Today we took a wonderful walking tour with Ed O’Donnell and got so much information about lower Manhattan that it is still swirling around in my brain. After having walked the lower part of Manhattan I can now more accurately discuss with my kids important areas. Before I would get confused with the New York map and now I feel more comfortable pointing out major sites to the kids. I am also going to include information Ed shared with us about the New York slave trade when I do my lesson on slavery and inequality. I had little knowledge of how much slave trading took place in New York, so I am positive my students will have the same misconceptions as I did.
Walking up Wall Street is another experience I am eager to share with my kids. Even though we do not have a lesson on any of that in the elementary curriculum I think my kids will be very interested in the history of that area. I might also pull some of that across the curriculum and discuss how the Stock Exchange uses math every day.
After we separated from Ed for the day a few of us walked back down to the tavern where Washington said goodbye to his officers for a look around the museum. It was a very well put together museum and the staff was very kind. After we finished there we decided to take a trip to South Shore for some dinner and shopping. Sitting on the pier looking at the Brooklyn Bridge while we ate dinner was a wonderful moment that I wish I could share with my kids. Sometimes I get frustrated that the best learning experiences are not things I can take home to my classroom for the kids to experience!
I hope that in some way these trips have inspired my kids to become more interested in our history. If we don’t study history, it will die and so will we. I am constantly reminding my kids that we are all a part of history and that every choice we make, good or bad, will affect history some how. I hope to instill a love for history at a young age so those teachers who get them in middle school and high school can feed their love for our wonderful history!
