As a lifelong Texan, I know a great deal about Texas history. Students in Texas study their state's history in fourth grade and seventh grade and also cover the Texas governmental structure in government classes in high school.
We take our history seriously in Texas.
And now I've moved to Indiana. Even as someone interested in history, the upper Midwest of the United States is the part of the country I know the least about. It's a little disconcerting to move to an area that's that unfamiliar.
If you are looking for Irish middle-grade historical fiction, Celia Keenan writes that in her "reckoning, approximately one quarter of all Irish books for children consists of those predominantly of historical interest." Although this may be true, finding them can be a bit difficult. I've searched out a number to get you started.
I found a pot of gold at O'Brien Children's Books. The selections are organized by period, which is helpful as well as inspiring. They illustrate Ireland's long history, significant periods, and events.
The list begins with Irish Prehistory or Celtic mythology. Although mythology is more often associated with literature than history, it easily belongs to both and is an excellent place to begin. The list continues up to the 1969 Troubles.
The major Irish historical topics you are likely to find at your local library, beyond mythology, are the potato famine, immigration, and political unrest and civil war. And, of course, I can't omit the Titanic.
The Hunger
The Great Famine occurred between 1845-1849 when a water mold decimated the potato crops in successive years. A million people died of starvation and disease while a million more immigrated. The population in Ireland is below prefamine levels to this day. Perhaps one of the best known series on this topic is The Children of the Famine by Conlon-McKenna, which includes Under the Hawthorne Tree, Fields of Home, and Wildflower Girl.
Newberry award winning author Patricia Reilly Giff, wrote a series that begins with Nory Ryan's Song followed by Nory's immigration to America in Maggie's Door, and the story of her friend in Bird Mallon.
Another book on this topic is The Hunger, by Carol Drinkwater.
Political Unrest and Civil War
No study of Irish History is complete without addressing the division and civil war which has torn the country apart throughout history, and especially in the 20th century. It is impossible to understand the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland today without understanding the past.
The Easter Rising of 1916
Although division and unrest permeate much of Irish history, two periods are a touchstone in the literature: The Easter Rising of 1916 and what is commonly called The Troubles.
The Easter Rising was an attempt at independence from British rule by a small group of Irish. It occurred during WWI when England was busy fighting Germany with the aid of two hundred thousand Irish soldiers. Some of these soldiers fought to prove they supported a United Kingdom, others fought to show the British that Ireland was deserving of home rule--the right to govern themselves with their own parliment.
The insurrection began on Monday of Easter week, April 24th and became know as the Easter Rising of 1916. Outnumbered, the rebellion was quickly supressed and most of the leaders executed. However, the Easter Rising lit fires that smoldered and flared throughout the 20th century.
The Troubles or Northern Ireland Conflict
The Troubles, or Na Trioblóidí in Irish, occurred mainly in Northern Ireland from about 1969 to 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed. Some place the actual end of violence into the early 2000s. More than 3,500 were killed in this conflict and the trauma of it persists in the lives of all those affected to this day.
The Titanic Museum in Belfast. The silver sides of the
building replicate the hull of the ship and the four
sides represent White Star Lines which built it.
The Titanic
The books writen on the Titanic are legion so you won't have any trouble finding some. What connects the Titanic to Ireland is that it was built in the famous Belfast ship yards and was a titanic feat.
On that note, I'll leave you to pursue your own pots of gold in Irish history. We've only grazed the surface here. Do you have any Irish historical fiction you'd like to recommend?
Michele Hathaway is a writer and freelance editor. She has an M. A. in Social Anthropology and has worked in libraries in California, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. She writes stories set in culturally diverse, historical and contemporary periods.
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In America during the 19th and early 20th centuries, most students attended one-room schoolhouses. In these schools, a single teacher taught reading, writing, arithmetic, history, music, art, and geography to students in the first through eighth grades. The number of students varied from four to 40 or more. The little children, sometimes as young as five years old, sat in the front, while bigger students, who could be as old as eighteen, sat in the back. Students memorized and recited their lessons. In order to proceed to the next grade, students had to pass a written examination, often given by a county examiner or the superintendent of the school district. The eighth grade exam was so rigorous that most students' education stopped at the eighth grade. Only a small percentage of students progressed to high school, and an even smaller percentage graduated. In 1900, for instance, only about 6 percent of students graduated from high school.
Avi's The Secret School is an historical novel that tells the story of one such student, and while fictitious, Avi based the story on solid research into the period. It is 1925 and fourteen year old Ida Bidson is an eighth grader in a remote farming community in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. In order to fulfill her dream to become a teacher, she must attend high school. When her teacher leaves mid-term, the school board decides to suspend classes to save money, jeopardizing her chances to take - and pass - the eighth grade exam. Ida decides to keep the school running by teaching school herself, but she does so without telling the school board. Poor Ida must balance her duty to teach the other students with her need to study her own lessons, all without slacking off on the chores at home. She is often exhausted to the point of defeat, but she manages to keep going in spite of the rigor. At the end of the school year she must face the biggest challenge of all: the final exam.
The year-end eighth grade exam that Ida must pass in order to continue to high school is rigorous by any standard. I doubt that any of my students (I teach 7th grade Social Studies) could pass it. Consider the question for the reading portion of the test: Choose a poem you have learned this year from your reader. Provide the title, the author, the date of his or her birth, and if such is the case, his or her death. Write out all the stanzas of the poem. Then write a brief essay as to why the poem is important to you. I seriously doubt that any of my students have ever memorized a poem, let alone the birth and death dates of any important American.
To see an actual copy of an Eighth Grade Exam from 1912, click here.
This kind of rigor in elementary education began to change in the 1930, when education journals, textbooks, and courses for administrators and teachers began to advocate Progressivism. Under this educational theory, school curriculum would be determined by the needs and interests of children instead of by academic subjects. Instead of separate instruction in reading and mathematics, these were integrated into other disciplines, especially in elementary school. It was common for Progressive educators to say, "We teach children, not subject matter." High schools, where teachers were trained in specific subject areas were less willing to change.
The invention of the automobile also led to changes in education. The first school buses were horse-drawn. Gas powered ones let states consolidate
schools into larger districts with common procedures. In 1940 there were over 117,000 school districts in the United States. By 1990, the number had decreased to just over 15,000. Funding for schools also changed. In 1940 local property taxes financed 68 percent of public school expenses. By 1990, 63 percent of school funding came from the federal government. As government funding increased, so did government control of curriculum.
Progressivism came under question during World War II, when the Army found that recruits knew too little math to accomplish basic bookkeeping or compute gunnery projections. This led to the Life Adjustment Movement, which assumed that most students would never go to college or enter a skilled occupation. Instead, students needed school programs that focused on practical problems such as consumer buying, insurance, taxation, and home budgeting. However, the huge technological, scientific and engineering advances made during the war in areas such as radar, cryptography, navigation, atomic energy, and medicine, made mathematics and science education appear imperative. America realized that it needed engineers!
Memorization, which had been the lynch-pin of the One Room Schoolhouse, ceased to be a significant part of American education during the late 1960s and 1970s, a time when society questioned authority. During this period, the Open School Movement began to dominate educational philosophy. Like the Progessivism of the 1930s, this movement believed that students should determine for themselves what they would learn, and when. The Open School Movement got its start with Summerhill, published in 1960. Its author, S. Niell claimed that "Whether a school has or has not a special method for teaching long division is of no significance, for long division is of no importance except to those who want to learn it. And the child who wants to learn long division will learn it no matter how it is taught." By 1970, some 200,000 copies of Summerhill were being sold every year. It had become required reading in 600 university courses.
But by the late 1980's it had become clear that the Open Education Movement was not meeting the educational needs of all students, especially children whose parents could not afford outside tutoring and lacked enough education to support homework. Professor Lisa Delpit, an African American educator who taught in an inner city school in Philadelphia explained, "White kids learn how to write a decent sentence. Even if they don't teach them in school, their parents make sure they get what they need. But what about our kids? They don't get it at home..." The pendulum was set to swing back towards a more rigorous, standardized curriculum, which is what No Child Left Behind and then the Common Core were intended to create.
Anyone paying attention to education knows that the Common Core State Standards, often shortened to CCSS, are a touchstone of controversy. The CCSS claim to be a clear set of expectations for what knowledge and skills a student needs in language arts and math at each grade level in order to be prepared for success in college, career, and life. Supporters say that CCSS allows students across the nation to have access to the same level of education. Detractors say that CCSS forces all students to learn the same information, regardless of whether that information is pertinent to that individual. There is no accounting for different learning styles or disabilities: all children are expected to pass the same test.
In the novel The Teacher's Funeral, A Comedy in Three Parts, Richard Peck draws a humorous picture of what school was like for Russell Culver, a fifteen year old boy living in a tiny Indiana farm town in 1904. When the teacher of his one-room school dies, the local school board hires Russell's older sister, Tansy. There is plenty of memorization in Tansy's lesson plans, and quite a bit of rigor. But that doesn't mean that they are subjected to the standardized, one-size-fits-all assessments that are common today. Witness this excerpt from when T. Bernard Whipple, the Superintendent visits:
"And do you know your letters yet?" T. Bernard Whipple hung over (Beulah Bradley, the six year old, littlest student). "G is for the gopher, digging in its burrow. H is for the patient horse, plowing in its furrow." "You are a regular scholar, Beulah. In two or three years you'll be learning your multiplication tables." "Six eights are forty-eight," (she) mentioned. Mr. Owen stared down at her. "You know your multiplication tables already? Miss Culver, the child is only in first grade. The multiplication tables don't come until - " "I am here to help her learn, "Tansy said, "not to keep her from it. She is the brightest button in the box, and what the others learn, she picks up." The superintendent looked out upon us for another victim. His eye . . . jumped to Glenn. Glenn. The superintendent had gone from the youngest of us to the oldest, from the smartest to the - . . . .What schooling Glenn had mastered wasn't going to detain us long. "This here's science." Glenn swiped at the ceiling and the mud dauber's nest broke loose from the rafter and fell into his hands. "See these here cells like a comb of honey? The mother mud dauber lays and egg or two in ever' one of them cells. Then she goes to work and stings a spider with her pizen. She don't kill that spider, but she stuns it. Then she sticks that spider in the cell with the egg and shuts it up tight. As the eggs hatch, they've got plenty of spider meat to feed them on." We were all silenced by this knowledge. It wasn't school-learning from Tansy, of course. But Glenn was a country boy. Few of nature's ways were mysteries to him. On the other hand, the superintendent was a town man. "You learned that at school?" the superintendent inquired. Glen shrugged. "Where else?" "Well, I am glad to see that the study of natural science is not neglected," Mr. Whipped admitted. ...(and) his gaze fell on Flopears. "Boy," Superintendent Whipple barked, "what's your long suit?" "Who, me?" Flopears pointed to himself. "My what?" "Well son, tell us. What are you best at, numbers or letters?" Flopears tried to think. "Is them my only choices? I reckon I like pictures best." He flipped open his notepad. You could have knocked us over with feathers. Flopears had captured us all in his notebook. We'd gotten him wrong. He wasn't a dunce. He was an artist. T. Bernard Whipple cleared his throat. "I am glad to know that the study of art has not been neglected. With that, the superintendent reached for his overcoat. It was done with, and Tansy had passed her trial.
Times change, and the educational pendulum swings, but some things remain true: the best education involves a bit of humor and a lot of flexibility.
Jennifer Bohnhoff is a seventh grade social studies teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the author of three works of middle grade historical fiction. Her most recent book, Tweet Sarts, is a contemporary middle grade novel with a Valentine's day theme. You can read more about all her books on her website.
For more information on the history of American education, go here.
For stories from men and women who taught in one room schoolhouses, go here.
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[This
is adapted from an excerpt of my book You
Can Write for Children: How to
Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers.]
It's
tempting for authors of historical fiction to go on at length about the time
and place where their book is set. After all, it's fascinating to them, and they did all that research!
But for readers, especially children who may not have a particular interest in
the era portrayed, daily life should be shown in action instead of pausing the
story to explain the history.
Life
has gotten more fast-paced, from TV shows and movies to daily activities, which
may be why some older historical novels don't hold up as well. They're too much
about the history, and not enough about a great story. In general, readers
don't care as much about setting as they care as plot and characters. Still, a
strong setting can provide an interesting backdrop for a story and teach young
readers about a different part of the world or the different way some people live
(or lived).
Young
readers will typically enjoy books best if the setting serves as a backdrop
rather than being described in enormous detail. For my Egyptian mystery, The Eyes of Pharaoh, I tried to weave in
details without stopping the plot. The book opens like this:
Seshta
ran. Her feet pounded the hard-packed dirt street. She lengthened her stride
and raised her face to Ra, the sun god. Her ba, the spirit of her soul, sang at
the feel of her legs straining, her chest thumping, her breath racing.
She
sped along the edge of the market, dodging shoppers. A noblewoman in a
transparent white dress skipped out of the way and glared.
In
just a few lines, readers learn the setting (dirt street, market), cultural
details (noblewoman), and religious references (Ra, the ba). But they are all
conveyed within the action, as the main character races toward her goal.
Whose Views?
On
occasion, historical fiction writers may want to show an unfamiliar attitude. This
can require a bit more explanation. For example, in my Mayan historical drama, The Well Sacrifice, the narrator
describes her sister like this: “Feather was beautiful even as a child.... Her
dark, slanting eyes were crossed, and her high forehead was flattened back in a
straight line from her long nose.” This shows the different Mayan
interpretation of beauty. Otherwise, a physical description of Feather might
have convinced young readers that she was ugly, rather than beautiful by the
standards of her time.
Still,
to be true to the time and the characters, historical fiction writers have to
trust their readers to notice and interpret shown details. In The Well Sacrifice, I couldn’t explain
that the Maya didn’t have wheeled vehicles, since the Mayan narrator wouldn’t
be aware of what her culture did not have. I could only show them traveling by
foot or canoe. (An author’s note at the end of the book also pointed out this
details. Teachers also may be able to find supplemental material posted on the
author’s website, such as I have
here. Finally, pairing historical fiction and nonfiction can be a great way
to get readers interested in the culture because of the story, while learning
facts through the nonfiction.)
My
philosophy is that people in the past were much the same as people today in
most ways – they were motivated by fear, love, pride, faith, and so forth.
Readers can connect to these motivations and emotions even if the specific situations
are different. That's why young readers can fall in love with books set during
the Civil War, such as Jennifer
Bohnhoff’s The Bent Reed, or on
Java when Krakatoa erupts, such as Sara K Joiner’s
After the Ashes. To them,Suzanne
Morgan Williams’ novel Bull Rider, set only a few years ago, is as
historical as Robert
Lee Murphy’s The Iron Horse Chronicles, set during the westward
expansion of the US, or my novels set in the ancient past. Kids can enjoy time
travel novels such as Louise
Spiegler’s The Jewel and the Key, set in Seattle both in contemporary
times and at the beginning of World War I. Depending on the child, both
settings may be equally exotic.
Chris Eboch writes fiction and nonfiction for all ages, with
several novels for ages nine and up. The Eyes of Pharaoh is an
action-packed mystery set in ancient Egypt. The Genie’s Gift draws on the
mythology of 1001 Arabian Nights to take readers on a
fantasy adventure. In The Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan girl
in ninth-century Guatemala rebels against the High Priest who sacrifices anyone
challenging his power. The Haunted series,
which starts with The Ghost on the Stairs, follows a
brother and sister who travel with their parents’ ghost hunter TV show and try
to help the ghosts while keeping their activities secret from meddling
grownups.
The local television station will be showing Bicentennial Minutes, and the local history museum will have exhibits.
