The mother of one of my former students has the exactly the right approach to hooking her children on history: she and her husband regularly take their children on field trips to places like Ford's Theatre and the Smithsonian, where history can be brought to life for her little ones. At a Little League baseball game last fall, I found myself in a conversation with a father who advocates for more field trips during the year. One of my 4th grade classes went on a field trip to the Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond, and the White House of the Confederacy. Our tour guide was a Vietnam Veteran Sargent Major, descendant of slaves, a convert to Islam, who found the irony of my class's racial composition, considering where we were, to be totally delicious. Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania are packed with some of this nation's most historic sites, each an opportunity to connect children to our nation's history, and hook children more broadly on education.
Meanwhile, a small but globally connected network is planning to honor the 150th anniversary of the passage of Lincoln's Homestead Act by passing The Capital Homestead Act of 2012. With Washington on the verge of shutting down because none of the major parties can agree on the way forward, the Capital Homestead Act of 2012 offers a way forward that should be attractive to both of the major political parties.
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