Site search
sponsored by
News
ENLARGE
Roseburg High School history teacher Gwen Bartlett teaches a Women’s History class at RHS Friday. Bartlett added the semester-long class as an elective this year.
|
ENLARGE
|
Roseburg High School senior Emily Shannon participates in a discussion during a Women’s History class at the school Friday.
|
|
Early in their Women’s History class, Roseburg High School students went through a traditional American history textbook looking for references to women.
Senior Georgia Rogers didn’t find much.
“It’s definitely due to such acts like the 19th Amendment giving women’s suffrage and Title IX that our chances are definitely better, but how much textbook space in a regular textbook is dedicated to people like Betty Friedan and Alice Paul and Lucy Burns and ...? Not much. You get the usuals like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony ... but you don’t get all of the key figures within it,” she said.
Kody Kronser, one of six males in the class, said that’s because history focuses on war.
“Textbooks want to show you who started it, why it started, and most of the time that’s because some guy got too powerful,” he said. “He won power and he wanted more of it.”
History teacher Gwen Bartlett added the semester-long class as an elective this year. It’s one of several in the social studies department that have a special focus.
“There’s the question of, ‘Why have a women’s history course?’” she said. “It’s definitely not to discredit any of these things that we do learn about. I’m a U.S. history teacher, and I teach about the American Revolution, and I teach about some of these things that Kody’s talking about. But I think oftentimes that when we look at some of these major events, they’re very politically driven or militarily driven. And for a very long time women were not a part of those spheres, and they’re still not to a certain extent. And so I think to understand the full scope of what happened to our society in the past, you have to understand what everyone was doing and how everyone was contributing to what was going on during that society at that time.”
Kelsey Bergeson was quiet Friday during a lively discussion of the film “Iron Jawed Angels,” an account of women fighting for the right to vote in the early 1900s. She doesn’t speak up much, but she’s taken in a great deal.
“What these girls went through, what these women went through, it’s just heartbreaking,” she said, “and it’s also really empowering. I guess it gives me a lot of hope and makes me think I can do better, like I have enough strength to do the kinds of things that they did.”
She’d like to take the advantages she has to other parts of the world.
“The suffrage here, the women were trying to help their daughters. I want to help our sisters in other countries,” she said. “We’re in a pretty good place, so why can’t they be?”
Senior Georgia Rogers didn’t find much.
“It’s definitely due to such acts like the 19th Amendment giving women’s suffrage and Title IX that our chances are definitely better, but how much textbook space in a regular textbook is dedicated to people like Betty Friedan and Alice Paul and Lucy Burns and ...? Not much. You get the usuals like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony ... but you don’t get all of the key figures within it,” she said.
Kody Kronser, one of six males in the class, said that’s because history focuses on war.
“Textbooks want to show you who started it, why it started, and most of the time that’s because some guy got too powerful,” he said. “He won power and he wanted more of it.”
History teacher Gwen Bartlett added the semester-long class as an elective this year. It’s one of several in the social studies department that have a special focus.
“There’s the question of, ‘Why have a women’s history course?’” she said. “It’s definitely not to discredit any of these things that we do learn about. I’m a U.S. history teacher, and I teach about the American Revolution, and I teach about some of these things that Kody’s talking about. But I think oftentimes that when we look at some of these major events, they’re very politically driven or militarily driven. And for a very long time women were not a part of those spheres, and they’re still not to a certain extent. And so I think to understand the full scope of what happened to our society in the past, you have to understand what everyone was doing and how everyone was contributing to what was going on during that society at that time.”
Kelsey Bergeson was quiet Friday during a lively discussion of the film “Iron Jawed Angels,” an account of women fighting for the right to vote in the early 1900s. She doesn’t speak up much, but she’s taken in a great deal.
“What these girls went through, what these women went through, it’s just heartbreaking,” she said, “and it’s also really empowering. I guess it gives me a lot of hope and makes me think I can do better, like I have enough strength to do the kinds of things that they did.”
She’d like to take the advantages she has to other parts of the world.
“The suffrage here, the women were trying to help their daughters. I want to help our sisters in other countries,” she said. “We’re in a pretty good place, so why can’t they be?”
The class doesn’t just cover American women or feminists.
“We’ve looked at a variety of different types of women — in different civilizations, in different economic classes, in different cultures and in different time periods,” Bartlett said.
The students have also debated issues ranging from whether a woman should be president to abortion to segregating classes by gender.
Amber Brown was in the minority when she said a woman shouldn’t be president.
“A lot of girls had different opinions, and I think Miss Bartlett intervened in that one because it was starting to get a little bit ugly,” she said.
Their disagreements become part of a larger lesson.
“Even though we’re talking about women and women’s history, women throughout history haven’t always agreed on everything, like the girls in this class don’t agree on everything,” Bartlett said.
The students have also become familiar with more of their own history. Kronser’s favorite subject is history, but beyond Amelia Earhart and Sacajawea, he couldn’t identify many women in history.
“This has really been a huge awakening learning about all these different women and what they’ve gone through to help women get the right to vote and even come out of the house, and not be labeled as a witch or whatever they were labeling them as at the time,” he said.
Bartlett worries that people will see Women’s History as a special class, apart from other offerings such as Mock Trial or America in the 1960s. But all of the classes serve the same purpose.
“I think that specialized social studies courses can be very rewarding for kids because they help prepare them for their society out there,” she said. “You understand where you’ve been, you understand what’s going on, and the more well-rounded those courses can be, the better, because it makes students better civic participants in their future, I think. And that’s one of the reasons I was interested in doing this course.”
• You can reach reporter Teresa Williams at 957-4230 or via e-mail at twilliams@newsreview.info.
“We’ve looked at a variety of different types of women — in different civilizations, in different economic classes, in different cultures and in different time periods,” Bartlett said.
The students have also debated issues ranging from whether a woman should be president to abortion to segregating classes by gender.
Amber Brown was in the minority when she said a woman shouldn’t be president.
“A lot of girls had different opinions, and I think Miss Bartlett intervened in that one because it was starting to get a little bit ugly,” she said.
Their disagreements become part of a larger lesson.
“Even though we’re talking about women and women’s history, women throughout history haven’t always agreed on everything, like the girls in this class don’t agree on everything,” Bartlett said.
The students have also become familiar with more of their own history. Kronser’s favorite subject is history, but beyond Amelia Earhart and Sacajawea, he couldn’t identify many women in history.
“This has really been a huge awakening learning about all these different women and what they’ve gone through to help women get the right to vote and even come out of the house, and not be labeled as a witch or whatever they were labeling them as at the time,” he said.
Bartlett worries that people will see Women’s History as a special class, apart from other offerings such as Mock Trial or America in the 1960s. But all of the classes serve the same purpose.
“I think that specialized social studies courses can be very rewarding for kids because they help prepare them for their society out there,” she said. “You understand where you’ve been, you understand what’s going on, and the more well-rounded those courses can be, the better, because it makes students better civic participants in their future, I think. And that’s one of the reasons I was interested in doing this course.”
• You can reach reporter Teresa Williams at 957-4230 or via e-mail at twilliams@newsreview.info.
