Program designed to improve teaching of U.S. history

George Washington didn't sleep here. But Southeast Missouri history teachers can still find ways to make the nation's first president more than just paragraphs in a textbook.

A group of teachers in the region are getting that message.

Cape Girardeau Central Junior High teacher Becky Mocherman has been educating students on American history for a dozen years. She has a new appreciation of America's first president thanks to a federally funded program.

"Our textbooks don't tell the whole story," she said Thursday.

Mocherman said Washington had no history to draw on in his presidency. "He had no role model. All he had was King George," she said.

"I just can't wait to get back to the classroom," Mocherman said.

She's one of 25 middle, junior high and high school history teachers from 13 Southeast Missouri school districts who are participating in a three-year program designed to teach them how to make history come alive in the classroom.

The program, "Presidents and Precedents: Teaching American History," is funded with a $971,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

The program is one of five in the state and 129 in the nation funded by the federal government to improve history teaching in the classroom.

The local program got underway in fall 2005, coordinated by Southeast Missouri State University and the Jackson School District.

The grant pays the salaries of the program staff. It also pays the teachers enrolled in the program as well as the historians and others who lecture the group.

Seminars for teachers

Teachers have gone through three two-day seminars since December. They've read numerous history books. They've been in class at Southeast Missouri State University this week, hearing from noted historians, an archaeology expert from the university museum and a state archivist.

Much of their focus so far has been on the early American presidents, George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Today, they're scheduled to visit historic Ste. Genevieve and Fort de Chartres state historic site in Illinois.

They're scheduled to take a weeklong trip to the Washington, D.C., area next week, making visits to the Smithsonian and Jefferson's home, Monticello.

Retired Jackson High School history teacher Linda Nash is executive director of the three-year program that will include studies on presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

Nash said teachers can better interest students in history by showing them copies of maps and other original documents and by explaining regional culture within the broader picture of history.

Participants even have received a lesson in how Creole music can be used in educating students about the French culture in America.

"You get beyond the kings and presidents and wars," she said. "History is people."

Over the course of three years, participants will delve into early, middle and 20th century American history and get suggestions on lesson plans.

The teachers will make a major field trip each summer of the program, Nash said.

This September, Nash and two others involved in managing the program, will visit teachers in their classrooms. Teachers also will have to provide a written report on their teaching activities.

Nash said she and her staff ultimately will assess the teaching and make a report to the U.S. Department of Education.

Sherry Mayo, a Scott City Middle School teacher, said using copies of historic documents can help interest students. "We hope we can bring history alive to students," she said.

John Weber teaches history and government classes to Delta junior high and high school students.

The "Presidents and Precedents" program will provide him with sample lesson plans to better teach students, he said. It also directs teachers to Web sites, the state archives center and other resources to supplement the standard textbook.

"It's just fantastic," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123