"Unique in American history".

Talley-Jones, Kathy

Most Americans are proud of the states they live in, but there's no question about it: California really is exceptional. It even says so in the state Department of Education's history and social science framework, which makes the case explicitly: "Students learn the story of their home state, unique in American history in terms of its vast and varied geography, its many waves of immigration beginning with pre-Columbian societies, its continuous diversity, economic energy, and rapid growth."

And when do students do this? In fourth grade, when they're ten and eleven years old. Everyone knows that kids this age have questing and challenging minds eager to explore the panoply that is California history. Most of these students are lucky to have fourth-grade teachers who are committed professionals who manage to balance the competing demands of testing, curriculum requirements, and classroom management. These teachers present a nuanced and thorough look at the state from its earliest residents right up to the twenty-first century. Unfortunately, a few focus only on the missions and the Gold Rush and then move on. Okay, we've done California, now it's time for equivalent fraction problems.

Without looking for creative ways to introduce state and local history, that's pretty much it. But the good news is that students tackle world history beginning in sixth grade. Because California is at a hub that connects so much of the world, state and local history can illuminate international studies. Many museums and nonprofit organizations located within the state provide excellent opportunities for exploring California's global connections.

Why should teachers be distracted from following the textbooks the state has adopted? Because museum collections, exhibitions, and programs can help students build the skills that are emphasized in the state framework along with the events they learn about, skills such as chronological and spatial thinking, research, evidence, point of view, and historical interpretation. Museums display artifacts that connect to historical events, provide primary materials for historical interpretation, and develop programs that lead students to understand that people involved in world events are people just like themselves, their families, their neighbors, and their friends.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?"

The Oakland Museum of California's exhibition "What's Going On--California and the Vietnam Era" is a case in point. High schoolers study the Vietnam War in the tenth and/or the eleventh grades, in which they look at U.S. foreign policy after World War II and the causes and consequences of the Cold War. (It is, alas, often rushed through at the end of the school year, however.) The Oakland Museum exhibition brings home ways in which "California was the epicenter of the war's national front. Within its boundaries were most of the nation's defense contractors, principal military centers from which troops were trained and transported, centers of legendary peace and anti-draft protests, the vanguard of the New Right politics ushered in by Reagan's election [as governor] in 1966, and the portal for most of the returning military and Southeast Asian immigrants."

Teachers might be able to find personal connections with the war, even though it ended more than thirty years ago, in every one of their classes. Not only is the war still palpable in today's political debate, but students all over the state have relatives, friends, or neighbors who worked for military contractors, served in the military, protested or supported the war, or who immigrated from Southeast Asia as a consequence. Some of these community members will be willing to come to the classroom and talk about their experiences. The Community in the Classroom website suggests ways to locate speakers and develop questions for them.

The Oakland Museum exhibition includes photos, letters, TV news footage, music, oral histories, and clothing. Visitors can hear the stories of soldiers who traveled west through Oakland Army Base and from refugees who journeyed east from Vietnam. Teachers can encourage students to research their own community's connection to the war. Are there military bases nearby? Many were decommissioned in the 1990s. How have they been repurposed? Is there any evidence of the site's role in the war? Who in the community served in the war? Who didn't?

Are there defense contractors in the community? Who worked there? Also in the 1990s defense contractors consolidated so that there are fewer such firms today. In fact, this journal is edited in the former Hughes Aircraft corporate headquarters now rededicated as Loyola Marymount University classrooms and administrative offices. Who works for these contractors today? What do they manufacture or what services do they provide? Why did they set up shop in the community?

Encourage students to interview family members, friends, and neighbors about the war. Did they serve in the military? Did they protest the war? Did they leave their homeland as a result of the war and settle in the United States? How do they commemorate the war? Have they ever visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.? Do they have favorite songs, TV shows, or movies about Vietnam? As evidenced by the dialogue in the 2004 presidential election, the Vietnam War is a sensitive topic and students will very likely welcome guidance on ways to approach their subjects.

Students' findings about the impact of the Vietnam War on their community can be presented in essays, debates in class, videos, songs, exhibits, and short stories. Said one student whose class studied the war:

 "I understand now more than
 ever how this war affected everyone
 who was involved. Many of
 the parents, not to mention the
 veterans, and even our bus driver,
 all experienced this war in different
 ways. So, if it affected these
 people so traumatically, it is easier
 to imagine how it changed an
 entire country."

(1) "What's Going On--California and the Vietnam Era," Oakland Museum of California http://www.museumca.org/exhibit/exbi_whats going_on.html

(2) Lindy G. Poling, The Real World: Community Speakers in the Classroom. Middle Level Learning. National Council for the Social Studies. May/June 2000, 8:8-10. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Echoes from the Wall: History, Learning and Leadership Through the Lens of the Vietnam War Era (1999): is available at www.teachvietnam.org.

RESOURCES

Eymann, Marcia A., Charles Wollenberg, Dianne Curry, What's Going On--California and the Vietnam Era (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004).

Ybarra, Michael J., "California's Vietnam War: In Oakland, Echoes of a War that Changed California," Los Angeles Times (September 3, 2004), p. 1. www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/ cl-et-ybarra3sepo3,2,7308191.story

California Department of Education History and Social Science Standards, http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/ hstmain.asp

Oakland Museum of California

"What's Going On--California and the Vietnam Era," http://www.museumca. org/exhibit/exhi_whats_going_on.html

The Vietnam War: Past and Present A resource for high school history teachers--from Tapped In, a portal for historical information and curriculum ideas, http://ti2.sri.com/archive/projects/ vietnam/

Teacher Guidelines for Linking Students to the Vietnam Era, Wake County Public School System. Includes guidelines for contacting speakers and questions for speakers from students, http://www. wcpss.net/community_in_the_classroom/vietnam/

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Teach Vietnam www.teachvietnam.org