Impact

I’ve used the Zinn Education Project’s materials since my first year teaching.

Nine years later, my students can speak to the power of deconstructing the narratives of Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln’s efforts that have replicated white supremacy and marginalization of people of color in historical discourse.

For many of them, it is empowering to learn from multiple perspectives and invigorates their desire to learn and disrupt the status quo.

The Zinn Education Project helps me bring multiple perspectives in my classroom and allows me to teach history fairly and accurately. Our history is not perfect, it’s progress. We won’t move forward without understanding the full picture of our past.

Textbooks alone cannot provide that. Resources like the Zinn Education Project give us a window into the past that helps teachers explain the view from the shore and the view from the boat for example.

When I do the Christopher Columbus lesson, the students are blown away. They are usually so surprised at the truth behind Columbus. They also love the role-playing. This year, when I was doing the lesson, my assistant principal walked in just as one of the students who usually sits quietly during social studies was standing up and asking a fiery round of questions to the defendants on the stand. I was so impressed with it. The lesson also gets students who I usually don’t get a lot of participation out of to debate with the students who I do. I love it!