Since it will be the 250th anniversary of the U.S.A. and our independence from Great Britain on July 4th of this year, I was asked to make some sort of exhibition to celebrate as a final project for the school before I leave. During this year, I have had to answer a lot of difficult questions about my country, especially because of our current political situation and immigration raids. Occasionally it has been hard to find many positive things to talk about about my country, especially when many people take the actions of our government to represent the ideals of all of the people who live there.
Because of this, I did not want to simply talk about the history of the country through dates, wars and presidents, but rather try to show the generations of people from all across the world who immigrated to the U.S. and built its culture, economy, and identity. The 6th-9th grade classes who visited the exhibition were able to learn about different groups of people who immigrated to the U.S. at different time periods, why they went there, and what they contributed to the country after coming there. There were also activities, such as music from genres created in the U.S., state flag making or American food quizzes. Hopefully at the end, the students not only learned about historical facts but were able to relate to the regular people who live in the U.S. and understand how their identity developed a bit more.
Though I do not agree with many things my government has done, I am very proud of the regular people I know who live in the U.S. Throughout the history of the country, there have always been people innovating and working for social progress so that their communities and their children can have better lives. Things like racial equality or worker’s rights were not won by single politicians, but rather large groups of regular people working together who cared for each other. And though we have our political difficulties right now, I don’t think that the resilience of the American people should be underestimated.
As it is the end of my time here, I would like to thank the teachers for collaborating with me on ways to integrate me into the classroom and teaching me how to teach. I would also like to thank all of the students who were so brave at speaking with me, who participated in my lessons and taught me about how they experience Germany. I wish them all good luck!
Teresa (Ms. Davison)
