The Power of Primary Documents
Primary documents prompt reflection on history. Landen Schmeichel sees this often when using documents in his Advanced Placement US History course at Legacy High School in Bismarck, North Dakota. During a unit on the Progressive movement, he asked students to read an excerpt of Justice David Brewer鈥檚 1908 ruling in Muller v. Oregon. It upheld an Oregon State law prohibiting women from working more than 10 hours in a day. After they read the excerpt, Schmeichel showed students a textbook summary of the ruling that called it a win for women. But in the opinion, Brandeis referred to women as a class of persons needing protection because they were physically weaker than men. He also argued that their energies needed to be conserved for service in the home. 鈥淲ait a minute,鈥 a female student said. 鈥淲hat if I want to work more than 10 hours? Wouldn’t this ruling do the opposite of what the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment intends?鈥
Discussion then shifted to the meaning of equality in the Fourteenth Amendment. Does equal protection under the laws really entail treating some people鈥攂ut not others鈥攁s members of a protected class? 鈥淭his is sexist!鈥 the female student protested. 鈥淚f I apply for a job at Home Depot, and they tell me they鈥檙e hiring a man because he can work more hours in a day than I can, I’ll be mad. I鈥檒l never shop there again!鈥
Liberty and Equality: Ideas That Shaped America
Primary documents prompt reflection on powerful ideas. Many of the documents Schmeichel uses reflect American political theory, probing the interrelated ideas of liberty and equality. 鈥淭hose ideas birthed what I would say is the greatest nation in human history. Our job as educators is to engage students in conversation about what those ideas mean. When we engage with those ideas, we鈥檙e not diminishing what history is as a discipline; we鈥檙e elevating it. We鈥檙e reflecting on what matters to us most鈥攚hat we aspire to be not only as individuals, but collectively as a nation. We need such discussion if, as Federalist 1 puts it, we want a government based on reflection and choice rather than accident and force.鈥
Schmeichel finds the well-curated primary documents he needs for his teaching in 色中色鈥檚 Core Document volumes, which excerpt key documents of American history, preface them with a scholar鈥檚 summary of their historical context, and suggest questions for discussion. 鈥淭his collection, I would argue, is the preeminent source for primary documents that are accessible to students. And the online versions are free.鈥
An Easier and Completely Rewarding Way to Teach
When Schmeichel began teaching APUSH, he relied on the textbook. 鈥淚 had students read a chapter a week. In class I lectured over the chapter鈥檚 major arguments and major terms, often using PowerPoint slides. My AP pass rates were decent鈥攁bove the national average. But if a student said, 鈥楾here鈥檚 a term on page 242 I don鈥檛 understand,鈥 I鈥檇 have to reply, 鈥業 have no idea myself. Let鈥檚 read that passage and try to figure it out.鈥 That type of engagement wasn鈥檛 too beneficial for students.鈥
He began looking for primary sources to flesh out the story of history, which led him to and to its Master鈥檚 program centered around reading and discussing documents. Awarded the James Madison Foundation in constitutional studies for North Dakota in 2021, he immediately enrolled in MAHG. Soon he was reading about history through the words of those who lived and shaped it, gaining insight into their decision-making.
鈥淭hree years down the line, I understand those documents and can ask the questions that help students wrestle with really hard topics. We can discuss history from multiple perspectives. Now my job is not only easier; it is completely rewarding.
A Safer, More Effective Way
鈥淚t’s also a safer way to teach,鈥 Schmeichel says. 鈥淲hen you say, 鈥楾his is the textbook that I use,鈥 you鈥檙e saying, 鈥楾his is the narrative that students are being sold.鈥 That鈥檚 a dangerous way to put yourself out there as an educator.鈥 To prevent misunderstandings鈥攁nd help students better understand the contest of ideas that shaped history鈥擲chmeichel gives students firsthand access to those ideas.
鈥淔or example, when I鈥檓 teaching the antebellum South, I let students discover for themselves the arguments made by Southern slaveholders. I give them documents by John C. Calhoun, James Henry Hammond and George Fitzhugh, who claim the state must preserve chattel slavery because that鈥檚 what鈥檚 best for African Americans. Students react in shocked disapproval, saying the arguments are racist. Yet they see how the arguments might have persuaded Northerners unfamiliar with slavery鈥檚 reality. This makes them uneasy. Then I ask them to consider whether those arguments are consistent with the founding ideals of liberty and equality, principles that Abraham Lincoln often discussed in his great speeches. Students who compare the proslavery arguments to Lincoln鈥檚 arguments easily see that slavery violates the principles on which self-government depends. It moves the conversation from our personal feelings to the facilitation of critical thought.鈥
Schmeichel connects each document he assigns to a learning standard and objective, ensuring he covers the wide-ranging requirements for the APUSH course. Then he uses the documents to shape a narrative about Americans鈥 ongoing attempt to realize the ideals of liberty and equality. 鈥淚f you tell students, here are the 540 things you need to memorize before you take the AP test on May 10, they鈥檒l say, 鈥楾here鈥檚 no way I’ll pass!鈥 But if you teach thematically, you鈥檒l help students draw connections between events and ideas. They remember much more.鈥
Primary documents prompt students to reason through the implications of powerful ideas, like liberty and equality. Schmeichel encourages this by guiding students in rhetorical analyses of key texts. 鈥淢y last graduate class in the MAHG summer residential program was on American political rhetoric,鈥 he says. 鈥淢any of the readings were from Lincoln.鈥 Much of today鈥檚 political rhetoric relies on pathos鈥攁n appeal to the emotions. Lincoln鈥檚 makes masterly use of the other two rhetorical elements Schmeichel teaches students to identify: logos and ethos. Logos appears in Lincoln鈥檚 stunningly clear arguments against slavery. Ethos appears when he quotes authorities his audience recognize as credible. 鈥淗e quotes Jefferson constantly. He refers to his letters, to the original draft of the Declaration, and to Jefferson鈥檚 1784 draft of a law that was the model for the 1787 Northwest ordinance. All of those sources show Jefferson viewing slavery as immoral and destructive to both races.鈥 Reading Lincoln reinforces the critical importance of primary source work to the study of history, Schmeichel says.
Encouraging Students to Join the American Story
Most important, primary documents make the people of the past relatable and understandable. This can encourage students to join the American story and help to shape it. Schmeichel sees this as critically important. Americans suffer from 鈥渁n epidemic of non-involvement. We believe we are separate from our institutions.鈥 People who are disgruntled with civic life see it as controlled by those they didn鈥檛 vote for and can鈥檛 trust, so they don鈥檛 engage in 鈥渢he gritty but civil dialogue鈥 self-government requires. 鈥淭hat means that concern to perpetuate our institutions is dwindling.鈥
One way of countering non-involvement is to explain the social contract鈥攐ur consent to government鈥攁s a daily recommitment. 鈥淓very day when I leave my house, I stop at a stop sign. I turn on my blinker. Those are all micro components of the social contract we鈥檝e agreed to. These are the ways we preserve each other’s liberty and equality.鈥 Another way is to invite students into a document writer鈥檚 story. Frederick Douglass鈥檚 autobiography, for example, appeals to students because it shows a young person coming of age in a society that obstructs his agency. His story of secretly learning to read shows students that reading confers power, because it gives us access to powerful ideas.
One of Schmeichel鈥檚 students commented on the motivational power of primary documents in a thank-you note she sent him:
In my previous history classes, I was taught through memorization and secondary source[s] . . . . This year, I鈥檝e had the opportunity, thanks to you, to explore history through primary sources, living breathing sources, and have gained a far greater . . . understanding . . . . Primary sources that will stay with me are: 鈥What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?鈥 by Frederick Douglass, . . . Abraham Lincoln’s Fragment on the Constitution and Union, and George Washington’s Farewell Address. I鈥檒l remember the impactful discussions we had on Vietnam [after] reading Tim O鈥橞rien’s The Things They Carried. I’ll keep my pocket Constitution with me, along with the primary sources, to reminisce on the year and continue to learn.鈥
The student who sent the note recently participated in the United States Senate Youth Program, travelling to Washington and meeting President Biden, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and 78 current senators. She is an 鈥渋ncredible鈥 student who might herself enter politics. But reading primary documents can profoundly affect students who have other goals. Another student thanked Schmeichel for showing through his teaching a way out of apathy and toward moral self-development:
鈥. . . Instead of fleeing from the problems of today, you believe that you combat them . . . by educating. You create your own change by recruiting others to your cause. Frederick Douglass captures my sentiments about this . . . when he says, 鈥業 would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.鈥欌
鈥淲hat is meaningful for me as I look to the next 27 years of teaching is what my students say they learned in my classroom,鈥 Schmeichel says. 鈥淚f they can point to ideas we discussed and say, 鈥楾his is how I want to live, because there’s inherent virtue in this way of life,鈥 then I can deem my career as an educator a success. . . . That鈥檚 what teaching through primary sources makes possible.鈥
