Summer Musuems, the Scopes Trial, and a Classroom Checklist

I have no idea what these things have in common

A place to explore: How did I do on museum bingo?

Back in June, one of my favorite newsletters (Non-Boring History) released a summer museum bingo card.

Always excited by a new challenge, I decided to partake. I went to one museum, and then immediately forgot all about it.

Or did I?

Maybe this museum challenge was lurking in my subconscious, because when I resurrected the now three-month-old newsletter, I found myself with THREE bingos! Go me!

Here’s where I went:

Historic house museum: The Priest Lake Museum, a log cabin-turned museum up in northern Idaho, which I wrote about here.

Roadside attraction museum: Big Brutus, the largest electric shovel in the world. I stopped here while driving through Southeast Kansas from Pittsburg to Humboldt. There’s a museum too, about coal mining, labor unions, and folks that are proud of their grandpas.

Big Brutus photos by Jenna Vandenberg

Isn’t this sweet? It almost makes me get why people are nostalgic about coal mining. Photo by Jenna Vandenberg

Museum I didn’t find appealing: MOPOP: The Museum of Pop Culture. This is an odd choice because it’s likely the museum that normal people find the MOST appealing: My problem is that I’m not a movie or sci-fi person so this museum is full of references and memorabilia that I don’t understand/appreciate. However, the museum was a good time because we went with my nephews who were totally obsessed with everything. Their joy made the whole thing fun.

Cousins at MoPOP. Photo by Jenna Vandenberg

Two museum displays in random places:

1. At Octagon City Coffee in Humboldt, KS, there is a little story about families who traveled from the East Coast to take part in the “Vegetarian Kansas Emigration Company.”

   

   Photo by Jenna Vandenberg. The coffee was delicious.

2. A plaque I saw while running in Everett, WA.

   

   

   Grand Ave Park and its views. Picture taken by Jenna Vandenberg

Your choice: The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which I wrote about here.

Photo by Jenna Vandenberg

Culturally specific museum: I loved the Mid-America All-Indian Museum in Wichita and the Keeper of the Plains statue, which is on museum grounds but also free and accessible all day. The statue is at the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers, and is a lovely spot to watch a sunset. The statue was created by Blackbear Bosin, and the Museum tells his story and showcases more of his art. It also serves as a community center for local tribes and showcases other Native artists on a rotating basis.

Keeper of the Plains. Photos by Jenna Vandenberg

Professional museum: Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum. I’m assuming it is a “professional” museum because it has achieved accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums since 1972. I didn’t realize that of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums, fewer than 5% are currently accredited…including this one. I’ll write about this museum later. Stay tuned.

All the Kansas attractions were hosted by Matador Network and the Kansas Department of Commerce

A book to read: The Evolution of Annabel Craig by Lisa Grunwald

There are some mild spoilers here, so read with caution

Although I don’t have a history lesson to go with this book, I’m dying to write about it anyway.

In the Acknowledgments, author Lisa Grunwald quoted her editor as describing the book as “a modern retelling of The Awakening [the Kate Chopin novel about a married woman who chooses another life], but it’s set during the Scopes trial.” Indeed it is.

• It’s the story of a pre-WWII woman realizing that she doesn’t have to stay married to a man who doesn’t respect her.

• It’s the story of a Christian woman amid the Scopes Trial, which dealt with teaching evolution in schools.

• It’s a story that has SO much to say about political rhetoric and polarization today.

Author Lisa Grunwald braids these three stories together so beautifully. The story is told in past tense by Annabel, which is quite effective, especially when the author throws in curiosity-inducing lines like “…that lamp would be broken - perhaps on purpose - just a few years later, but I’ve never lost the note…” those little clues and drop lines sure kept me up all night, turning pages.

Annabel was sixteen when her parent both died in the 1918 Spanish flu (the book was published in 2024. Was the 2020 pandemic present in the author’s head?) Orphaned young, her strong Christian faith and the members of her small God-fearing Tennessee town pulled her through. As does the love of George, the out-of-town lawyer she falls in love with and marries.

Nothing - except hope and other people’s stories - had prepared me for such love. The impishness in his eyes, which seemed to promise a joyful lifetime…every last detail of our new life…seemed a private but perfect miracle.

And then the Scopes Trial comes to town. In an explicit attempt to bring business and attention to the small town, Dayton’s leaders convince John Scopes (a substitute teacher) to be arrested in order to test out Tennessee’s new law banning the teaching of Darwin’s evolution.

Chaos ensues. A bunch of Yankee reporters and lawyers descend upon the town, denouncing Daytonians as a bunch of backward yokels who are so stupidly influenced by the Bible that they refuse to see reason or understand the meaning of the separation of Church and State.

Speaking in favor of the Tennessee law is the brash anti-evolution lawyer and three-time populist presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. He sounds familiar:

All around the South, huge crowds still gathered at tent meetings and lecture halls to hear him speak. People trusted him for the ways he claimed to be like them: simple (although he was anything but); down-to-earth (although his ego soared); common (although he had built a small fortune in Florida real estate)…he’d been fierce in his warning that the teaching of evolution was going to poison children and thereby threaten civilization.

George, Annabel’s husband, is on the other side of the political spectrum. A lawyer, George is arguing against the Tennessee law. He works with the Scopes team to bring scientific experts to testify in the case and argue for the teaching of evolution. Without really talking to his wife (and REALLY without listening to his wife), George puts Annabel in the “ignorant yokel” camp, along with her best friends and community.

This is not good marriage advice.

George’s ‘I’m better than you, with my college education and liberal ideas and big-city breeding’ attitude cuts pretty close to modern political rhetoric as well. His attitude worked only to alienate people (wife included), and foment more animosity.

It’s impossible to read this 2024 book without thinking about today’s book bans and identity politics. The Author’s Afterword references how she started to write the novel “during the era that brought us “fake news” and “alternative facts".” Along the way, the rancor about what public schools should and shouldn’t teach has intensified…” I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that the divisive 2016 (and 2020?) elections were on her mind.

While I don’t have any plans to teach students about the Scopes Trial (I’m a World history teacher, not a US history teacher), I surely am keeping up on how Florida is requiring that teachers post the 10 Commandments in their classrooms and Oklahoma teachers are required to teach the Bible. If you also want to keep up on such news, I’d highly recommend following Peter Greene:

In regards to teaching: Beginning of School check-list

I know many of you teachers have already gone back to school, but my student's first day isn’t until after Labor Day. So I’m deep into my beginning-of-school-tasks work. Feel free to take a peek at my to-do list in case you also are getting ready for school and need some focus.

The weirdest and most useful part of this to-do list is this:

1. Study class rosters from last year

Weird, huh? Here’s why:

Every year, on the first few days of school, my students from last year will pop back into my classroom and say hi. I’m always so delighted to see them, but (horrifyingly), I’ve often forgotten their names. I hate myself so much for forgetting.

Therefore, I’ve solved the problem by refreshing my mind. The morning before the first day of school, I’ll spend a few minutes staring down at my class lists from last year. I’ll look at each name and picture each student in my mind. That way, when they stop by and say hi, their name is already in my head, ready to go. Good tip, huh?

Alright folks, it’s go time. Happy teaching, reading, and exploring. I’ll see y’all here next week.

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