Clara Barton for Roberto Clemente: Want to Trade?

Posted by admin on November 9, 2009 under Teaching With Heroes, Trading Card | Be the First to Comment

(This following article was published by American Federation of Teachers on their web site in 2007: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/winter07_08/notebook.htm)

If you’re an elementary school teacher looking to liven up your lessons on American history, join the club—The Heroes Club. Created by businessman Brian Batson and educator Dennis Denenberg, The Heroes Club is a set of 25 trading cards that depicts 25 American heroes and the virtues they represent.

For instance, Benjamin Franklin’s card explains that he represents the virtue of service and notes that he started many important services that we still use today: the public library, the postal system, and the police department. Clara Barton’s card describes her as “a real-life action figure,” who cared for wounded soldiers in the Civil War and started the American Red Cross, and, therefore, represents compassion.

Cesar Chavez’s card, which also mentions Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers, associates him with perseverance for having championed migrant workers’ rights. “Migrant workers harvest many of the fruits and vegetables we eat,” the card reads. “In the 1960s migrant workers were paid $1 a day. They worked many hours (often in fields sprayed with poisons) and lived in shacks without electricity or running water. Cesar and Dolores made people aware of the terrible living and working conditions. They held meetings all over the country and told true stories of the migrants’ poverty. Their perseverance in this struggle helped to improve the lives of migrant workers.”

The cards serve as a fun—yet educational—way for teachers to take a break from history textbooks and use a relatively inexpensive supplement. A set of 25 cards costs $9.95.

A list of the heroes, their virtues, and pictures of the trading cards appear on The Heroes Club Web site, www.theheroesclub.org. Worksheets and lesson plans, both of which prompt students to think about the challenges a particular hero faced and why our lives are better today because of that person, are also posted there.