Freedom Summer and the Foot Soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement
Jeremiah Clabough’s Freedom Summer and the Foot Soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement article evaluates the civil rights progress in the U.S. from a bottom-up historical analysis. The article analyses some of the oppressions that the marginalized part of the U.S citizens faced. The marginalized group included women as well as African Americans who were denied some of their rights such as the right to vote. The U.S Constitution and the Declaration of Independence clearly articulated the rights of every citizen and democratic principles. However, the U.S never respected all the rights and principles thus denying democracy in the country. The oppressed citizens retaliated through conducting demonstrations that demanded the U.S to honor the ideologies and values in the founding documents.
Freedom Summer had an enormous impact on the advancement of civil rights. It was the strict direct contrast to and non-literal remedy for learners’ utilization of the Master Narrative, which includes the integrated, pioneer-focused stories that dismiss the effect of ordinary people. The activities of the CRM members added intricacy to the Master Narrative. Their actions challenged the opposing forces during that period. The anonymous advocates, who were usually whites and Northern college learners played a crucial role in the CRM activities. Freedom Summer and its related happenings such as Freedom Vote insisted on the power of the people which had been ignored in the past.
The article also focuses on the national and state education initiatives that appear to be incompetent. However, the article insists that they are based on comprehensive educational psychology and focus on discipline- precise pedagogy. The initiatives aim at the educational psychology of teenage learners. The article also identifies various levels of critical thinking. They include evaluation and creation in the highest criticality level, application and analysis in the middle level, and remembering and comprehending at the lower level. Teenage students can present all the levels if they are provided with materials and necessary support to develop their previous understandings.
According to the national education initiatives expectations, history pedagogy comprises three crucial elements; historical argumentation, historical thinking, and historical literacy. History literacy emerges as a close analysis of wide-ranging articles, often primary and secondary sources. Learners examine the articles for sources. Comprehensions developed in history literacy help in enlightening historical thinking. Moreover, understandings obtained from history literacy and historical thinking mold historical argumentation. In respect to educational psychology, history literacy is tight scrutiny, historical thinking is an evaluation that is majorly disciplinary cognition while historical argumentation is a presentation of newly-acquired comprehension.
The article insists on the need of researching history pedagogy. Researchers should examine how the age of various learners affects their understanding of historical narrative as compared to historical argumentation. The research can also focus on the tutor’s opinions on various types of writing and associated execution approaches. An example, history teachers most likely focus if the narrative is based on historical artifacts while language arts teachers consider the literary elements of the story. In the future, inquiries might aim at the expense -to-benefit effect of revision for both teacher-based and peer-based. Proper guidelines on how to revise can boost the student’s understanding and also modify unsupported claims.
History is presented with a top-down Master Narrative and in a sequential manner. Middle-level students develop a clearer Civil Rights representation due to the often repetition of history pedagogy like Dr. King’s dream and Rosa Parks’ bus.