Rarely are we--we, in the largest sense--affected by a single event. When they do occur, we know ... more Rarely are we--we, in the largest sense--affected by a single event. When they do occur, we know that these broadly shared experiences are inherently historical: World War II, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 (vicariously experienced across the world in real time via television and radio), and the Covid-19 pandemic. As faculty in institutions of higher education, we, like others around the world and in different professions, faced an unprecedented experience. How we approached the experiences varied from instructor to instructor from institution to institution. Within these various experiences, paradoxically, there was a common thread: how to meet learning outcomes and achieve student success despite the sudden and radical shift in our and our students' lives. As we considered, and then prepared a special issue on how the pandemic impacted teaching and learning at institutions of higher learning, it occurred to us that the Hero's Journey spoke to our common experience. We were forced from our normal lives into the unknown. As we moved into the unknown, we found allies and mentors. We learned new skills and strategies. We confronted difficulties and managed to overcome them, sometimes exceedingly well, sometimes we just survived. And now we prepare for a return to what doesn't feel like the old normal, but could be. What will we learn from this experience?
William Least Heat-Moon, whose ancestors included Englishmen, Irish, and Osage tribesmen, went on... more William Least Heat-Moon, whose ancestors included Englishmen, Irish, and Osage tribesmen, went on a vision quest in 1978. He traveled the back roads of America, so called the “blue highways” because they were marked in blue rather than black or red on the roadmaps of the 1970s. Traveling when gas cost $.65 a gallon, his journey took him on a nearly 14,000-mile loop around the United States. Having lost his teaching position at Stephens College in Missouri, and on the brink of losing his marriage, Least Heat-Moon believed he had reached the nadir of his professional and personal life. With Walt Whitman and Black Elk as his literary, intellectual, and spiritual companions, Least HeatMoon sojourned forth from Columbia, Missouri. His journey, which took him in and out of the lives of hundreds of his countrymen and women, culminated in the 1982 publication, Blue Highways: A Journey into America.
Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2021
The trajectory of my life changed in the most mundane of ways. It was on the first day of classes... more The trajectory of my life changed in the most mundane of ways. It was on the first day of classes during my junior year in college. While seated at a desk in a classroom in the Armory at the University of Illinois, I awaited eagerly for what would be my first upper-division history course: Professor Robert McColley’s course on Early National America, which covered the period roughly from the 1780s to the 1820s. After introducing the class, the professor handed out a list of topics and assigned one of them to each of us. My topic was William Blount (1749-1800). Who was William Blount, I wondered. The assignment was to write a research paper that would be due at the end of the semester.
The digital revolution provides an exciting opportunity for us to reconsider how we teach our his... more The digital revolution provides an exciting opportunity for us to reconsider how we teach our history courses....
This article explores how a city remembered a national event that took place before its own exist... more This article explores how a city remembered a national event that took place before its own existence. To this end, two public works of art in the city of Chicago that have American Revolutionary War participants as their subjects are examined. Particular attention is paid to the historical context surrounding Revolutionary War-themed public art in Chicago as well as to the two men who were responsible for erecting the sculptures-Robert R. McCormick and Barnet Hodes. McCormick, the publisher of the Chicago Daily Tribune, chose to immortalize the doomed Revolutionary spy, Nathan Hale, while Hodes, an attorney for the city of Chicago, centered his attention on a monument that included representations of General George Washington and immigrant financiers Robert Morris and Haym Salomon. By doing so, this article considers what motivated Chicagoans during the 1930s and 1940s to remember the American Revolutionary War. The general consensus that surrounded these acts of remembrance suggests the limitations of otherwise useful and important approaches that focus on conflict and healing in public memory formation.
Rarely are we--we, in the largest sense--affected by a single event. When they do occur, we know ... more Rarely are we--we, in the largest sense--affected by a single event. When they do occur, we know that these broadly shared experiences are inherently historical: World War II, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 (vicariously experienced across the world in real time via television and radio), and the Covid-19 pandemic. As faculty in institutions of higher education, we, like others around the world and in different professions, faced an unprecedented experience. How we approached the experiences varied from instructor to instructor from institution to institution. Within these various experiences, paradoxically, there was a common thread: how to meet learning outcomes and achieve student success despite the sudden and radical shift in our and our students' lives. As we considered, and then prepared a special issue on how the pandemic impacted teaching and learning at institutions of higher learning, it occurred to us that the Hero's Journey spoke to our common experience. We were forced from our normal lives into the unknown. As we moved into the unknown, we found allies and mentors. We learned new skills and strategies. We confronted difficulties and managed to overcome them, sometimes exceedingly well, sometimes we just survived. And now we prepare for a return to what doesn't feel like the old normal, but could be. What will we learn from this experience?
William Least Heat-Moon, whose ancestors included Englishmen, Irish, and Osage tribesmen, went on... more William Least Heat-Moon, whose ancestors included Englishmen, Irish, and Osage tribesmen, went on a vision quest in 1978. He traveled the back roads of America, so called the “blue highways” because they were marked in blue rather than black or red on the roadmaps of the 1970s. Traveling when gas cost $.65 a gallon, his journey took him on a nearly 14,000-mile loop around the United States. Having lost his teaching position at Stephens College in Missouri, and on the brink of losing his marriage, Least Heat-Moon believed he had reached the nadir of his professional and personal life. With Walt Whitman and Black Elk as his literary, intellectual, and spiritual companions, Least HeatMoon sojourned forth from Columbia, Missouri. His journey, which took him in and out of the lives of hundreds of his countrymen and women, culminated in the 1982 publication, Blue Highways: A Journey into America.
Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2021
The trajectory of my life changed in the most mundane of ways. It was on the first day of classes... more The trajectory of my life changed in the most mundane of ways. It was on the first day of classes during my junior year in college. While seated at a desk in a classroom in the Armory at the University of Illinois, I awaited eagerly for what would be my first upper-division history course: Professor Robert McColley’s course on Early National America, which covered the period roughly from the 1780s to the 1820s. After introducing the class, the professor handed out a list of topics and assigned one of them to each of us. My topic was William Blount (1749-1800). Who was William Blount, I wondered. The assignment was to write a research paper that would be due at the end of the semester.
The digital revolution provides an exciting opportunity for us to reconsider how we teach our his... more The digital revolution provides an exciting opportunity for us to reconsider how we teach our history courses....
This article explores how a city remembered a national event that took place before its own exist... more This article explores how a city remembered a national event that took place before its own existence. To this end, two public works of art in the city of Chicago that have American Revolutionary War participants as their subjects are examined. Particular attention is paid to the historical context surrounding Revolutionary War-themed public art in Chicago as well as to the two men who were responsible for erecting the sculptures-Robert R. McCormick and Barnet Hodes. McCormick, the publisher of the Chicago Daily Tribune, chose to immortalize the doomed Revolutionary spy, Nathan Hale, while Hodes, an attorney for the city of Chicago, centered his attention on a monument that included representations of General George Washington and immigrant financiers Robert Morris and Haym Salomon. By doing so, this article considers what motivated Chicagoans during the 1930s and 1940s to remember the American Revolutionary War. The general consensus that surrounded these acts of remembrance suggests the limitations of otherwise useful and important approaches that focus on conflict and healing in public memory formation.
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