Smithsonian National Education Summit 2023: Online Day 1
Earlier today — Wednesday, July 19, 2023 — I attended several sessions during the first full day for the online version of the Smithsonian National Education Summit after the Welcome Reception last night. Two of the sessions had a strong focus on history and presented ways to share concepts with students and visitors of all ages, inspiring them to deeply engage with artifacts and artwork.
Be a History Detective: Promoting Historical Thinking Skills in Young Learners
In this session, four museum educators taught us to be “history detectives”, asking thoughtful questions about to learn more about the past. Maureen Leary, Youth & Family Programs Manager at the National Postal Museum, described the importance of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) for students to increase self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision-making. Through this process, students develop empathy, compassion, and respect for each other. Creating an environment or culture that encourages inquiry and empowers the students allows them to feel safe and learn better.
Eden Cho, Education Technologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, led an example of a History Detectives activity through exploring the origin story of fortune cookies. Cho taught using the thinking routine “See, Think, Wonder” created by Harvard’ Project Zero, with Ariel Moon, Lead Education Specialist for Early Childhood Programs at the National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC), acting as the student. Cho explained that fortune cookies did not originate from China but from Japan and originally had savory flavors like miso, a tasty soybean based soup. In the early 1900s, Makoto Hagiwara, who owned the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, CA, ordered the first American version of the cookie from Suyeichi Okamura, owner of the confectionery store Benkyodo. When Japanese-Americans were incarcerated during World War II, Chinese-Americans made a version of these cookies on their own. Originally handmade, fortune cookies are now mass produced.
Meera Muñoz Pandya, Adult Learning Specialist at the National Postal Museum, took the conversation in a different direction by displaying a two-cent stamp celebration the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the Dominican Republic. The image on the stamp was based on the painting “Landing of Columbus”, completed by John Vanderlyn in 1847. The massive twelve-foot by eighteen-foot painting hangs in the United States Capitol. Muñoz Pandya warned that this painting should not be the first time indigenous people are introduced to students, as they are depicted as half-hidden at the side of the image, “barely characters in their own story”. Students should consider why absences of certain voices or stories exist in history, creating gaps of knowledge. Thoughts on Columbus and his actions have greatly changed since his landing, and depictions from 1892 are neither honest nor truthful.
Moon returned to show how a picture book can be used as a precursor to “diving into more complex true stories from history”, especially when teaching students about a setting, point-in-time, or difficult concept. Moon used the 2017 book Please Please the Bees by Gerald Kelley as an example. In this book, Benedict the Bear loves honey but does not respect the bees who make it for him. The bees go on strike, and Benedict learns his lesson. Throughout the story, students learn about unfair working conditions, unions, and ethics. Moon paralleled the book with the 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike in Memphis, TN. Sanitation workers had asked for hire pay and improved working conditions but were largely ignored, as most workers were Black men. After the workers went on strike for two months, their conditions improved. A stark, black-and-white photo of striking workers holding signs that read “I Am a Man” was compared to a collection of modern strike and protest signs found in the Smithsonian Learning Lab.
History Is Messy: How We Tell and Remember Stories
Led by Nichole Vance and Tiffany McGettigan, educators at the famously round Hirshhorn Museum, this presentation focused on an incredible installation at the museum Mark Bradford’s Pickett’s Charge, which was specifically commissioned by the museum. Artist Mark Bradford created a mixed-media artwork on the third level of the museum, which fills the entire 400 linear feet of the ring of the floor. Described as “a series of eight monumental canvases that explore the turning point of the American Civil War”, each canvas has a title describing an important part of the Battle of Gettysburg: Dead Horse, Battle, Two Men, Copse of Trees, The Thunderous Cannonade, The Man with the Flag, High Water Mark, and Witness Tree.
Bradford found inspiration of the 19th century cyclorama at the Gettysburg National Military Park in Adams County, PA depicting Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, which is likewise kept in a round building. The battle itself was a turning point in the Civil War. Lasting from July 1 to July 3 in 1863, the battle resulted in around 50,000 casualties, with more deaths and injuries than any other battle during the war. Pickett's Charge by Union troops caused the Confederate army to retreat and suffer defeat, and disaster for the Confederacy.
The artwork took a year to construct. Bradford made the artwork from five to ten layers of billboard sized printouts of the original painting, which he pasted onto the walls and then methodically ripped away. He further tore, bleached, and burned the images, added intricate paths of string, and layered on fluorescent paint. A window between panels lets visitors view the National Mall in the middle of the art work. As the site of multiple civil rights protests, the Mall reminds viewers that the fight for equality did not end with the Civil War and still goes on today.
Vance and McGettigan used multiple thinking routines to guide viewers through interacting with the artwork. Zoom In / Zoom Out allowed viewers to gain new perspectives when looking close and then far away. Looking Ten Times Two encouraged viewers to observe the art and write ten words, then observe again and write ten different words. Brief Observation Sketching helped viewers to focus on the lines and structure of the art. A round of comparing and contrasting let viewers see the original painting and the modern artwork side-by-side.