Posted by admin on December 10, 2009 under Clara Barton Resources, Resources | 
The Red Cross depends on charitable donations and volunteers. Consider how you might support their work.
On their web site, look under Volunteer >> Make A Difference >> Youth, to see many of the opportunities for young people to participate. They have programs for all skills and ages (okay starting at school age).
Another resource is http://redcrossyouth.org/.
Posted by admin on under Clara Barton Resources, Resources |
If you’d like to experience part of Clara Barton’s history and legacy, consider visiting one of these museums.
1) Birthplace of Clara Barton – http://www.clarabartonbirthplace.org/
“The Clara Barton Birthplace Museum teaches the timeless lessons of compassion and service through Clara Barton’s life story. … This American treasure, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preserves Clara Barton’s legacy of compassion. Located within the Quinebaug-Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor in North Oxford, Massachusetts, the property is also home toThe Barton Center for Diabetes Education, Inc., a premiere health education institution for children with diabetes and their families.”
2) Clara Barton’s House / National Historic Site – http://www.nps.gov/clba/index.htm
“Clara Barton dedicated her life and energies to help others in times of need – both home and abroad, in peacetime as well as during military emergencies. Glen Echo was her home the last 15 years of her life and the structure illustrates her dedication and concern for those less fortunate than herself. … Clara Barton National Historic Site commemorates the life of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. The home served as the headquarters and warehouse for the organization.”
Also, you can find a lesson plan related to this historic site @ http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/27barton/27barton.htm
3) The Red Cross Museum – https://www.redcross.org/museum/history/clarabarton.asp
“Clarissa Harlowe Barton — Clara, as she wished to be called — is one of the most honored women in American history for being a true pioneer as well as an outstanding humanitarian. As pioneer, she began teaching school at a time when most teachers were men. She was among the first women to gain employment in the federal government. As a pioneer and humanitarian, she risked her life when she was nearly 40 years old to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. Then, at age 60, she founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and led it for the next 23 years. Her understanding of the needs of people in distress and the ways in which she could provide help to them guided her throughout her life. By the force of her personal example, she opened paths to the new field of volunteer service. Her intense devotion to the aim of serving others resulted in enough achievements to fill several ordinary lifetimes.”
4) The Fairfax Station Railroad Museum - http://www.fairfax-station.org/about.html
“During the Civil War, the railroad and the station were of great strategic importance. Serving first as a supply base for Union forces during the summer of 1862, Fairfax Station became a center for emergency treatment and transportation of the wounded to Alexandria. Clara Barton and two other volunteers broke convention and cut through regulations to nurse many of the over 3,000 wounded Union soldiers who lay on the hill between historic St. Mary’s Church and the depot. Barton, deserted by the other two women when the increasing danger at Chantilly became apparent, finally escaped with the last of the wounded before advancing Confederate soldiers burned the station to the ground. Union troops later rebuilt the structure.”
5) The Johnstown Flood Museum – http://www.jaha.org/FloodMuseum/RedCross.html
“The Johnstown Flood Museum features a display about Barton and the Red Cross, including examples of some of the relief items she distributed, documents, photographs and more.”
6) Red Cross ambulance at the National Museum of American History - http://americanhistory.si.edu/news/factsheet.cfm?key=30&newskey=699
“.. Red Cross ambulance once owned by Clara Barton. The ambulance is one of eleven vehicles purchased by the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New York for use by Clara Barton and the American National Red Cross.”
Posted by admin on December 8, 2009 under Teaching With Heroes |
Perhaps the school experience for some is supposed to be about facts and figures, nouns and numbers, you know – the things we can easily measure. Certainly we need to know these things. But perhaps, in this age of information and computer networks, we have come to a point when we need to know how to obtain the information that we don’t know. Passing knowledge by teaching information isn’t quite as necessary today as it was before. Well this isn’t a new concept and isn’t really the result of the “information age.” It has been expressed long before in great teaching traditions: “It’s not what you know, but how you learn that matters.” (I’m thinking now about the “…, but who you know..” version of that statement – and how I might introduce why teach with heroes?. But that is a different topic).
So back to “how you learn.” What we need are the tools to find out for ourselves the answers to questions we don’t know. For example, someday you may be looking for a reference about the author of a book. Most likely, you’ll discover that the way you go looking is the way you learned in school, or another time in the past. If it worked once, try it again. Most likely, if the information is out there, you’ll find it. That is, if you learned how to find information before.
Simply said, we learn by experience. And, here’s the answer – Why teach with virtues? – it gives us the experience that we need. We do more than just learn about something, we experience the learning. Okay, there’s a leap forward here, I admit. So let’s explore that. The leap is that virtues are an important part of the experience. Maybe if you are a computer, a worldwide web software service, or ink on paper, that may not be true. Language defines all you would need, in that case. But we are more. We make our choices, like how we search for a fact, based on our feelings too. Saying we use the method that worked before is only partially true. We also choose the method that felt how we wanted it to feel. We choose the method that had a positive experience.
Virtues are positive character traits that we are all capable of experiencing. They are part of the human experience. They apply to everything we do, and how we do it. I said earlier that teaching in schools might be about nouns and numbers, but learning is all about who we are. If we teach our kids that who they are is not only measured by what they know but how they learn and apply it, then the lessons they learn will repeat for them the rest of their lives. If kids learn virtues this way, their actions in the future will be reinforced with the same virtues. Eventually, the kids who learn virtues through their own experiences, will be the adults who are fulfilled repeating them.
A big leap? A supposition? Perhaps – and what a fantastic possible outcome it offers.
