Doug Wilson, a member of the Daniel Guthrie Chapter in the Indiana Society, is the
winner of the Tom & Betty Lawrence American History Teacher Award.
Since 1996, Wilson has taught United States history at Edgewood High School in
Indiana. At the Friday night banquet, he thanked SAR members for the
opportunity to attend the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.
During Saturday's Outreach Education Workshop, he answered questions about current
classroom curriculum and offered suggestions about contacting educators.
For those members who were unable to attend the meeting, please enjoy his Friday
night speech along with his award winning essay.
Doug Wilson's speech:
It's a great honor to be the first recipient of the Tom and Betty Lawrence Award.
I'd like to personally thank Tom Lawrence for funding the award and the NSSAR
staff for their work preparing the award.
The prize for the award was a tour of Revolutionary War sites through the Freedoms
Foundation of Valley Forge. I had my choice of three tours, the Boston
and New York area, the Philadelphia area, and the Carolinas and Virginia.
I chose the southern campaign for two reasons. I had never been to any
of the sites on the tour, and thirty-seven of my thirty nine patriot ancestors
served in the Carolinas and Virginia. We visited King's Mountain,
Alamance, Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, Yorktown, Stratford Hall, Monticello, Mt. Vernon,
Jamestown, and Colonial Williamsburg.
Colleen Wilson asked that I mention some of the ways in which this trip will help
me be a better teacher, and especially how it will impact the way I approach the
American Revolution. I think there are a number of ways I have benefitted
from the trip.
First of all, it was a real joy to travel with so many other educators who were
interested in the American Revolution. I met about forty teachers from
around the nation. We exchanged ideas all week. We also
interacted with some of the most knowledgeable tour guides I have ever encountered.
Before I took the tour, I felt I had a good knowledge of the war. The
tour added some depth to that knowledge and also helped me correct some things
I had misunderstood. I was surprised by the small scale of the Cowpens,
King's Mountain, and even Yorktown. My experiences as a Civil War re-enactor
had made me visualize all historical battlefields in Civil War scale.
All of the reading I had done about Cowpens made me imagine Morgan's third line
was atop a large hill, behind which he hid his cavalry. Anyone who has
visited the field will know there is only a slight rise in the ground.
I also had the false impression that King's Mountain was covered with boulders.
There is no substitute for first hand knowledge. My mental images of
the battlefields will always be more complete and correct and will make it easier
for me to teach them properly. I also got a few hundred photographs
of the sites I can use for powerpoint presentations.
A second benefit from the award was the media attention I received.
I was mentioned on the NSSAR and Indiana Society websites. I made two
local newspapers. A local magazine did a story this August.
A professor at Indiana University saw the award and recognized me as the high
school teacher who taught a couple of his best students. He was impressed
with their ability to think logically and wrote the magazine article.
Another man saw the newspaper article and came speak to my class about his service
in the 8th Air Force as a B-17 radio man.
A third benefit from the award is that I am a much more confident person and as
a teacher. I never expected to win this award, but I did.
I kept a blog during the trip to help spread the word about the award.
I had never done one before and found that I enjoyed it. The man that
operates www.rsar.org, The Real Story of the American Revolution linked to it.
It has inspired me to create a web site, www.wilsonianhistory.com to share some
of my better lesson plans. The site is under construction at the moment.
I've also been able to speak about the award at some local SAR events and now this one.
It has been a good experience. Each time I speak I am a little less nervous.
The final benefit of the award is that it made me pay much closer attention to
the NSSAR web site. I read and re-read the stated purpose of the SAR
to try to help write a successful essay for the contest. I had never
really paid much attention to it before. I especially the noticed that
the SAR stands for teaching traditional values and seeks to uphold them.
This is a goal that I can support 100%.
When you return to your local chapters, encourage them to look for candidates for
the Tom and Betty Lawrence Award. It has been a great experience for me.
Doug Wilson's essay:
Teaching American History: Creating Thomas Jefferson's Educated Citizenry
Thomas Jefferson, one of the most important founders of the American Republic,
believed that the success of our nation’s experiment in self-government rested on
an educated citizenry. According to Jefferson, "No nation can remain
both ignorant and free." An educated public prevents a potential tyrant
from destroying the freedoms we enjoy. Under our Constitution, average
Americans are responsible for exercising their voting rights to make political
decisions that affect the future of our country. In Jefferson’s view,
it is paramount that Americans have the necessary education to make these decisions.
The weight of this charge falls on parents, librarians, museum employees, and
especially professional educators.
American history teachers are responsible for conveying the facts about our
nation’s past with an eye to applying that knowledge to decisions in the future.
Every citizen must understand the ideals of the founding fathers to be able to
guide the government to remain true to those ideals. These principles
include the concepts of limited government, federalism, separation of powers,
checks and balances, and majority rule with minority rights. If the
government were ever allowed to depart from these founding principals, we would
cease to be the country envisioned by the framers of our nation.
Today’s American history teachers need to assure that modern students see the
events and personalities of the Revolutionary War as relevant. This
can be a challenge considering the limited attention spans of young people.
A successful American history teacher must possess a broad knowledge of the subject.
Secondly, an effective teacher must use innovative teaching methods that address
the curriculum. Through these methods, a teacher can lead the students
to make connections with the material and begin to internalize it.
I have endeavored to create lessons that will bring the Revolutionary War period
to life for my students. We begin by discussing the causes of the Revolutionary
War. We talk about the relative strengths of the United States and
Great Britain. I assign readings of first person accounts of the events
of the war. I assign the students to put the grievances Jefferson
mentions in the Declaration of Independence into their own words, and relate them
to the causes we discussed earlier. I have developed an internet
treasure hunt in which the students work in pairs to find answers to questions
about the events and people of the Revolutionary War. We discuss the
consequences to the signers of the Declaration. I assign questions from
the Constitution in which my students must learn to use the document as a resource.
Through these methods, I hope to instill an appreciation for the sacrifices made
the men and women who founded this nation. I am interested in this
opportunity to boost my knowledge of and enthusiasm for the Revolutionary War
period. I also wish to see the methods employed in the seminar.
I would then be able to share the same with my students.
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