Worldwide web technology is a perfect match for teaching about history. The technology boosts teachers capacities because it gives its students access to the documents that reveal the processes of historical change, and it helps students develop better analytic skills by learning to interpret documents. This amazing conjuncture of new technology…

People who read become absorbed in a process of discovery about the world around them; books open doors to otherwise inaccessible places and introduce readers to profound new ideas. Approximately 15 seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade members of the StreetSquash Book Club in Harlem meet on Friday afternoons to read, write, and discuss topics…

The rationale for a program intended to suggest ways in which respect for the rule of law may be developed, and a suggested series of modules to provide guidance and illustrative materials for developing legal concepts and understandings in an 11th grade American history course are presented. The format suggests several alternate uses, including…

The study guide presents background information, questions and answers, primary source material, and guidelines designed to provide secondary schools with basic sources for observing how the New York state system evolved from the colonial experience and the precedents established by the first state constitution. The documents in the publication…

Springwood, the birthplace and home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is a large, rambling structure faced with stucco and fieldstone, situated in a landscaped clearing on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River. Roosevelt was born there to a family of wealth and position on January 30, 1882. It is the only site in the U.S. where a president was born,…

"American history," writer James Baldwin told a group of teachers in 1963, "is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it" (1963/1996, 227). Children, Baldwin argued, have "the right and necessity to examine everything." In particular, they need to…

This publication is the result of a project in New York State to increase public awareness of themes related to the U.S. Constitution using the medium of the arts. Designed as a photo essay, the volume reflects the activities of thousands of students in the Statewide Mini-Imagination Celebration Program. In efforts to understand the impact of…

The Pledge of Allegiance is the focus of this citizenship guide for elementary educators. The Pledge can be an important first step in citizenship education and civic values in a pluralistic and multicultural society. Understanding the Pledge can also help lay the foundation for future understanding of more complex documents such as the…

The history of the institutional, governmental, and legal development of American higher education before 1820 is examined. This study portrays the early history of American higher education as the transformation of European institutions by American conditions, views the old as coexisting but also competing with the new, perceives institutional…

The scope of this work has been indicated through the title. There were in New Netherland both Dutch and English settlements; the schools of the former only are included in the study. For a long time after the English took over the colony, the Dutch clung to their language and customs. The effort herein made is to trace the history of these Dutch…

Provides a fascinating look at the ideological and cultural schisms that developed between the communist party and local trade unions in Schenectady, New York. By the 1950s trade unions had become more conservative while the communist party championed the rights of women and blacks. This split debilitated the communist party. (MJP)

New York State is placing a new emphasis on Canada as part of their new social studies program. This reflects the increased importance attached to a global approach to education and also a recognition of Canada's importance to the United States. This guide is designed to help teachers make sense of, and to teach, understandings found in the grade…

An historical journal compiled by advanced placement American history high school students contains 10 articles about the experiences of residents of Amityville, New York, during World War II. Students used secondary sources, first-hand newspaper accounts, oral interviews, and primary source documents to recreate Amityville as it was during those…

Forty historic sites around the state of New York are listed in this guide to landmarks of the American Revolution. Each entry includes a photograph of the site, a map showing where it is located, a description of its history, and visitation facts. Most of the landmarks are buildings containing artifacts and displays, which visitors can enter and…

Contents of this booklet include the following chapters: (1) Dutch New York: urbane, but not tolerant; (2) How and why Africans came to New York; (3) The largest slave population north of the plantations; (4) Defining the relationship: restrictive legislation; (5) White attitudes toward the black minority: rationale for discrimination; (6) White…