Rosalia Scalia, Veteran Administration Maryland Health Care System is this week’s contributing author.
The Veteran Administration Maryland Health Care System (VAMHCS) opened its Literature & Medicine program January 2010 with participants from a cross-section of hospital staff Read the rest of this entry »
“More Chautauqua!”-audience member at this years Chautauqua
This year’s Chautauqua really went “Beyond Boundaries!” Read the rest of this entry »
Aaron Bryant, curator at the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University in Baltimore, wrote a blog about how a grant from the Maryland Humanities Council helped bring an almost forgotten part of history back to the forefront.
In October 2008, the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University opened “Most Daring Dream: Robert Houston Photography and the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.” Read the rest of this entry »
“What a great way to learn history” -Audience member from Greenbelt. Read the rest of this entry »
National History Day was a big success for Maryland students! Students won awards and were finalists in a variety of categories, and the bottom line is that Maryland students continue to be highly competitive at Nationals. Read the rest of this entry »
What a day it was for judging!
Today Maryland’s Senior division (high school) competitors squared off against their counterparts from across the nation and world—including Alaska and Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Department of Defense schools in Europe, and international schools in Asia.
I was able to check out a few of our students’ performances and documentaries and was blown away with the quality of their work—and the energy among the students and their families was infectious. I also had the opportunity to meet the contest’s most generous supporter, Kenneth E. Behring. Read the rest of this entry »
Monday was a big-Big-BIG day at National History Day for students in the Junior Division. Nearly 1300 middle school contestants competed for a slot in the final judging rounds, to be held Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
The morning started early for the Maryland delegation, with Will Bury from Plum Point Middle School in Calvert County, prepped for interviews with Fox DC Television and the Baltimore Sun. Before the interviews, Will had an important decision—what tie to wear. Will’s lucky red tie is adorned with dinosaurs and his exhibit, “Building a Better Chicken,” is about innovations of the Delmarva Chicken industry—you know some people believe chickens evolved from dinosaurs and might the judges see the dinosaur tie as a “costume,” prohibited by the National History Day rules? Will decided to take a risk and wear his lucky tie to the interviews. Lucky indeed, because his interviews went great!
Our Maryland students were terrific—confident about their projects and well-prepared to talk to the judges. A few highlights:
• Natalie Behrends’ performance, “Assembly Line Production in the 1950s,” included a series of quick costume changes (Eastern Middle School, Montgomery County)
• Katherine Snee, explained her group exhibit “Kodak on a Roll” (Piccowaxen Middle School, Charles County)
• Lauren Sheranko and Brenna Will performed of “Tale of a Telegraph,” costumed as a telegraph key and various historical personages, including Samuel Morse. (Southern Middle School, Calvert County)
• Muftiat Ogunsanya’s presented her documentary, “The Impact of X-Rays, CAT Scans and MRIs on Medical Diagnosis,” ( Murray Hill Middle School, Howard County)
As Monday closed, results in performance and documentary categories were posted. While no Maryland students were selected for the final judging round, each student represented Maryland well! It was a very good day!
John D. Willard V
Maryland History Day Outreach Coordinator
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Greetings from this year’s National History Day contest! Maryland’s 55 participants have arrived and begun to register, set up their exhibits, and swap buttons with students from each of the other states. Despite some intense humidity, the students have been bubbling with enthusiasm.
The annual Maryland delegation reception was a success in its new location: the air conditioned Tydings Hall. Almost 100 students, parents, siblings and teachers stopped by to enjoy refreshments, meet other Maryland participants, get some last-minute coaching from Mr. John Willard, and pick up a History Day teddy bear. Among the guests were Mack Godfrey of Columbia Gas of Maryland, who drove from Pittsburgh to judge at the contest for the 16th year, as well as Susan Hottle-Schultz of St. Mary’s School in Annapolis, one of Maryland’s two Behring Teachers of the Year.
A “special guest” was announced at the opening awards ceremony; the guest is actually one of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence on loan from Norman Lear. The document, one of only 25 known to exist, will be displayed Monday through Wednesday.
The national competition officially kicked off with a festive, brief opening ceremony. Jim Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (and a visitor to the MHC offices this spring), spoke about the role of history in contemporary decision-making and the importance of historical studies in these students’ future endeavors.
Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, where he co-chairs the task force on the virtues of a free society, wrote, “Why Liberal Education Matters,” which was published in the Wall Street Journal May 15, 2010.
Berkowitz agues that, while teaching science and math is very important, there is an “urgent need to reform liberal education,” noting, “Liberal education supposes that while individual rights are shared equally by all, the responsible exercise of those rights is an achievement that depends on cultivating the mind.” He takes to task the way in which the humanities are taught in colleges—citing “confused faculty and incoherent university curricula” as the culprits.
Berkowitz poses the question, “How can one think independently about what kind of life to live without acquiring familiarity with the ideas about happiness and misery, exaltation and despair, nobility and baseness that study of literature, philosophy and religion bring to life?” To answer that question, he posits, “For the sake of science and math, for the sake of international competitiveness, and even more for the sake of defending the worth and dignity of the individual, the reinvigoration of the humanities and the restoration of liberal education as education for freedom must become a priority.”
MHC would like to know what you think about the value of a liberal education and whether/how to reinstate humanities as an integral element of a college or university education. Please reply here or on Facebook.
You can access the full article free if you are a Wall Street Journal subscriber at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303695604575182313286840550.html?mod=rss_Today’s_Most_Popular .
Marta Mills, a History Day judge and Facebook friend, shares her thoughts on being a judge and parent in this year’s Maryland History Day.
For the past four years, my family has looked forward to spring for its warmer temperatures, longer days, and History Day! We learned about History Day when friends from Ohio asked us to see their daughter perform an historical skit about the Erie Canal for the National History Day finals. We loved the energy of the event and, as parents of a history enthusiast, were very excited to see middle and high school students digging into history and receiving recognition for it. It was especially exciting to see parents supporting their children’s interests outside of sports.
Our son participated in the local and state contest three years ago outside of school, but he wanted to share the experience with others at his school. Since Towson High School was unfamiliar with History Day, he started a History Club so students take their research to the public via History Day. He and three other Towson High School students created a website about how the Space Race fueled scientific innovation. They worked on the site over winter and spring breaks and tried to meet after school several times a month. But, like most high school students these days, their schedules are crammed with AP courses, driver’s ed classes after school, and the college application deadlines. To their amazement, their project won the local contest.
Knowing we would be driving our son to the Maryland History Day contest at UMBC and waiting until the awards ceremony, my husband and I decided we’d like to volunteer our time to the Maryland Humanities Council and serve as judges. We are both history enthusiasts—he teaches in public schools, and I’m a writer who is a frequent volunteer in clubs and schools.
Judging students’ entries was eye-opening. Through our son, we’d witnessed first-hand the long hours of research, writing, occasional frustration, and design that went into creating a web site, but we had no idea what the judges saw. The depth and range of talent we saw was thrilling. And interviewing the students reminded us all over again how many curious, brilliant students are eager to share their knowledge.
Following the judging, we attended the awards ceremony which is spellbinding when your child’s category is almost the last one announced. And, once again, to his amazement, his group’s senior website won! So, for the first time, he’ll be attending National History Day (NHD) at the University of Maryland at College Park as a participant instead of a spectator.
As the NHD contest date nears, our son’s excitement builds even as he is forced to practice some serious time-juggling skills with AP exams, English essays, summer job applications, and finals all demanding his attention. From our perspective, History Day is time well-spent—after all, 10 years from now he probably won’t remember taking that Geometry test, while presenting his History Day project on the Space Race will be an indelible memory.
Marta Mills