Today’s Post comes from FOB (friend of blog) Matt Moore and his blog: Teaching Beyond the Textbook

Teaching the Causes of the American Revolution (as a parent/child fight)

A few years ago, I was reading two books at the same time, Gordon Wood’s The Radicalism of the American Revolution and Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick. Both books were fascinating to read and offered insights that helped me improve my skills as an educator. In Made to Stick, the Heath brothers emphasized the importance of using metaphors and analogies to help people remember complex topics. This was not a revolutionary idea at the time, but it still made me reflect on how I structure activities in my social studies classes. Gordon Wood’s history of the American Revolution opened my eyes to many different interpretations of the past. Dr. Wood pointed out that many of the arguments between the colonists and their British counterparts were compared to a parent-child relationship.  For example, British officials would tell the colonists that they should respect the monarchy just like a child should respect their parents. As I read both books, I thought there was a good opportunity to create a fun and engaging lesson that would help students make connections to the causes of the American Revolution.

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