I really enjoyed both of the last 2 days. The Progressive Era is one of those periods I really enjoy the most and always resent having to rush through it. It is the best period, in my view, to deal with social history because the diversity of topics is amazing. It is also a period in which connections to the present can be made easily. One activity I have done is to have students research some of the gov't agencies/institutions created during this period and their missions today (Dept. of Labor, Dept of Interior, FDA, Federal Reserve). These are modern institutions that students are not likely to learn about elsewhere. The gov't websites of each have brief histories. There is also a great set of child labor photos from the period
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html by Lewis Hine. I have taught the Buck v. Bell case the past couple of years. The Facing History resource book has a great summary of it. I feel like I gained a whole new perspective on the Civil Rights Movement from Davarian today. I found the idea of the strict 1950s-1968 timeframe being flawed interesting. Also, the idea that legislation protecting black rights in no way leveled the playing field. This made me think of affirmative action debates, which are often quite contentious among students. Davarian's point about American ghettos being like internal colonies was also striking. I lived in Chicago for a while and use Google Earth often when talking about cities. For Chicago, it was easy to give the students a sense of how de-facto segregation exists partly due to structures such as the expressways and large city parks.
Jay Barry
High School History
Arlington