"Why Didn't Anyone Teach Me This?"
Reform to Equal Rights: K-12 Disability History Curriculum is now open!
Why Teach Disability History? 2023
Published on Wed, 02/08/2023
“Why didn’t they teach me this?” Preliminary Report on the Teaching of Disability History
Published on Mon, 09/12/2022
By Rich Cairn, Emerging America
At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, Emerging America widely promoted an online survey of teachers to discover how much U.S. students are taught Disability History. Though the response was small, the results offer intriguing insights. The survey will repeat in 2023 and 2024.
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Guest Blog Post: Content Teachers Take Your Seat at the Table
Published on Mon, 05/02/2022
How to empower students by participating in IEP and 504 team meetings
By Laurel Peltier, Collaborative for Educational Services
Emerging America has benefitted at key moments from Laurel's deep experience as a teacher and leader in support of students with disabilities. We are pleased to add her insights on ways that History and Civics teachers can support IEP and 504 teams to the Accessing Inquiry clearinghouse of resources.
Guest Blog Post: Defining Civic Equity for Students with Disabilities
Published on Fri, 03/04/2022
Updated 07-15-2022
By Leah Bueso
Civic Engagement Research Group, University of California, Riverside
“Disability is a natural part of the human experience and in no way diminishes the right of individuals to participate in or contribute to society.”
- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004
Resources for Teaching about Genocide
Published on Mon, 02/07/2022
Updated 05-21-2022
Read “Massachusetts Passes Genocide Education Legislation" by Emerging America's Rich Cairn in June's Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives The Volunteer.
Wendy Harris lesson on "How Activists Create Change" for Black History Month
Published on Wed, 02/02/2022
Wendy Harris teaches at Metro Deaf School in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has been a classroom teacher for Deaf students of all ages since 2003 and currently splits her teaching duties between high school social studies and teaching braille and other skills to the school’s DeafBlind students ages 2-21.
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Closing the Gap in Civics for Students with Disabilities in Classrooms from K-12
Published on Wed, 09/08/2021
Mind the Gap
Students gain knowledge and skills in civics and history when schools provide effective instruction and when students have opportunities to express their voice and to engage in activities like service-learning. Yet American education is falling far short–in elementary grades in particular–and especially for students with disabilities.
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How disability activists created change
This lesson has a sharable ready-made album of primary sources with an introduction essay by the author!
Disability, Protest, and the 504
“I Can’t Even Get To The Back of the Bus” – Disability, 504 and the Power of Protest
This lesson investigates why and how people take action to make a difference. Building from an inquiry-based RAN chart, the lesson explores the context of the 1977 protests calling on the Federal Government to actually implement 504 access legislation. Featuring a variety of primary sources, including testimony of activist Ed Roberts.
What is our value? A look at undervalued people
What is our value? The principle that people are paid for their work does not always work as it should; many people who have been historically undervalued have contributed to American society, including many people of color, people with a disability, women, and children. Students view images and text of people whose lives may not have been adequately valued by their contemporaries. Students examine those documents, do further research, and come to their own conclusions about how those individuals should have been and should be valued, and possibly assisted.