Back to class: Federal grant awarded for history teacher enrichment

By Bob Stuart

Published: April 29, 2008

A $455,145 federal grant will allow history teachers in the Waynesboro Schools and three other Virginia school districts to gain a deeper appreciation of pivotal moments in American history, educators said Tuesday.
The Teaching American History grant program will be managed by the grant’s author, the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton. The grant was obtained from the U.S. Department of Education and will start in the fall.
Wilson Library Education Director Joel Hodson said 25 history teachers from the Waynesboro, Winchester, Fredericksburg and Amherst County schools will spend parts of the next three years learning about critical periods in American history.
The focus will start with colonial times and advance to the present.
Hodson said the teachers will spend a week at the Wilson Library each summer learning about four critical moments in U.S. history.
History experts from area colleges and universities will visit the museum and offer insight. The teachers will also go on field trips, read and do other study.
“This curriculum is designed to improve the teachers’ knowledge and appreciation of traditional American history by providing focused viewpoints on America’s past,’’ Hodson said.
Teachers participating in the program will have the context to better understand American history, Hodson said. 
“We are trying to provide a thematic context where teachers can organize their thinking and communicate,’’ he said.
The critical moments will start with the influence of Europeans on the new world from 1492 to 1600.
Teachers will study the technology, weapons and even the diseases that came across the Atlantic with Europeans, Hodson said.
Another critical moment for the teachers will focus on will be the United States and globalization.
“We will study how the United States competes or fails to compete globally,’’ Hodson said.
Waynesboro Schools Superintendent Robin Crowder said the grant will provide his teachers invaluable insight.
“It’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,’’ Crowder said.
Instead of teachers sitting in a room and taking notes, Crowder said they will talk directly to experts and go out in the field.
“The teachers will get a slice of learning they will never have access to again,’’ he said. “Their classrooms will be more engaging, and the teaching and learning will be more exciting.”
Crowder will open up the program to all his high school, middle school and fifth-grade history teachers.
But he said schedules will prevent many from going, and the 25 program slots will be divided among four school districts.