Cross Case Features: Teachers

Saunders High School: Social Studies

Steven Jacobsen, Asian History, U.S. History

After taking the NCTA course, history teacher Steven Jacobsen was offered the Asian History course at Saunders High School in addition to his regular U.S. History course. To prepare for his new assignment, Steven Jacobsen attended his colleague Celia Merrill’s Asian History class every day.

Having no previous background in Asian studies, Steven Jacobsen has been surprised by the amount of information he’s absorbed from the NCTA seminar, “You don’t realize it’s in there. Suddenly, when you are teaching, it just starts pouring out of you.” Among the NCTA lessons he has developed for use in his classroom are a comparison of the women’s movement in the U.S. and Japan; a comparison of the current cultures in China and Japan; and a lesson on Commodore Perry in Japan. In his U.S. History course, Steven Jacobsen plans to include information about the Japanese occupation. He found the exchange of lesson plans the most valuable feature of the NCTA seminar.

Celia Merrill, Asian History

Celia Merrill’s long tenure at Saunders and her personal approach to teaching have placed her in an informal leadership position. When she began teaching at Saunders, the curriculum covered Western civilization almost exclusively. For some time, Celia Merrill remained the only teacher with an academic background in Asian Studies. Celia Merrill saw the NCTA seminar as the leverage she needed to add Asian Studies to the required curriculum. So she promoted the seminar at Saunders and urged the seminar leader, Aubrey Johnson, to accept a larger number of teachers than usual from one school.

Asian studies started at Saunders with Celia Merrill teaching one Asian History class. The number of enrollees has grown each year. Some students have described it as one of the highlights of their Saunders experience. Now Celia Merrill has trained two other teacher to join her in teaching it. These teachers meet regularly to discuss content and strategies. One of these teachers also participated with Celia Merrill in an NCTA study tour to Korea, Japan, and China.

Many Asian artifacts and displays decorate the walls of Celia Merrill’s classroom. On the blackboard is a timeline of Chinese history. In a unit on Japan in her Asian History class, Celia Merrill adds a line for Japan to the timeline as she presents some key events. Her usual style of teaching is to integrate student comments into a discussion format. The class content covers geography, history, and some literature (e.g., Tales of Genji).

Jane Troman, Asian History, U.S. History

After Jane Troman took the NCTA seminar, she participated in an NCTA study tour to China, Japan, and Korea. Commenting on the benefits of travel, she said, “You have an immediacy of knowledge that you don’t have from books. Books can tell you what street life is like in China but until you sit out there and smell it and touch it, you don’t really know. It makes you teach it a little bit better.”

Jane Troman attended History teacher Celia Merrill’s Asian History class to observe Celia’s approach to teaching about Asia. Jane Troman currently teaches a section of History of Eastern Religions at Saunders High School. Jane assigns mostly primary sources in this course, focusing on Hinduism and Buddhism. Following the lead of her mentor, Celia Merrill, she takes an interactive approach that allows her to integrate a lot of student comments.

She uses the NCTA resources housed in the library, but finds the seminar’s anecdotal material has helped the most in sparking students’ interest. “I found the lectures interesting at the time, but a year or two years out, I don’t look back at those as being really helpful in teaching my course. Those little anecdotal comments from somebody in Korea are what I remember and what I use. My students are the same. If they need to know the history, we send them to do that research. What really works in class, what really opens their eyes and makes them think about traveling, are the stories.”

Jane’s firsthand travel experiences to China helped her present the complexities of the issues between the two countries and “to bring a human side to China.” She said, “Experiences like that give me stories that I tell when I’m in class. The students really perk up when they realize someone has been to this place and has some firsthand experience with the people that you are talking about....The travel has facilitated that.”

Mona Enright, European History

Mona Enright, who has traveled extensively in Asia, took the NCTA seminar in the hopes of being assigned to teach a World History course in the future. She credits History teacher Celia Merrill with convincing her to take the seminar, explaining that when she received the flyer she did not realize other Saunders teachers had taken it and that “The flyer’s statements that `You can get paid. You can go to China. You can get $300 worth of materials.’ all sounded too good to be true.” However, the fact that History teacher Celia Merrill was publicizing it and telling her “take this seriously” gave the seminar “immediate credibility.” According to Mona Enright, the resources from NCTA and the guidance for picking future resources were the most valuable parts of the NCTA seminar.

Mona Enright has incorporated Asian content into her European History course, for example, contrasting China and the West at the time of Alexander the Great. Mona feels it is important to include an Asian perspective in all courses, stating,

“I always felt that when I was teaching the European History survey course that it was a shame not to mention Asia. For example, in the Bronze Age while the Trojan Wars were happening, what was happening in China? It sharpens the student’s perspective and understanding of the Western material if they can step out and then look back from outside the zone so to speak.”

Tina Morrow, European History, Ethics

History teacher Tina Morrow, an NCTA participant, is one of the few teachers at Saunders High School who came to the school with a background in Asian Studies. Besides her History classes, she teaches an Ethics class in which she includes Confucius and modern Chinese writers as well as perspectives from Japan and India. She expects students to apply the ethical considerations from both Eastern and Western cultures to issues such as war, population, sexual morality, politics, and international issues.

In her European History class, Tina focuses on themes rather than a historical survey. This allows her to use some Asian material. For example, she asks students to compare Chinese philosophy with Greek philosophy, and to compare European medieval conditions with the social organization in China during the same time period.