Q U.S. Women's History Take-Aways All human beings are practicing historians. As we go through life we present ourselves to others through our life story; as we grow and mature we change that story through different interpretations and different emphasis. We stress different events as having been decisive at different times in our life history and, as we do so, we give those events new meanings. People do not think of this as "doing history"; they engage in it often without special awareness. We live our lives; we tell our stories. It is as natural as breathing. --Gerda Lerner, Why History Matters (1997) What do you think is the most important information that you learned these past 8 weeks? Tell us why - did it clarify an event in the past? Does it help you understand the present? Does it change the way you think or feel about a certain topic or issue? You may also want to take into consideration the latest debate (in what is now a cyclical debate in legislative bodies across the country and at the federal level) regarding the type of history students learn in this country and how material is presented and discussed. Much of this recent debate centers on the New York Times "1619 Project," a Pulitzer-Prize winning long-form journalism project published in 2019 to commemorate the arrival of the first African slaves in what would become the United States and which is also an attempt to reframe U.S. history within the context of a nation built by slaves. While not all historians agree with such framing, the project itself generated a lot of attention and continues to inspire teachers and classrooms around the country to engage in more robust and critical dialogue about the role of slavery throughout our nation's short history (Links to an external site.). But some folks see this as revisionist history, an attempt to "shame" white Americans, and especially white men, and to further divide children by race and sex or gender, (Links to an external site.) and purport that a history told from this perspective fails to mark and commemorate the positives, making students less patriotic and less able to identify heroes in U.S. history. A classic example is in Thomas Jefferson; is his legacy marred or diminished knowing that he owned slaves while writing about the freedom of all men, and fathered children with his "property," Sally Hemings? Or does learning about the complicated lives of people in the past help us navigate our own complicated lives better or differently? You certainly don't have to weigh in on this debate, but my guess is that you have an opinion- or that considering this debate may shape some of your take-aways from this class. I look forward to your thoughts! Respond to as many students as possible! To view the rubric for this discussion, please click on the icon with the three little dots at the top right of this window. This rubric will be used to score your submissions; please look for my comments and feedback using the rubric scoring feature after Wednesdays of the following week. Initial response due Friday by 11:59pm. Peer responses due SUNDAY by 11:59pm.