anthro notes

a newsletter for teachers

vol. 10 no. 2

spring 1988

SYMPOSIUM ON ANTHROPOLOGY AND SCHOOLS

The theme of the April Annual Meeting of The Society for Applied Anthropology, held in Tampa, Florida, was “Applied Anthropology in Multidisciplinary Perspective.” Several sessions focused on anthropologists and schools. At the suggestion of Benita Howell, editor of Practicing Anthropology, Ruth O. Selig and Patricia J. Higgins organized the symposium, “Anthropologists, Teachers and Schools: Multidisciplinary Anthropology in Action.” This symposium grew out of Selig's and Higgins’ special issue of Practicing Anthropology (vol. 8, no. 3-4, 1986) devoted to Pre-College Education. (This issue is available, free of charge, from Ruth O. Selig, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Research, SI 120, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560.)

The symposium was designed to illustrate the variety of approaches that can be taken by professional anthropologists to encourage and improve the use of anthropological concepts and data in precollege classrooms. Lawrence Breitborde (Beloit College) and Henry Moy (Logan Museum) described several programs undertaken by a small college anthropology department and museum in cooperation with local elementary schools. The programs included curriculum unit development, an NEH-funded teacher training institute, and a cooperative weekend and summer school program.

Ted and Charlotte Frisbee (Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville) shared their enthusiasm and experience helping their department develop a curriculum enrichment project for all levels of the Edwardsville public schools. The program has grown each year and includes museum tours and open houses, special workshops and courses for teachers, cooperative courses for elementary education students, and a proposal for a new multi-disciplinary course, “Social Sciences for Educators,” that would involve seven university departments.

Ruth Selig (Smithsonian) followed with an analysis of her own twenty- four year involvement with precollege anthropology. She illustrated diverse ways anthropologists can create impact at more general and more powerful levels of constituents, i.e. secondary school students through individual teachers in classrooms, teachers in university/museum teacher training programs in both large and small communities (Washington, D.C. and Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming, respectively), and, finally, lobbying national professional associations (AAA, SFAA) for change, as anthropologists and teachers begin to see the relevance of the discipline to a broader national constituency.

A summer Family History Project for eleven to fourteen year-olds, funded through NEH, was the focus of a paper presented by Patricia Higgins (SUNY-Plattsburgh). She described the project's close cooperation among a university anthropologist, historian, and sociologist, as well as among local educators, communication specialists, and library resource persons. A videotape of the project, created by participating students, was shown.

Jeanne Fulginiti (anthropologist and Assistant Superintendent, Reading School District) showed a videotape, illustrating the Hartford Public Schools’ Gifted and Talented Program's involvement with anthropology through the students’ re-creation of the Connecticut River Valley culture during Noah Webster's lifetime.

Finally, Eugenie Scott (National Council for Science Education) concluded with an analysis of the positions, tactics, and propaganda of the scientific creationists and with her suggestions for ways teachers can more effectively present evolution in the classroom.

Ruth Selig