History and Social Studies Education

For many on this side of the Atlantic, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t about Ireland. It’s about immigrants’ struggle and success in their new lives.

A day late and a dollar short, but this article is an insightful look into the complex relationship between ethnicity, immigration, geography and history.  Is the United States narrative taught as story of immigrants?  How long does one's family need to have lived in the United States to not identify with the plight of the immigrant?  

First, does anyone really think that students will remember anything from the books' dull and lifeless paragraphs? Today's textbooks contain no stories of actual people.

I enjoy St. Patrick's Day as much as the next guy, but it is a time to re-evaluate the historical Irish-American experience as taught in schools.  The article argues that since most textbooks lack compelling personal narratives that convey the horros of the potato famine and the level of desperation that many 19th century immigrants felt, 21st century students fail to empathize with the plight of the Irish.  Primary source documents are great remedy to this and the article links you to some great ones from the Zinn Education Project.