Making History Relevant

At Hutchison, history comes alive. Classes are not about memorizing dates and names or listening idly to lectures. Instead, girls are learning about U.S. and world history, making connections across time, and learning how to engage each other over important topics. Hutchison teachers are...

Making History Relevant

Ask an upper school Hutchison girl about her experience with history classes today, and you’ll get an effusive response. Hutchison girls are actively strengthening their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills while absorbing historical content. They’re scanning and analyzing current news through the lens of history and talking about it. They’re learning how to discuss differences of opinion in empathic and constructive ways.
 
In the upper school, a cohort of four teachers is encouraging girls to think of history as a living, breathing entity that is integral to their understanding of current events. The group is led by Ronnie Robinson, chair of the department, and also includes Amanda Magdalena, Clay Francis, and Rachel Mattson. The team collaborates to ensure that the roster of classes covers the required content, while honing the skills the girls will need to succeed in college and beyond.
 
“Our classes are all about discussions; it’s a very organic environment,” Robinson said. “We’re moving around a lot. We do group work, we do board work, there’s constant engagement. I call it the lab method, because you’re not just learning history or learning content. You’re doing what historians do—asking questions, synthesizing information, and forming opinions. The content is the base, but we’re covering the content in a way that sharpens their skills.” Robinson teaches sophomore American history, including Advanced Placement (AP) and honors classes.
 
Robinson knows that reading comprehension and writing are critical skills for Hutchison girls because in addition to teaching for more than 20 years, he has spent the last 13 years working with the College Board, which oversees the SAT and AP exams. Robinson started with the organization as a reader, scoring AP history exams, and is now at the leadership level, training AP readers and teachers across the country. Last year, he was one of three to receive the College Board’s Teaching Excellence in History award. He also was nominated and won the Coca-Cola Educator of Distinction award for Tennessee.
 
“When you make the study more active,” Robinson said, “there’s a better understanding of history, without just memorizing dates and facts. You still have to learn dates and facts, because history is built on those, but you’ve also got to be able to compare slavery and Native American history, for instance, or the development of a democracy over time.”
 
Amanda Magdalena, who teaches AP U.S. government and AP comparative government, said memorization only helps so much. She said if a class is talking about the powers of the president, for example, they might look at how they have expanded and contracted. But they have to ask, “What about the historical context enabled the presidential powers to grow and how did that change? Did they contract and why? What are the pros and cons of that?”
 
Clay Francis agreed. “Being able to understand cause and effect is one of the primary things that we want our girls to learn,” he said. “We want them to think about contextual issues and then say, ‘this leads to that.’” He said they also need to understand how to analyze and synthesize all of the information that they are learning. Francis teaches AP human geography, world religions, global studies, civics, and economics.
 

Learning to Love History

The upper school faculty agreed that the old teaching model—endlessly lecturing to students about historical dates and places—led many people to dislike history.
 
“There is never a time in which I’ll lecture more than five to seven minutes at a time without giving girls an opportunity to imagine or compare and contrast or analyze some type of information related to what I’ve just shared,” Francis added. “It’s this constant process of engaging with the students and having them engage with one another.”
 
Maeji Brown ’18 said her love of history is because of her classes at Hutchison. She’s taken advanced honors world history, AP U.S. history, and AP comparative government, and is finishing her senior year with AP U.S. government and AP art history. “Our teachers want us to be involved. They try to get us to think about what we’re learning and make connections with different parts of history and even different classes. It’s not just stating ‘this is what happened, this is how it connects,’ but getting to why it happened and why it connects. It’s engaging and involves asking open-ended questions.”
 
Giving girls a voice not only makes the classes more interesting but also more empowering.
 
“I’m definitely more outspoken in class,” Brown said. “I’m not afraid to speak up and give an answer, even if it is wrong, because we’ll normally talk through it and understand why the right answer is the right answer. Or discover whether there even is a right answer, because occasionally in some classes, it’s up for debate, especially in art history.”
 

Using a Spectrum, Contract, and a Different Viewpoint

Nevertheless, history—and politics especially—can be messy and fraught with differences of opinion. So how does the faculty steer the girls toward civil and constructive dialogue?
 
“As we start classes, I immediately say that, of course, we have political differences just like we have different hair colors and different religions and languages, and we’re going to celebrate those differences,” Magdalena said. Additionally, she tells the girls to stick to the facts. “The government is happening around us, but we’re talking about government structures and not making any value judgments about anybody.”
 
Francis said he starts his semester by asking the girls to create a contract. “I say, ‘we’re going to be talking about challenging issues, but I want to do it in a way that’s constructive, and I want your opinions on how we do that.’ Then each class comes up with a contract. I write it down. And at the end of that, we sign that contract, which says we as a class are going to follow these rules.”
 
Another way to diffuse tension that both Magdalena and Francis use is to change it from being a yes or no proposition to a spectrum of opinion. They place numbers on the walls around the classroom. For instance, if you believe statement X one hundred percent, you stand near number 1. If you disagree with statement X one hundred percent, you stand near 5. And if you don’t completely agree or disagree with statement X, you stand at 3. Then they have discussions across the spectrum—who believes what, who disagrees, why you disagree, and back and forth.
 
Francis said walking in someone else’s shoes helps too. He occasionally asks the girls to filter their research and statements about an issue through a different way of viewing the world, such as realism, liberalism, constructivism, or Marxism. “Then it becomes less about an opinion and more about how a realist or a Marxist would approach this issue. Sometimes they have to take on issues from a point of view with which they don’t agree, but I think it helps them understand that point of view a little bit better and have more compassion for someone who believes that way.”
 
Abigail White ’18, who has taken advanced world history, AP U.S. history, and AP U.S. government and politics, and is currently taking AP art history, co-runs the Government Club with Mary Margaret Treadwell ’18. “We are close friends, but she and I disagree on most every issue. Over the years, she’s become my favorite person to talk politics with because we’ve learned through the guidance of Mr. Robinson and other faculty members to have what we call ‘debate without hate.’ We’ve learned how to respectfully talk about different issues, why we believe the things that we believe, why we disagree, and how we can reach a consensus of sorts. Hutchison has helped me to develop those skills.”
 

Becoming a Better Citizen

The upper school history department takes the mission of raising young women to be responsible citizens very seriously. That’s why sharpening the girls’ skills while teaching the historic content is so important.
 
“I think literacy is key to being a better citizen,” Robinson said. “If you can read and think critically, if you can make comparisons, and dig and research and write and understand news, then you become a better citizen, not only on the local and national level, but also on the international level.”
 
“My history classes have challenged my viewpoints in a good way,” said Maeji Brown. “It’s made me consider things that I wouldn’t otherwise think about. And the classes have been some of the toughest courses I’ve taken, but in the end I definitely see them as very rewarding. I can take the lessons I’ve learned from my classes and apply them to my life, whether it was conversations I had or learning from the past.
 
“Personally, it’s made me grow as a person. I was very shy my freshman year when I came into upper school, and I feel like I’m going to be leaving upper school with a voice, that I have something to say, and I’m going to say it.”
 
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Memphis, Tennessee 38119
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Hutchison is the leading private girls school in Memphis for ages 2 years old through twelfth grade.