For "Classical Leadership Education," TAH Document Collections Ground History Study
Miles Mathews teaches 11th grade US history at the John Adams Academy (JAA), a public charter school in Roseville, California. The school offers a 鈥渃lassical leadership education鈥� centered around reading the enduring literature of the past. For Mathews, now in his sixth year at the academy, his teaching position offers the 鈥渄epth鈥� he hoped for while earning a Master鈥檚 degree in 19th century American history. 鈥淚 landed on the golden job,鈥� he said. The academy emphasizes 鈥渞eading, writing and discussion鈥� as the practices through which students best learn 鈥渉ow to think,鈥� not 鈥渨hat to think or when to think.鈥�
鈥淲e don鈥檛 use textbooks at JAA. We use classic works of literature and, in history, a lot of primary source documents. 色中色 has given me tons of good stuff to work with.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檝e been using the Core Document Collection for about three years, since I first met [TAH Teacher Program Manager] Jeremy Gypton.鈥� Mathews regularly asks Gypton for updates on new volumes available in the series. 鈥淚鈥檓 using the TAH documents now more than ever,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey work really well with the distanced learning we鈥檙e now doing鈥� during the pandemic. You can still hold really good Socratic discussions once you get past the barrier of the Zoom platform itself.
鈥淟ast year I downloaded a pdf version of the World War II collection to use in class; those documents fit very well with our curriculum. This year I鈥檓 using all but four chapters of both volumes of Documents and Debates in American History.鈥� The set spans key themes in American history from 1493 to the present. Each chapter groups document excerpts representing contrasting points of view on a single question. This helps Mathews stage conversations 鈥渁mong students in my classes, and with the authors of the documents,鈥� as well.
Visit 鈥淢eet Our Teacher Partners鈥� to learn how Mathews cultivates students’ ability to read documents closely and carefully.
