Making History Come Alive

In Upper School’s Public Perspectives: US History, students learn the essentials of US history from the colonial period through the 20th century. More emphasis is placed on how national trends have shaped our state and local community; through local field trips, speakers, and research projects, students how community identity and purpose is forged through retellings of shared experience. The class is encouraged to see how Dallas interprets and publicly transmits its history and to look at how changing interpretations have impacted the community.

As a Social Impact-designated class, it is built around understanding community through interpreting the past. “The girls are seeing real people engaging in historical interpretation in our city, which is providing real-world experience,” said Elizabeth Bennett, Upper School History teacher. “Listening to our speakers’ stories as well as reading accounts of individuals from the past has encouraged the girls to develop empathy.”

One key feature of this class is to emphasize how individual stories comprise the fabric of the historical record at both the macro and micro levels. For individuals, family history can help build personal identity. To explore this concept, students engage in an oral history project in which they interview an older family member to find out how and why their family came to reside in Dallas. As part of the assignment, the class reflects on what they learned about their own history.  Course curriculum emphasizes the personal experiences of individuals as a window into larger historical and societal trends which allows students to see how individuals – or groups – from different backgrounds sometimes have competing or opposing interpretations of the past. 

“I want the girls to understand that the study of history is relevant to everyday life,” said Ms. Bennett. “I also them to come away with useful transferrable skills including research ability, analytical thinking, building empathy, and leadership. These aren’t just skills for studying history; these are life skills.”

Last fall, the class welcomed Amber Sims, the CEO of Young Leaders Strong City. Ms. Sims spoke about her work to recover the memory of the once-thriving Black community north of downtown through her discovery of the B.F. Darrell school site, a historic Black high school that was demolished and forgotten in the early 1970s. She talked about the importance of remembering as a vehicle for community pride and cohesion and acknowledging past wrongs as the city moves forward.

“I want students to understand that history matters to how individuals and communities define themselves,” said Ms. Bennett. “Most people think that learning history just means memorizing a set of known facts. In fact, real historical work is about interpreting facts and making a coherent explanation that helps us understand the past and serves to guide our path forward.”

In January, the class went on a Hidden History of Dallas bus tour with Don and Jocelyn Pinkard and visited the Freedman’s cemetery and the State Thomas district, areas that were once the preserve of Black communities but have been largely erased by development and gentrification. Through relating their own stories as well as by providing historical context, the Pinkards helped students understand the segregation that existed in Dallas from the late 19th century through the Civil Rights era. Other field trips include the African American Museum of Dallas, the Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House and Museum, and Old City Park. “Through visiting historic sites in Dallas and hearing from local speakers, students are learning how the presentation and interpretation of history impact how we think about the present,” said Ms. Bennett.

For the fifth year, the class completed a special project for Black History Month. This year, they focused on local history and coordinated their project with Darin Jeans’ Sixth Grade US History curriculum. Students investigated the Civil Rights movement in Dallas and will present their findings to the entire Sixth Grade in May. “Students in Mr. Jeans’s class will have been studying the national Civil Rights Movement, so this is an opportunity for the girls in my class to tell the story of how national concerns played out on a local level,” said Ms. Bennett.