A valuable and rare resource at Poly has been dismissed by many students and teachers due to scheduling concerns, potentially causing detriment to their own understanding of the present-day.
Within the past five years, Roe v. Wade has been overturned, educational equity threatened, and global temperatures have risen. While these events have affected the lives of all Americans in both subliminal and explicit ways, many Poly students fail to conceptualize the details of these changes and their effects. Unfortunately, they aren’t the only ones.
The American Federation of Teachers reports that “civic knowledge and public engagement are at an all-time low,” with the Nation’s Report Card, or the NAEP, continuing, “only 22 percent of [eighth grade] students were found to be at or above a ‘proficient’ level for civics comprehension,” a characteristic they will likely carry into high school.
To combat this insufficient civics knowledge, Poly’s history department, led by Virginia Dillon, decided to create History Talks.
Based on Poly’s old “Forum” space, a once a month meeting where Poly students and teachers discussed prevalent socio-political topics outside the classroom, History Talks provide the same informally styled learning platform, only more frequently. In an interview conducted over the summer, Dillon said that History Talks were made with the intention of recreating an environment “where students and faculty could just talk [and] learn.”
Beyond increasing awareness, the National Council for the Social Studies reports that current events education, such as History Talks, enables students to analyze history, communicate with others, and form well-founded beliefs.
However, regardless of the opportunities History Talks present, they face a pressing issue: attendance. While observing History Talks is optional, those who don’t attend can be left unaware of relevant issues and events within America. Sophomore Leonard Cheng claimed that before attending a History Talk on educational equity, he “definitely didn’t think about the different needs of people in education.”
This April, Dillon and fellow History Teacher, Beth Eby, hosted the History Talk, “Abortion and the US Legal System” as a way to educate attendees on the systems that dictate the bodily and reproductive rights of Americans. The talk, due to scheduling difficulties, was split into two halves. Dillon first detailed what jurisdiction the United States judicial system had over female autonomy, and Eby next shared the history of abortion and birth control.
“The benefit of a History Talk is that we’re generally trying to explain or understand the historical precedents of an event,” said Dillon. “What our presenters are doing is giving the information to students and faculty so that [they] can then….have the information to form their own opinions.”
These opinions not only develop one’s beliefs and understandings, but also one’s actions. According to the National Institute of Health, a misunderstanding of abortion systems can detrimentally “affect how women enter the health system or seek services.”
History Talks can also emphasize the importance of racial bias and discrimination within educational systems. In May, Poly senior Rani Green hosted a History Talk on “The History of the Education of Black Girls.” By teaching about past educational systems, her History Talk informed attendees on past policies and how they permeate through the present.
Cheng, an attendee of Green’s talk, said that her presentation taught him about “the inner workings of different curricular strategies.” In turn, he became cognizant of his teacher’s educational methods and recognized that “different people need different things in the classroom.”
History Talks are also largely unique to Poly Prep. Daniela Wolkovisky, a freshman at Bronx private school Horace Mann, shared that while her school occasionally addresses current events in assemblies, they don’t offer students a chance to share socio-political issues of their choice.
“Sometimes a big current event [occurs and] we’ll do a worksheet in history [class] and maybe a discussion,” she said, “but that’s usually one class.”
As for public schools, the official New York City Public Schools website states that they provide “current events and issues resources to teachers to develop culturally-responsive and sustaining practices….of students,” but does not mention any designated school spaces or times to openly discuss civics and current events.
Sophomore Jesse Rogers shared that at his Manhattan public school, Nest + M, there are some outlets to learn about civics and current events “such as different APs you can take and a lot of clubs,” but, “freshmen aren’t allowed as many opportunities.”
When reflecting on his History Talk, “Climate Change: It’s Real. It’s Us. There’s Hope.” Clark Richter, a Poly Prep biology teacher said “the only disappointment I had [about my talk] was that more people didn’t attend.”
While Dillon shared that the average History Talk has a variance of 15-30 attendees, with some staying periodically, Richter maintained that “there needs to be greater [interest] in the fabulous venue and fabulous content presented in these History Talks.”
He believed the issue with attendance was advertisement, and that “there need[s] to be greater outreach, and the announcement that there’s a talk need[s] to get out further.”
However, Dillon shared an alternate reason as to why she thinks attendance could be low; “a lot of it is scheduling. I think students don’t have that much time, [due to classes] and when they have a bit of free time….they want to take a break.”
Sophomore Zahaan Batliboi, who had never attended a History Talk, said, while he wanted to go to Green’s talk, it conflicted with his schedule.
Similarly, Annabelle Thompson shared that what prevented her from attending History Talks “was that I wasn’t free when they were being held,” due to their overlap with classes and her lunch period.
Unfortunately, scheduling is an unavoidable conflict. While Cheng offered that History Talks should be implemented into assembly times, Dillon countered that they were made with the intention of continuing education in a space beyond a designated school period in attempts to make learning more casual.
However, as History Talks continue into this new school year, Dillon expressed her interest in implementing student feedback.
“If someone told me there was another day of the week that was better than Thursday,” she shared, she would consider their input. “Maybe Tuesdays are better.”
