Lee Witt Looping Sketchbook

   I want to preface this with the fact that my family has been involved in deep political discussion around me and with me for as long as I remember. Politics was never a taboo subject for us and discussions of this sort were daily conversation topics and became common knowledge by the time I entered elementary school. That said, the way my school presented political information was my first memory of politics and looking back now, I feel that it negatively affected my outlook on some aspects of politics today and it remains in conflict with the way it should be taught.    In first grade (2004), all students were given a small pamphlet titled "Weekly Reader" which would bring up some topics on world events. One particular edition covered the Bush v. Kerry election and summed up the article with an opportunity for students to "cast their votes" for one of the candidates. The flaw in this was that it presented the candidates only in the way they interact with childr...

   One of the more memorable lessons I experienced during geography class was the first assignment of my high school geography course. My teacher had asked all the students to work in their groups to draw and label a map of the United States within 10 minutes. While I admit I may have come off as arrogant, I elected to draw the entire map accurately without input from the others in my group. When it came time to present our work, my group was the only one to complete the assignment. Furthermore, we were the only one to draw more than 10 states. My teacher admitted that this was an exception to his point, but his argument was still valid: even those living in the United States barely know their own country and it was even to the point where privileged private school students had many shortcomings when it comes to geography. This is when I began to truly understand the discrepancy of knowledge facing students in the social studies field.    I feel that this assignment...

   One idea I have considered when teaching children primary sources is allowing them to see firsthand the differences between the accuracy of primary and secondary sources. This would begin by having students create sources of information themselves and transferring the information between each other.    To begin, I would have students pair up with a friend. The prompt would be to recall an event that happened at school (e.g. field trip or school festival) and what they did during the course of the event. I would have the students journal their experience first by either writing or drawing their memory of the event. They would then tell their partner about their experiences orally. The partner would then  have to journal what they heard and attempt to create the most accurate secondary source possible. Finally, the students would compare and contrast the primary and secondary sources with the goal to discover how accurate secondary sources are in comparison to...

   There was always a sort of knowledge that Columbus was not a complete hero growing up. I grew up with a mother who taught history and had a deep respect for the Native Americans who once thrived on this continent. However I paid little attention to the history of Columbus. I had learned from a young age that other European explorers (most memorably the Vikings) had arrived in the Americas long before Columbus, but what I did not realize was the details of the Columbian expeditions.     I believe I first discovered that the Columbus story had been whitewashed in either late elementary school or early middle school. I learned that he was not Spanish nor was he a kind man to the Native peoples. While my teachers understood that Columbus was less of an important figure than traditionally presented, they also omitted (or possibly were unaware of) his cruelties. The knowledge of the details of his cruelty actually came as late as college. While discussing the impo...

Illustrated above is a simplified timeline of American history as if it was traditionally taught vs. how American history is taught as seen in Black Ants and Buddhists. I feel it gives a visual expression of what is missing in many history courses. Many classes brush over thousands of years of history of the Americas while simultaneously going into detail of the same time period for cultures such as the Greeks, Romans, and numerous other cultures following those cultures. Black Ants and Buddhists attempts to give adequate time to the people who thrived in the Americas before the Europeans conquered the continent.

   As mentioned before, I grew up in an environment which mostly favored either whitewashed or misguided perspectives about history and people. Going forward, I hope to learn from the mistakes of my past teachers and create a more positive worldview for my students. I feel it is necessary to begin this process with an understanding of some of the misguided information presented to me over the years by presenting a list of what I hope to teach the truth about and the importance of each one. 3.) "Most African Americans arrived through immigration and are not the descendants of slaves."- 11th grade U.S. History teacher.         This is one of the more toxic perspectives I have seen over the course of my education. Though I have yet to discover a definitive and absolute counter for this, based on research I have done, I have discovered that voluntary immigration from Africa only began recently. Based on that information, I would venture to say that this idea...