Lesson Planning: Women's History Month in Florida

By Tiffany Kaar

As an elementary teacher in Florida, I love January, February, and March. In these three months, I get to introduce (yes, for the most part, introduce) the issues of slavery, segregation, discrimination, and inequality. I have the opportunity to discuss activism and the Civil Rights Act of 1964; I can share the stories of people who used their time on this planet to make it possible for us to come together in our classroom, regardless of race or gender.

Regularly, my third graders are extremely distractible, but during our study of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., they were focused and eager. As we learned about his biography, we read the book “Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop”, an award-winning picture book about the 1968 sanitation strikes in Memphis, Tennessee that Dr. King supported. It was also where he was assassinated, yet another aspect of American history that I introduced to them.

In February, that captivation continued as we began Black History Month. We did a biographical study of a different ‘history hero’ (as the students call them) every morning after attendance and before science. They would pull out their black-and white composition notebooks and take notes during the short presentation. Afterward, I would give them time to draw a portrait of the day’s ‘history hero’.

It seemed natural to assume this trend of enthusiasm would continue into March with Women’s History Month. I told them on Thursday, “Tomorrow will be the last day of Black History Month,” which provoked groans, “but next week we’ll start Women’s History Month.” Yays erupted from the girls but it was still groans from the boys. I asked them why they were unhappy with this news and two of them responded in unison, “How come there is no Men’s History Month?” Reflexively I said, “Well, how come there is no White History Month?” They all nodded at this, catching my drift. We had discussed this point at the beginning of the month- how history is often written by white males who have left others out of the story, despite the big impact they made. That having months to focus on those who are considered minorities helps to level a very intentionally uneven playing field.

I have been thinking about how to teach Women’s History Month in a way that the students would find more relatable. I noticed during BHM that it was harder for them to conceptualize stories when they did not understand the situation. The ‘heroes’ from the South were easy but if they were from someplace further away, we would have to interrupt the flow for a bit of a geography lesson. Bigger concepts were even harder to grasp. Slavery, for instance, is a really hard idea for them because they don’t understand why people couldn’t just leave and go get a better job. Explaining the Underground Railroad and how Harriet Tubman used the stars was challenging because they don’t quite get how people got around before smartphones. So I have been taking this into consideration and have decided that we will focus on local women’s history.

Initially I was a little worried that I might not have enough information to replicate the routine we established for BHM, but as I looked into it, I saw how ridiculous that concern was. Gainesville alone has a list of well-documented women that can keep us busy: Beverly Jones, Judith Brown, Rosa B. Williams, Carolyn Beatrice Parker, LaVon Wright Bracy, and Dr. Ruth Alexander, to name just a few. Then if you include those from the entire state (Zora Neale Hurston, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Eula Gary Johnson…), I mean, it would take an entire school year to study so many notable women. So I will keep our biographical sketches to those who are from our own town, which I hope will not only keep their interest but also give them a little inspiration, boy and girl alike.

As I was considering all of this, I decided to make it even more local at the end of the month by giving them the assignment of interviewing a woman in their family and then sharing that with the class. The idea is that in doing this task, they can have a little more respect for the women in their own lives which will hopefully extend beyond the family. I also want them to understand that they are part of history, that history is a constant creation by everyone, not just the ones found in the books.

For it is not just the famous women who deserve our admiration, but every woman who manages to survive in a world built for the other half of the population.

The truth is that while I enjoy the opportunity to teach about topics that the state increasingly finds too guilt-inducing to include in the official curriculum, my aim is to make these ‘minority months’ obsolete. I know it is an enormous goal and it won’t be achieved in my classroom alone. What we must strive towards is getting the younger generation to be more informed about our greater American and global history, to include the queens alongside the kings, to know of the tireless work of Coretta Scott King as well as her husband. They should know how women like Carolyn Beatrice Parker’s work as a physicist with the Manhattan Project advanced the war effort or how women like LaVon Wright Bracy made it possible for Gainesville schools to be integrated. These lessons should not be special exceptions but the rule.

Until then, I will have my students pull out their composition books every day and hope that the stories of Ruby Bridges and Bessie Coleman, as well as their grandmothers and aunties, will stay with them as they make their way into the world.