anthro notes

National Museum of Natural History Newsletter for Teachers

vol. 6 no. 2

spring 1984

TALKING WITH TEACHERS

(Editors’ Note: Anthro · Notes editors periodically interview former participants of the George Washington University/Smithsonian Institution Anthropology for Teachers Program to discover how teachers are continuing to incorporate anthropology into their curricula. A selection of responses follows.)

To her surprise and delight Sallie Gough is spending this year teaching anthropology in Madrid, Spain, where her husband was assigned to the Air Force Base. Gough is teaching anthropology to 18 enthusiastic young airmen furthering their education after work. The students have conducted mother-infant observations, visited the National Archeological Museum where there is an early man exhibit and a reconstruction of the cave and paintings from Altamira, observed primates at Madrid's “huge, grand zoo”, and analyzed aspects of Spanish culture.

A summer visit to China sparked new teaching projects for Susan Hirtz, still teaching 7th and 8th grades at Green Acres School in Maryland. On her summer tour in China, Hirtz visited the archeological dig, Xian. This school year the English and social studies teachers teamed up to teach a unit on China.

Willa Hennigan's 6th grade students at Bailey's Elementary School enthusiastically explored exhibits at the National Museum of Natural History through a new study approach. The students were divided into five groups with six students and one parent to each group. They visited five different stations in the museum with worksheets designed for each. “The students got so much more out of their visit and the parents who accompanied each group gave much positive feedback. The students were really involved.”

The spring rite in Joyce Abell's anthropology classes at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School last year generated exciting anthropological insights for students. The 10th through 12th graders stretched their legs and skills surveying a neighborhood considerably different from the one they live in. Away from the affluent suburb, Abell's classes visited Adams Morgan, a downtown, Washington, D.C. neighborhood economically and ethnically mixed. Their one day goals were to discover: 1) what groups of people live in Adams-Morgan, 2) what services are provided, and 3) where the neighborhood begins and ends. They divided into survey teams to observe and interview. The best informants turned out to be the Advisory Neighborhood Council representative, the shop merchants, the police, and the street people. Joyce Abell says the students came back from the experience realizing they can see far more than they thought and that different informants give very different views of the same place. Above all, the students commented on seeing people from so many different backgrounds working together in Adams-Morgan.

A unit on Native Americans began this year at Quander Road Center School in Virginia, thanks to Maxine Clark's study in the History of American Indians course at the Northern Virginia Community College and her previous year with the George Washington University/Smithsonian Institution Anthropology for Teachers Program.

Ting Oei teaching at South Lakes High School in Fairfax, Virginia brings anthropology into World History and World Civilizations classes in a creative way this year. Last summer Oei was one of three teachers working on the Curriculum Design for the Gifted and Talented. He restructured his courses around anthropology. Using four major themes, the class explores each theme from prehistory to the present. During the first quarter the focus is on Water and Its Role in Shaping Civilization. For the next three quarters, the students study Law and Religion: Man's Search for Stability; Aggression: How Man Does Himself In; and Art: How Man Expresses Himself

Martha William's commitment and enthusiasm for historical archeology led her to study for another M.A., in Applied History, offered by George Mason University. In this new graduate program, she is studying historic preservation, museum studies, and archives management.

With the Anthropology for Teachers course and an M.A. in Anthropology from American University completed, M. Christopher Williams is designing a new two-semester anthropology course to begin next fall in Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland. But Japan comes first. Williams and 30 other educators were selected to visit Japan this summer as part of a fellowship program co-sponsored by the National Council of Social Studies and the Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs.