Conflict and Compromise....

In its recent post, "Timely Connections: Slavery & Compromise," TPS Barat saw a teachable moment in White House chief of staff John Kelly's recent statement that “the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War” and "firestorm of impassioned responses" that ensued. They gathered contemporary articles, background material, and primary sources, to allow classes "to put the pieces of the story together" for themselves. If this topic interests you at all, I highly recommend that you click through to their post.

This may not seem closely tied to Montana history--except as Montana is tied to the rest of the nation. And for the fact that until this August, Helena had what was thought to be the northernmost Confederate Memorial in the United States. On August 16, the Helena City Commission decided to remove the Confederate Fountain from Helena's Women's Park. Two days later, the fountain had been taken down.

Interested in pursuing that Montana tie-in? Add these articles about the Confederate Fountain to the information gathered by TPS Barat, seeing especially: "Those who've studied Confederate fountain's history weigh in on removal plans," Helena Independent Record, August 17, 2017, and "Text of revised language for Confederate fountain signage," Helena Independent Record, January 21, 2016.

This might be a good opportunity for a simulation, with some students playing City Council members and others being proponents and opponents for council removal. We created a similar simulation some time ago focused on coal and coalbed methane mining on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. If you use it, you might want to find a few more up to date readings for the students, but I think it remains a worthwhile lesson. You can find it here.

P.S. Conflict and Compromise in History happens to be this year's National History Day theme. I'll be posting more on National History Day soon.

P.P.S. Anna Baldwin of Arlee High School sent this excellent idea to deepen RAFT assignments in response to "More Teaching Strategies," published last week: "Extension: after students have become comfortable with RAFTs written by teachers, ask students to write the RAFT assignment for each other. In other words, they come up with the R A F T. Doing this asks them to think about the pieces of the story more deeply, especially around perspective and topical importance."