NINETY SIX, S.C. (WIS) – Next year will mark the country’s 250th birthday, but historians say Americans might not have a nation to celebrate if it had not been for South Carolina and the pivotal role it played in the American Revolution.
“This is where America’s freedom was won,” Van Hipp, a trustee with the American Battlefield Trust, said.
It’s a lesson State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver believes students ought to understand.
“We have just an amazing opportunity to make sure that they know not just America’s story but the incredible role that South Carolina played in making that story what it is,” Weaver said.
On Wednesday, the South Carolina Department of Education debuted a new curriculum in time for the birthday celebration.
It’s part of the state’s Palmetto Civics Project, an initiative Weaver launched “to foster students’ understanding of and respect for the institutions that sustain our civic life.”
The new lessons were developed by the American Battlefield Trust, a nonprofit that preserves America’s battlefields and educates the public about what happened on them.
South Carolina is the first state in the nation to unveil this type of material.
“It isn’t just about providing articles and rubrics. It’s about offering the kind of resources that engage our young people,” Hipp said.
The lessons align with state social studies standards and can be taught to students from kindergarten to high school. They will not be required learning in classrooms.
“These are incredible, supplemental resources that our teachers can pick up and customize and use not just in a social studies classroom, but also an ELA classroom, really across the board,” Weaver said.
The superintendent announced the new curriculum at Edgewood Middle School in Greenwood School District 52.
She hopes these lessons show South Carolina students how history is oftentimes right around the corner from them, like for the students at Edgewood, who go to class only about a mile away from where the first battle of the American Revolution in South Carolina was fought in the town of Ninety Six.
“The battlefields of South Carolina are absolutely integral to the story of the fight for our independence. Cornwallis only surrendered at Yorktown because he was chased out of the Carolinas,” Hipp said.
Students will be able to learn about those battles and take virtual tours of battlefields through this curriculum, along with reading lessons on what life was like for South Carolinians during the war and watch videos on notable heroes from what eventually became the Palmetto State.
Educators hope students both learn about the past and realize the role they can play in shaping the nation’s future.
“You’re not just learning history; you’re part of history in the making,” Edgewood Middle School Principal Jason Schumpert told his students Wednesday.
Read more on https://www.wmbfnews.com
