the “Union Christmas Dinner” might be to draw their own Christmas political cartoon based on today’s current events.

By Lesley Barker ©2020

 

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[1] The Union Christmas Dinner political cartoon of plea for peace, showing Pres. Lincoln inviting Confederate states to join Northern states at peace table. , 1864. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/99614261/.

A Homeschool Lesson about the Bill of Rights

 

This post takes advantage of yesterday's (December 15) anniversary of the Bill of Rights to create a guided lesson plan for homeschooling families. This lesson can be adapted for use with children functioning between the second or third grade level and high school.

Pose an essential question

A good lesson plan often begins when the teacher poses an essential question that is big enough to make everyone think deeply for longer than the duration of the class. An essential question for this lesson could be: What rights and freedoms should be protected by the government?

Coach the students to make a personal connection with the Bill of Rights

Next, coach the students to form a connection with the Bill of Rights. Explain what the Constitution is. Then, ask the students what they think should be done if it becomes evident that the Constitution needs some additional provisions or changes. Ask them to think of and share examples of when they have experienced a change in the rules at home or in sports. Then link what they divulge to the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

Introduce the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

The United States Constitution was ratified and adopted in 1789. It outlined the way the federal government would function without encroaching on the rights either of the states or of the nation’s citizens. The Constitution is the equivalent of the bylaws of a corporation. It explains the rules which are binding on the government unless a minimum of two-thirds of the states agree to change them. These formal changes are called amendments. The first ten amendments were adopted on December 15, 1791. As a group, these amendments are called the Bill of Rights.

Have the students read, paraphrase, summarize and discuss the Bill of Rights

Provide a copy of the Bill of Rights[1] for the students to read. Assign them to paraphrase each amendment using their own words after they have been introduced to any unfamiliar vocabulary in the original document. Then, ask them to summarize what the amendments contribute to our laws and freedoms. Do the students agree that these are important rights to protect? Are there other rights that the students think should be added? (You might extend this activity to include the other amendments to the Constitution which have been adopted since 1791 for older students, especially if they must take a Civics test to graduate from high school in your state.)

Provide additional information to extend the lesson

The National Archives website[2] has links to several short videos about the Bill of Rights. Watch them with your students. You can pause a video when clarification is needed or to answer or ask questions about what the video says. Ask the students how the information in the videos shifts what they understand. Discuss what new questions the students may have after watching the videos. Return to the essential question in the light of the videos. Assign further research for older students who are curious.

Conclude the lesson by asking the students to think about and use what they have learned to debate whether the Bill of Rights was really necessary and if it is still important today.

According to Thomas Jefferson, the Bill of Rights was necessary because: “Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us”[3]. Hence, the Bill of Rights starts by explaining its purpose in the Preamble: “In order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its [the Constitution’s] powers”[4].

For us at the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project, the Bill of Rights with its "First Amendment" that protects our religious freedom, it is a key to our mission and vision. In order for American school children to be able to exercise their right to a free expression of worship without government interference or coercion, we believe that facts about religion must be made available in terms that elementary and secondary students can understand. Our particular mission is to produce and disseminate resources for teachers and parents about the Christian religion and its history in Kentucky.

How to record the time spent on this lesson for your homeschool records

Count the hours your students spend on this lesson for Reading, History or Social Studies as well as Government or Civics.

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[1]“ The Bill of Rights”. The United States Constitution. ONLINE at https://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/bill-of-rights. ACCESSED 12/16/2020

[2] “Bill of Rights Day, December 15”. National Archives News. ONLINE at https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/bill-of-rights. ACCESSED 12/16/2020.

[3] Thomas Jefferson. June 7, 1816 Letter to Francis W. Gilmore. ONLINE at https://www.loc.gov/resource/mtj1.049_0206_0208/?st=text. ACCESSED 12/16/2020

[4] Preamble. The United States Constitution. ONLINE at https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/bill-of-rights. ACCESSED 12/16/2020.

History Hunting for Homeschoolers & Families

Homeschoolers and families, in general, have unlimited access to history outside of textbooks. It’s much more fun to involve children in hunting for history than to make them think learning names and dates for a test is all that history is about. History hunting pushes children into the books or onto the internet and, without forcing it, they begin to build a timeline of what has happened to us humans since the world began. Start history hunting by identifying what you already know about the history of a person, place or thing. Then make a list of questions you want to research. Do the research. Finally, have a conversation about what you learned. End by thinking about what questions remain for future projects. Here are seven introductory ideas for history hunting that you can begin to use with your children.

Houses and other buildings are great starting points for history hunts. Ask when it was built. Who designed it? What other buildings were built at around the same time? What materials were used? Do we use the same materials when we build similar building today? What tools were used? Whose hands actually did the construction? Is the building being used for its original purpose today? If not, what has changed and why?

Art contains lots of historic information. Go to an art museum or find a famous painting online. Talk about what the painting is about. If there are people in the painting, think about what they are wearing. Are the clothes similar to what is worn today? What buildings, activities, foods, or items are in the painting? How do they compare with what is commonly seen today? Who painted the picture? When and where was it painted? Was the artist trying to portray what the world was like at the time they were painting or was the artist painting something reimagined from history or made up in their mind? Does the painting illustrate a specific historic event? If so, what can you learn about the event from the painting?

Heirlooms or things you have in your home that have been passed down from grandparents or other older people can help connect you with history as well. Talk about what the item is, whose it was originally, when and why they had it and what made them pass it down to your family. Figure out how old it is. Ask who the president was when the item was made. Share the stories of the person who first had the item. Is it something you can still wear or use or is it a keep-sake that no longer has any practical use?

Found items can be historic and sometimes even valuable. Perhaps you are vacationing at the beach and you find a bottle washed up on the shore. Perhaps you are digging in your yard and you find a clay marble or an old button. Try to find out what you have found. Then try to date it by looking online or by asking people at an antique shop, pawn shop or museum. Brainstorm about how the item may have ended up where you found it. Perhaps the button has an insignia. Could it be from a Civil War uniform? What other questions can you think of to make a history connection from the item you found? This is how archaeologists think about what they discover on digs. Perhaps there is an archaeology dig happening nearby that you can visit.

Movies can introduce children to history too. The movie may be set in the past or it may have been produced in the past. Be critical in how you watch each movie. Look at the clothes, the hair styles, the transportation, the work being done and the way people act with each other. Ask what historic information you can learn from the movie. Then look online for verification. Were the hair styles, for instance, true to the historic period or to the time that the movie was made? The cinematography and animation can also be clues to history. How do these technical aspects inform you about the history of film-making, for example?

Letters and diaries are primary historical documents. They usually have dates to indicate when each letter or entry was written. They usually have a signature or other information about the writer and about the intended readers. Perhaps they include information about people, places and events that triggers research questions about history. What was being communicated? Why did the writer think it was important to write? How do you think the reader responded? Are there other letters that might extend what can be learned? Why did you or your relatives keep the letter or diary?

Conversations with older people often produce information about what they have lived through. Anyone who is old enough to remember the attacks of September 11, 2001, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the first moon-walk or the attack on Pearl Harbor can share what they were doing, wearing, and thinking about on that day. People who have traveled to far-away places have stories to tell and, often, pictures or souvenirs to share. Children may be surprised at what a grandparent says if they ask about what they ate for lunch at elementary school or how they researched a term paper when they were in high school. Not only might these conversations enhance the relationships between the students and their elders, the information can expand what the child understands about the past. Internet searches using the word “vintage” in the search box may bring up images that can be compared with the descriptions they heard. When historians use oral history as a way to do their research, they ask questions and then they record the answers using audio or video recorders. They also write accounts of what they learned.

By Lesley Barker PhD ©2020

 

 

Albery Allson Whitman: A Kentucky Role Model

The term, role model, was coined by Robert K. Merton[1], one of the major American sociologists of the twentieth century. Pamela Laird has since studied how social capital including the presence of role models has been a historical predictor and explanation for a person’s success[2]. She traces how a person’s choice of role model impacts their opportunities and choices. She demonstrates that the absence of a role model who shares the person’s background helps to perpetuate barriers to success. People compare themselves to their chosen role models because they aspire to similar careers, roles or achievements. Marilyn Price-Mitchell identifies five qualities in a role model that matter for teens. She defines a child’s role model as anyone who “can aspire a child to achieve their potential in life”[3]. The five qualities she cites are:

1. An effective role model demonstrates a passion for their work and can communicate that passion to other 
2. An effective role model has a “clear set of values”[4] and lives them in public  
3. An effective role model focuses on others, not on themselves 
4. An effective role model serves with a selflessness and an acceptance of people who are different
5. An effective role model has proven their ability to overcome obstacles.

Price-Mitchell says that “positive role models are linked to… [our] ability to believe in ourselves”[5].

Albery Allson Whitman is a famous Kentucky Christian whose life and work fit all the criteria that Price-Mitchell associates with being an effective role model for youth. Whitman overcame impossible obstacles. He was born enslaved near Mundfordville, Kentucky in 1851. He was orphaned before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation made him a free man on January 1, 1863. To date, he had received no education but he worked on the railroad and in a plow shop until he was able to attend Wilberforce University. He became a church-planting pastor with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Whitman also wrote and published six volumes of classical poetry that embody his passion for African Americans and Native Americans to receive justice and honor for their accomplishments. Beyond making his poems available in print, he was recognized as a “poet laureate of the Negro race” and invited to read “The Freedman’s Triumphant Song”[6] at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. This poem shows Whitman’s focus on others as well as his values when it lists the American battles in which African Americans have fought and bled, making a case for them to receive the honor due for these sacrifices.

                “…Our blood at Bunker Hill did flow

                And redden Valley Forge’s snow.

                And where from all our storm-vexed coasts,

                The battle-hurled and scattered hosts

                Of royal George were driven to sea,

                The Negro shared the victory!

                He wore the scars, then what is due-

                The honor – let him wear it too.

                In simple justice, greet him then,

                A man and peer among all men…”[7]

Whitman knew that his life and the poems he wrote would serve as inspiration to other African Americans. In the preface to his 1877 volume, Not A Man, and Yet A Man, he wrote:

                “I was born in Green River Country, Hart County, Kentucky, May 30, 1851. I was a slave until the Emancipation. My parents left me and went to the Good Land when I was yet a boy. My chances for an education have not been good. In that matter, however, I have done what I could. I have worked with my hands, taught school and preached a RISEN, present Savior – not a bad lot after all.”[8]

The last poem in that book is a life-lesson for anyone who needs a role model:

                “A Hint

                Who seeks to show another’s fault will find

                In self a greater shown,

                But he that is to faults of others blind,

                But covers thus his own”[9]

Whitman was a famous Kentucky Christian. His life and verse indicate that his values, passion, selflessness, attentiveness to others and ability to overcome obstacles qualify him as a true role model for anyone.

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[1] Michael T. Kaufman. “Robert K. Merton, Versatile Sociologist and Father of the Focus Group, Dies at 92”. New York Times. 2003. ONLINE at https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/24/nyregion/robert-k-merton-versatile-sociologist-and-father-of-the-focus-group-dies-at-92.html ACCESSED 12/2/2020.

[2] Pamela Laird. Pull: Networking and Success Since Benjamin Franklin. Harvard University Press. 2007

[3] Marilyn Mitchell-Price. “What is a Role Model? Five Qualities that Matter to Youth”. 2011, 2017. ONLINE at http://rootsofaction.com. ACCESSED 12/2/2020.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Albery Allson Whitman. “The Freedman’s Triumphant Song”. ONLINE at http://poemhunter.com/poem/the-freedman-s-triumphant-song. ACCESSED 12/2/2020

[7] Ibid.

[8] Albery Allson Whitman. Not A Man and Yet A Man. 1877.

[9] Ibid.