Thread by @MarkJWestpfahl

Thread 🧵
We continue to go back & forth w/the Russia - Ukraine War and the U.S. - Dakota War, looking for similarities & differences in what has happened, as current events can often (somewhat?) mirror historic events. #SSPMSpackers #MNstudies

During our class today, we were looking at the ending of the U.S. Dakota War. One of the passages from our textbook Northern Lights (@HistoryEdMNHS) struck me.

* (We spent 3 days in class learning as it was "Breaking News" & have been interjecting since)

It made me wonder - if I changed some of the words, if it would sound eerily familiar to what is happening in Ukraine right now? It did. So I read the following out loud to students

* Now, I am NOT saying the Dakota & Russia are interchangeable in their roles of their respective wars & thus, should be compared in a certain comparative way. Rather, I think it shows that we can often interpose names into outcomes of so many events & they can read very similar.

What made this even more eery, was when we listened to the original text read to us while watching this 54 second drone footage tweet from just outside of Kyiv. It lined up strikingly well.

* Our textbook reads it out loud for about 42 seconds.

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1499488533622448134

A couple of pages later in our text, we saw this page. We talked about the anger that must have been felt by the Minnesotans, but also the anger that the Dakota would have had that led to this moment (broken promises, late annuities, poor treatment, etc.)

My #SSPMSpackers students were shocked by the line “Extermination, swift, sure and terrible is the only thing that can give the people of Minnesota satisfaction, or a sense of security.” We talked about what that meant. They thought that this was beyond cruel.

So, again, I decided to change the wording for their consideration. I asked them how many people would agree with what the Ukrainians said, and the majority of hands went up.

As soon as their hands went up, many of them started to slowly lower than hands and look around, because they realized they were in a conundrum. I asked why some of them put their hands up and slowly started to lower them. In almost every class, someone said something similar to;

‘When we supported one side, it seemed more justified’ which quickly led to several other students saying that their reasons may have been a bit hypocritical or that it really showed our personal biases.

This is an amazing observation for 11-12 year olds to realize.

Others said (paraphrasing) because they wanted the Dakota to win, they were upset that the Minnesotans would treat people this way - Yet many of the same people said because they want the Ukrainians to win, it was easy to be upset at the Russians. After all, they are our enemies.

Our experiences shape our biases. Taking time to step back and see those biases is important - not only for students… but for adults as well. When we can acknowledge our own biases (& I acknowledge mine w/students often) we can get away from our own echo chambers and learn more.

This is another reason why it is important to let students learn about current events. It is pedagogically appropriate to make comparisons between different events in order to make connections. It also allows students to become more aware of the world around them.

@threadreaderapp, please unroll.