# Not a homeschooler, but a teacher



## bluemule31 (Nov 30, 2011)

I teach at a local school and I attended a workshop the other and I thought I would share what I learned. A popular trend right now is Teaching With Primary Sources. The Library of Congress has devoted a portion of their website to TPS. Check out loc.gov to find thousands of original documents, pictures, advertisements and recording that can be used in the classroom. It's a really good (and under used) website that's being funded by our tax dollars.


----------



## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

bluemule31 said:


> I teach at a local school and I attended a workshop the other and I thought I would share what I learned. A popular trend right now is Teaching With Primary Sources. The Library of Congress has devoted a portion of their website to TPS. Check out loc.gov to find thousands of original documents, pictures, advertisements and recording that can be used in the classroom. It's a really good (and under used) website that's being funded by our tax dollars.


We use source documents all the time. =0) The problem with them is that without context they can mean whatever our modern minds want them to mean. One teacher in our area took the documents from the end of wwII where Japan was heavily sanctioned, and had the kids read those, then asked leading questions about how "Fair" the allies had been in those sanctions. The kids came away with the idea the America and the allies were big bullies to the small and defenseless japanese. But he never taught about Nanking, or the Imperial vision of wwII Japan, or even pearl harbor! There were reasons why the allies were so scared of Japan that they wanted to limit their power at the time. And they were just as imperial in their pov as european nations and america were. So it's important if you are using source documents that you tell the whole story with the whole context so much as you can when removed by years and cultural distance from the original event and then to let the kids make up their own minds. A good teacher lets kids think for themselves! 

The whole idea of source documents is supposed to be that you can remove opinion from the storyline of history (as if that is actually possible) by not using text books, but if the teacher is infusing his pov, it's no different than using a textbook anyway.

FWIW,
Cindyc.


----------



## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

cindy-e said:


> but if the teacher is infusing his pov, it's no different than using a textbook anyway.


I think that is a fair statement.
When my children were young, we read excerpts of the log of Columbus that he wrote as he traveled to the New World. I think it is a real eye opener to see what he was thinking and what he really thought he was doing. We also read original sermons by famous ministers from the past like Finney, Luther, Kuhlman, and dozens of others. It is just facinating to read the real words that someone wrote or said instead of stories about the words.
I remember back in Bible college when one person made the comment about reading five books about Romans, but never reading the Book of Romans. Text books are like that. They beat around the bush instead of ever actually touching the true word(s) of the people in question.


----------



## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Fabulous resource for any educator, but I have to point out that this is nothing new. For those of us who are familiar with Classical home education, original source documents are, and have been, a great resource over the years.

Thanks for adding the link -- hopefully it will influence some who may not have heard of this type of resource.


----------

