The Tennessee Social Studies Recommendation Committee has recently released a new set of proposed standards. Many aspects of the laborious task undertaken by the committee should be applauded. Nevertheless, there are other areas that merit serious attention and should be considered for revision in order to help our students excel to the highest levels and pass on the Tennessee story to future generations.
The proposed standards omits important historical aspects such as references to the great Yuchi (Euchee) tribe, who by some accounts were the first known inhabitants of this state and the ones who many believe bestowed upon our state its very name, which has been said to mean "meeting place", "winding river", or "river of the great bend". The standards should not fail to include the history and heritage of our indigenous people, nor the importance of towns such as Great Tellico, and recognize why places like the great Citico Mound and important burial grounds were encroached upon and all but lost to posterity, such as Dragging Canoe's grave site which resides under Nickajack Lake.
There could also be more diversity and inclusion within the proposed standards. The important role of the Abolition Movement deserves a much more prominent area of focus, as does the contributions provided by the more than 20,000 Black Tennesseans who served during the Civil War as United States Colored Troops at places such as Ft. Pillow, the Battle of Nashville and Chattanooga, where they helped in the erection of the National Cemetery and maintenance of Camp Contraband. Many of the State's HBCU’s have impacted the national consciousness, whether it’s the educators and Jubilee Singers who attended Fisk, the medical professionals who were reared at Meharry, or the Freedom Riders and Tigerbelles who once graced Tennessee State University. In essence, Tennessee’s story has very much been the American story, whether it’s Bessie Smith, W.C. Handy and Beale Street influencing the Blues, to the many contributions that Tennessee African-American writers, authors and editors such as Arna Bontemps, Alex Haley with Roots, and the Boyd family of Nashville have added to the social fabric of the nation.
The role that the Tennessee Valley Authority plays in our daily lives is another area that shouldn't be relegated to a subtopic within the standards. The advent of TVA brought our state and its inhabitants into a modern age of living. Due to its system of dams, regions that had once experienced extreme poverty and hardship were propelled into a rapidly growing industrialized society. TVA, which spans seven states, helped to control rivers and waterways once deemed to be unnavigable, provided affordable electricity to millions, created a system of conservation areas, man-made lakes and parks, and sparked economic activity during the Great Depression.
Likewise, the battles for Chattanooga were paramount to laying the Union's ground work for ending the Civil War. In actuality, the Tullahoma Campaign, Chickamauga, and engagements around Chattanooga were a six month series of conflicts that were mostly fought over the roads, rivers and rails of this geographically significant location, and most historians concur it was the Gateway of the South because of the access it provided to a large number of major cities and links in the South. Another compelling reason for the North to mount an offensive at Chattanooga was to support the swelling number of Unionists that could be found throughout East Tennessee and the lower South. By the fall of 1863, both sides began pouring numerous resources into the region. The North would reinforce their Army by dispatching some of it's more notable and seasoned commanders like Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Fighting Joe Hooker to aid the besieged Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga and its newly appointed commander George H.Thomas, the "Rock of Chickamauga". The South didn’t place any less emphasis on Chattanooga as James P. Longstreet with thousands of troops from the Army of Northern Virginia had previously been rushed to the area during Chickamauga while Jefferson Davis personally visited the area in October. Chattanooga was the battle that some historians say was the "Death Knell of the Confederacy" as it is widely viewed as the best last chance the Confederacy had to mount a successful offensive during the war. As a living testament to the struggle for Chattanooga, the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park was established August of 1890, largely due to the intense lobbying by the veterans of the conflict themselves who expressed the need to preserve the true integrity of the many battlefield sites. It is the oldest and largest of the nation's national military parks, and has served as a model for all such military parks that America has established afterwards. Unfortunately, the Battles for Chattanooga, nor the National Military Park, are important enough to be properly featured within the proposed state standards.
There proposed standards have two other glaring exclusions. First, there is a lack of emphasis on local history. The Chattanooga region, for instance, is home to readily recognizable aspects of "Americana" such as the world's first Coca-Cola bottling plant; Chattanooga Bakery, which makes the Moonpie; Mckee Bakery, which makes Little Debbies; Mayfield, America's dairy capital; birthplace of the square burgers known as Krystals; Rock City; Ruby Falls; the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum and the Chattanooga Choo-Choo; and unfortunately one of the initial starting points of the arduous journey known as the Trail of Tears. From Fort Loudon and Jonesborough in the foothills of East Tennessee, Judge John Overton's Travellers Rest, Country Music Hall of Fame and Ft. Negley in Nashville, to Church Park and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, learning aspects of local history can serve to foster a deeper sense of pride, appreciation and citizenship amongst our students as they prepare to be the next leaders of tomorrow.
Secondly, many areas of education are enhancing the learning curriculum by integrating and infusing technology into lesson planning development and design because of the many advantages to implementing elements of technology into the classroom. First, it answers the need to prepare lesson designs in order to fit the diverse needs of students. Students learning abilities vary (Bloom's Taxonomy), and technology helps engage creative, visual and auditory learners in settings that helps propel them to succeed. Secondly, appropriate accommodations and modifications for students with learning disabilities can be included through offering online read alongs, guided reading practice, or word association. Finally, many entities from the Smithstonian Institute to National Park Service have developed virtual museums, digital archives, and lesson plans that not only addresses the needs of diverse learners, but helps with student-centered teaching approaches such as project-based learning cooperative learning, distance learning, adaptive instruction, think-pair-share and peer tutoring, or the many methods preferred by teacher-centered instructors.
In reviewing the standards and recommendations as laid forth by the Tennessee Social Studies Committee, we should first say that we recognize and applaud the difficult and laborious effort they have undertaken, because the teaching, promotion and sponsorship of social studies and history is an often painstaking and momentous task. Nothwithstanding, what we want to humbly beseech unto that body is that there are further perspectives, frame of references and vantage points that we hope in the future they may yet evaluate and examine. In 2011, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, in conjunction with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, raised the alarm throughout the country that in their estimation, after several test and evaluations were administered to scores of students, the nation was facing a civics crisis. Likewise, in many educational circles, civics, history and social studies are not deemed to be areas of high need or priority. In today's world, the norm is to gravitate towards what is ready made to see and easily accessible to find, and yet, teachers, historians and social scientists must navigate along a more meticulous path, for their sacred charge is to preserve our true history and heritage, to record and collect essential information, facts and data, and be able to describe and detail the circumstances, events and persons who have impacted and influenced us, to our children and the world over. It then is well, that we should be wholly inclusive when it comes to the accomplishments and achievements of others. We should be resolved to have lesson plans and designs that answer the diverse learning abilities and needs of all students, and be mindful to include appropriate accommodations and modifications for students with learning disabilities and that face severe educational challenges. We should embrace technology because it greatly assists us in answering these needs, and ensures that our lesson designs are engaging, invigorating and effective. Above all else, we should work to instill understanding and pride, and be able to promote to our students, the important role and impact that the Great State of Tennessee has had on our nation and across the world.
Less than five years after our state and nation have commemorated: the Sesquicentennials of numerous Civil War events that occurred in our state, and the passage and ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865; the centennial of the National Park Service, our nation's "Best Idea"; the sixtieth anniversary of Brown v. Board; the fiftieth anniversaries of the 1963 March on Washington, passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Bloody Selma; at a time when our nation has just dedicated and opened the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture; at a time when our state is embarking upon construction of a new museum in order to house and display our most precious aspects of history; it's strangely ironic that a new monument which celebrates the 1920 Women's Rights movement and the women who led that fight, Anne Dallas Dudley of Nashville; Abby Crawford Milton of Chattanooga; J. Frankie Pierce of Nashville; Sue Shelton White of Jackson; and Carrie Chapman Catt, a nationally known women's suffragist, was unveiled in Nashville's Centennial Park this August. Similarly, the city of Knoxville erected a permanent memorial in honor of the Women's Rights movement in 2006. In that epic fight for equality, Tennessee represented the "Perfect 36". On August 18th, 1920, after the Tennessee House of Representatives was deadlocked in a 48-48 tie, ratification of the 19th Amendment had come down to one state, one man, one vote, in the form of Rep. Harry T. Burn of East Tennessee. Up to that day, Burn bore a red rose which signaled that he sided with the anti-suffragist while the pro-suffragist wore yellow roses to display their support. The old legend says that Burns's vote was influenced by a last minute letter from his mother, who reminded him to, " Be a good boy....help put the r in ratification." The legend goes on to say that when Burn informed the House of his intent to vote in favor of the Amendment, angry opponents of the measure made Burns run for his life throughout the State Capitol. It then is well, that Tennessee's story is America's story, and we should strive to ensure that our future posterity and generations should never forget, forsake or lay it asunder. For these reasons, we should join in with our state's historian, Dr. Carroll Van West, in offering immediate reviews, revisions and remedies to the proposed Tennessee Social Studies Standards.
Eric A. Atkins, M.Ed.