In the fall of 2007, Mr. Brown’s history class at Easthampton High School collected interviews for an oral history project. Each student was told to interview one veteran of military service and one veteran of the peace movement. Students were pre-assessed to gauge their pre-conceived notions of veterans and peace activists. In the spring of 2008, the general student body was polled to assess attitudes regarding veterans and peace activists. These data are available along with suggestions for lessons in the section entitled numeracy lesson.

The Research:
Students were required to arrange their own interviews, a task which many students found daunting. Many students called on family members, family friends or members of the EHS community for interviews, while others had to take a journalistic approach and seek interviewees where they were most likely to congregate. Some leads turned up cold, some turned up frustrating, while others paid off immensely. Here’s what some students had to say about this process:

“Both these men had great experiences during their movements, as did I trying to complete this project. I felt just like a drafted youth thrown out to make it on my own and survive the grueling weeks of this project.” -Gina D.

“Learning from people other than a book or what the state requires for you to learn is an almost refreshing experience. It taught me to reconsider when I treat someone in a rude way for what they believe.” Alex T.

“One of my first experiences was traveling to the Peace Pagoda in Leveret, MA. It looked like a small clearing in the woods . . . Once we took a chance and . . . we found statues and monuments which were breathtaking.” Drew S.

“I have never actually interviewed someone before, and I feel it was very good to get this experience . . . however, it was a bit stressful. It all fell into place in the end though.” -Kaitlin A.

“This seemed like it would be fun from the moment he told us about it. However complicated it turned out to be . . . it was still very worthwhile. Several people were lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview a Veteran of World War II, a group of people dwindling each and every day.” Elizabeth R.

“I was given in return slight frustration at my ignorance, as well as annoyance of my stereotypical views on the topic.” Eric F.

“The experiences I had also taught me how to interact with people I don’t know to get the information I needed for a school project or anything else in life, which is something I am going to need sooner or later.” Drew S.

“At first I did not want to do this project. I had no idea of where I was going to find people to interview. In the end, however, I’m glad I did it. It was a good way to learn about history and history in the making by talking to the people who actually lived through it.” Nate K.

For Students and Educators:
This website may be most useful to serve as inspiration. The students found this project challenging, educational, and mostly, memorable. Create an oral history project. Put the results online. Send us the URL at: hdinbetween@yahoo.com.

The section entitled Numeracy Lesson was included to encourage teachers to use mathematics in the social studies classroom and to demonstrate how empowering it is for a student to become an authority on a subject by learning to interpret data. Let us know if you use it and how you use it: hdinbetween@yahoo.com.