Preface
Two “bookends” to prefacing the Living History Program might well be the perspectives of individuals once intimately connected with the subject of history as taught to young people. One is the extracted words of someone at the top of the teaching hierarchy, a middle school principal. The second bookend is the words of a former student at the hierarchy’s “taught” end.
Mr. Frank Thomas was the principal of the Blue Mountain Middle School in the 1980's. The following extracted remarks are from a 1985 interview about the program.
“I have been probably steeped in a more traditional approach to education although in the past eight years in our middle school, I have certainly become more involved in a variety of flexible arrangements, more flexible approaches, and unique learning experiences for youngsters. I, therefore, was a very difficult person for Mr. Ryan to convince that his approach should be entitled to the support of the principal’s office. I certainly made him explain very carefully on a great number of occasions the basis for his proposal, and I gave my support somewhat reluctantly. I hate to admit it at this point because it was surely an unfortunate decision on my part to even be reluctant. As the years have progressed, I have become one of his more staunch supporters in this particular approach to education.
“Our building philosophy was devoted in the beginning to very basic premises. One of them was that we should be a responsible school with responsible staff and responsible students. It seems to me that in this one particular key area Mr. Ryan’s approach has achieved some of its most striking and most remarkable successes. As a principal, I am faced with situations involving youngsters who have been referred to me due to irresponsible actions, inability in a variety of ways to handle themselves in specific situations. Many of the youngsters who enter into his program have already established themselves as youngsters who are basically turned off not only to education but to their social responsibilities. I have found that through this program, these same youngsters have learned to accept directions, to follow directions, and to succeed in completing their directions in an extremely responsible fashion. To underline it, in addition, they have also been given the responsibilities in many cases to define their own roles and their own particular goals. In order to achieve those goals, they have had to demonstrate some of the highest examples of individual responsibilities that it would be possible to relate. These same youngsters at times prior to this experience have been turned off not only in the academic areas but in the other areas of school. However, because of this program, they have [been] turned on to all of their academic areas in addition to social studies, and they have become some of the most responsible students within our school building.
“... I can clearly go on record as stating to all who are interested in investigating this process not to close their eyes to the values of the content and the approach to learning history through living historical experiences. I think it is also equally important in this day and age to work with youngsters in teaching them the necessity of their own individual self responsibilities so that upon entering ... the total community, they become responsible citizens.”
Mr. Frank Thomas was the principal of the Blue Mountain Middle School in the 1980's. The following extracted remarks are from a 1985 interview about the program.
“I have been probably steeped in a more traditional approach to education although in the past eight years in our middle school, I have certainly become more involved in a variety of flexible arrangements, more flexible approaches, and unique learning experiences for youngsters. I, therefore, was a very difficult person for Mr. Ryan to convince that his approach should be entitled to the support of the principal’s office. I certainly made him explain very carefully on a great number of occasions the basis for his proposal, and I gave my support somewhat reluctantly. I hate to admit it at this point because it was surely an unfortunate decision on my part to even be reluctant. As the years have progressed, I have become one of his more staunch supporters in this particular approach to education.
“Our building philosophy was devoted in the beginning to very basic premises. One of them was that we should be a responsible school with responsible staff and responsible students. It seems to me that in this one particular key area Mr. Ryan’s approach has achieved some of its most striking and most remarkable successes. As a principal, I am faced with situations involving youngsters who have been referred to me due to irresponsible actions, inability in a variety of ways to handle themselves in specific situations. Many of the youngsters who enter into his program have already established themselves as youngsters who are basically turned off not only to education but to their social responsibilities. I have found that through this program, these same youngsters have learned to accept directions, to follow directions, and to succeed in completing their directions in an extremely responsible fashion. To underline it, in addition, they have also been given the responsibilities in many cases to define their own roles and their own particular goals. In order to achieve those goals, they have had to demonstrate some of the highest examples of individual responsibilities that it would be possible to relate. These same youngsters at times prior to this experience have been turned off not only in the academic areas but in the other areas of school. However, because of this program, they have [been] turned on to all of their academic areas in addition to social studies, and they have become some of the most responsible students within our school building.
“... I can clearly go on record as stating to all who are interested in investigating this process not to close their eyes to the values of the content and the approach to learning history through living historical experiences. I think it is also equally important in this day and age to work with youngsters in teaching them the necessity of their own individual self responsibilities so that upon entering ... the total community, they become responsible citizens.”