Historical Understanding

In 2009 U.S. History teacher Bonnie Belshe celebrated the inauguration of former President Barack Obama. While her students were working, Belshe projected Obama’s inauguration speech to emphasize the “importance of having a Black president for the first time and what that meant,” which allowed her to feel more connected to her students. 

On March 13, 2020 when principal Ben Clausnitzer announced the impending three week school closure on the loudspeaker, Belshe recalled having to find ways to  She then displayed a video by Jeremy Suri, a professor at University of Texas Austin, about how having a fear of the pandemic is understandable and is something that everyone can connect through. 

A year later on April 20, 2021, the jury was expected to return with the verdict for George Floyd’s murder. Belshe’s students were in breakout rooms but as soon as CNN announced that the jury had the verdict, Belshe brought her students back immediately. 

“I remember that I was crying when it came back that [Derek Chauvin] was guilty,” Belshe said. “I remember telling my students, ‘I’m gonna be honest, I did not really know what was gonna happen and I didn’t have a ton of faith in what the verdict might be.’ At the time [we were] learning about the Civil Rights Movement, and about Emmett Till’s murder and how those who murdered him went free and so for me, for the students, we had that historical understanding of how different that moment [could have been].”

Like the conviction of George Floyd’s killer and other huge political and historical events such as the ending of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program and former President Trump’s election, Belshe finds that these moments allow her to connect with her students as well as create teaching opportunities.