Editor's Notebook

1889 Consular Dispatch from Baghdad

By Lee Ann Potter

The featured document from the first U.S. consul in Baghdad serves as an excellent point of departure for studying the nineteenth century links between the United States and the Middle East.

Puritan Day: A Social Science Simulation

By Joan Brodsky Schur

Eighth-grade students gain a greater understanding of social control and tyranny when they participate in a Puritan Day simulation.

Degrees of Freedom: A Five-Part Framework for School Leadership

By Sam Chaltain

Key strategies outlined in this article describe how educators can foster democratic schools that honor individual freedom and civic responsibility without turning the asylum over to the inmates.

Chew Heong v. United States: Chinese Exclusion and the Federal Courts

By Edited by James H. Landman

A close look at the case of Chew Heong, a Chinese immigrant who challenged the nineteenth-century Chinese exclusion laws, provides important insight into early U.S. efforts to control immigration.

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Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns

By Chris Sperry, Sox Sperry

A study of select campaign posters, cartoons, and ads teaches students to critically analyze messages from media sources and to understand the role media have played throughout the history of American elections.

The Great Communicator Files

By Mira Cohen

Students will learn a great deal about the process of presidential speechwriting when they study primary documents related to well-known speeches such as President Reagan's Omaha Beach Memorial Remarks.

Crossing Borders and Building Bridges Using the Internet

By C. Frederick Risinger

In keeping with this year's NCSS conference theme, the author offers a list of websites that successfully link teachers and students together through pen pal programs, paired classrooms, or partner schools.

Humanities and the Social Studies: Studying the Civil War through the Third Space

By Trace Schillinger

Blurring the boundaries between disciplines can yield notable results, as was demonstrated when an eighth-grade class approached history through literary activities.

Researching the Viet Nam War Inside Viet Nam: U.S. Student Teachers Explore War Myths

By Robert E. Vadas

Aiming to correct myths about the Viet Nam War, this author regularly leads groups of students to learn about the country firsthand.