I have lived in Pennsylvania most of my life. The variety of climate, the mountains and the historical legacy of the area make it the only place I want to live. My life, my family, my home and my dreams are here and therefore my career will be here, too.
My rural upbringing is what probably led me to initially pursue a degree in Environmental Resource Management and later Wildlife and Fisheries Science at Penn State University with the aspiration of becoming a Game Commissioner. Shortly after high school, I married my husband who was serving in the U.S. Navy near San Francisco. Living so far away from home at such a young age was a crash course in reality and responsibility. We recently celebrated our 13th anniversary and have two children, ages 8 and 6. After working on a golf course as part of the maintenance staff for 5 years, I returned to college at Bloomsburg University the year after my daughter was born to pursue a career in history. It was there that I found my passion and spend the next 5 years juggling employment, parental, spousal and student responsibilities as a non-traditional student.
I started in Secondary Education as an outlet for a history degree. History was my first love; a love I couldn’t quite explain. I knew it mattered, but could never say exactly why. As I made my way though Bloomsburg University's History program, I began to understand those reasons why and developed a passion for transmitting to my future students those reasons. I now know that Social Studies, if taught well, can lead the students to think critically of the world around them. This cannot only be seen just as preparation for college, but for life. All students, no matter what their track in life, will need to maintain awareness of their political surroundings and know that what they don’t know can hurt them. They have to be taught wariness of the media and learn how to identify sources of information so they can be informed, politically intelligent citizens that are better able to judge the value of their leaders and their policies – something that is absolutely necessary to keep the integrity of a democratic society. They need to be made aware that there are problems out there to be solved and they will be the ones who will have to solve them. They have to be encouraged to reach their own conclusions so they can do so when they leave the protection of school and function as independent adults. If the students believe they will need it, they will learn it, and the teacher needs to make it relevant. In this way, I can continue to be of service to them long after they graduate. As a teacher, I will have a great power to influence lives - both a wonderful opportunity and a grave responsibility. Teaching is one of the few ways where one person truly can make a difference. It is a way to guard that idealism of adolescence that makes people want to go out and change the world.
To me, the most unnerving aspect of Social Studies education is the increased role of government in education, with the introduction of high stakes testing and the increased financial dependence of schools on federal money because of them. The Social Studies curriculum has always been heavily influenced by outside forces whether on the local or national level, and all have facilitated a response from the public that involved changing curriculum in one form or another. A common thread in those changes, however, is the fact that the freedom of teachers to teach and students to think is constricted with every new breach in feelings of security, whether real or imagined. Teachers cannot allow academic freedom to disappear with the periodic paranoia of a society on the premise of security and safety – and students need to know that so they can be ready to challenge it each time it happens.
My definition of Social Studies is the study of the consequences of, and the reasons for, the actions, thoughts, and beliefs of individuals and societies as a whole. It is the study of how civilization got to where it is and the variables that created it in order to foster an understanding of present day circumstances and thus, an understanding of how to proceed as a nation and/or Global community. The fact that no definition for the subject has been agreed upon reflects the diversity and individuality of Social Studies instruction. The solution is not to fight over a definition but to accept that two teachers may have very distinct and somewhat opposite ideas of what and how to teach and why. It is here that academic freedom is imperative, because by harnessing the individuality of teachers, the education system can rest assured that each teacher is teaching to the best of his/her ability because a part of them is invested in every lesson. When this happens, the student gains a great deal, whether or not it fits in a set definition of what Social Studies or History should be.
At the moment, I am not a classroom teacher but I am the Director of Education for a local PBS station and work closely with teachers and administration of regional school districts to supplement their educational programs. I write the curriculum components to our locally produced documentaries and host many contests and competitions for elementary and high school students. It is a fun job, and I come across all kinds of great resources for this site!
I have other interests besides history. I love to paint and take photographs. This website is a fun outlet to explore creativity and love of history and education. I love baseball and coach both my son's and my daughter's t-ball and coach pitch teams. I am obvoiusly a Boston Red Sox fan and am in love with the city of Boston. That city and the team fascinate me, as they both carry a great amount of tradition and history, including Fenway Park - a museum to the sport itself, where one can feel the presence of nearly 100 years of baseball fans and great players of the age. It is a magical place where people can sit in the same seats from where their grandparents and great-grandparents watched Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and other legends. People filled those same seats during the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, and the tragedies of terrorism. Through it all baseball has served as a distraction to the woes of civilization and has been glue for the social fabric of the nation. Having been a Sox fan since I was hooked at the age of ten, I have learned to live with disappointment, but recently experienced the high that comes with a victory at the end of a very long wait – I have been privileged to witness what many died waiting for. To then see it repeated 3 years later with the possibility that a new era has begun is an exhilarating experience. I am never tired of visiting the historical sites of the city and surrounding areas, including the site of the Boston Masacre, the Old North Church, Bunker Hill, Lexington and Concord and Salem. Boston is the seat of our Revolution.
I have a long-term goal of ultimately earning a PhD in history and eventually turning an undergraduate research paper into a book. The stubbornness of my personality will be instrumental in accomplishing this. That particular trait will never allow me to quit on a student. I have been blessed with a good life and the circumstances necessary to reach my full potential. I will be forever grateful for that and feel that I have a responsibility to reach my potential by helping others reach theirs.
