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3/23/2020

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Teachable Moments during the COVID-19 School Closure

 
By Matt Doran

​What can you do to continue the learning at home during the extended school closure? If you are a social studies teacher or interested parent, you really don’t need the latest temporarily-free app. Instead, pose these three questions:
  1. What makes a government action legitimate?
  2. How should governments balance individual rights with the common good?
  3. Do citizens trust the government? 

Watch/read the news and write a daily journal reflection on these questions. When the crisis is over, you will have created a new primary source about this event. Then, go back through history and make connections and comparisons across time and place. Here is a historical look at question 3 since 1958 from the Pew Research Center: Public Trust in Government: 1958-2019. 

​Your students will learn way more from this exercise than filling out digital worksheets.
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3/15/2020

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History Gives Perspective in Times of Crisis

 
By Matt Doran

In times of crisis, history helps us keep things in perspective. Seventy-five years ago, men and women of the Greatest Generation were fighting on the battlefields and working in the factories to defend democracy. Worldwide, more than 15,000,000 soldiers and 45,000,000 civilians died.
​
My maternal grandfather, Pfc. Fred Rish, wrote these words on March 15, 1945 from the Philippines:
Dear Mom:

Yes, I am still alive; just too busy fighting to write any sooner. I have lived through Hell these past couple weeks, but I haven't had a bullet touch my skin yet. I've had at least a hundred go through my clothes and equipment! I guess I am just plain lucky. If you think you have mountains back there, you ought to see where the Japs are dug in! This is the hardest fighting country you can imagine.

I don't know when I will get a chance to write again, so please be patient. I still haven't gotten any mail, so I don't know what to write. It's been 2 months since I got a letter from Freda.
​
I hope you are well and happy. Say hello to Pop and all the rest. And thanks for the prayer -- I need it.
​
Your Son
Fred
Picture

​Read the full collection of letters at WarMemory.com.
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