"Kat Lloyd stands in the dim light on the first-floor staircase of a dilapidated, New York City tenement building. Before her: a tour of wide-eyed teens on a field trip from their high school in Queens. Their guide, Lloyd, encourages the students to imagine the building's 22 apartments when they were new, back in 1863, and brimming with mostly German immigrants."
"The traditional approach, relying on the stories of the country's leaders and focusing on its founding documents, is important, to be sure, but doesn't capture the full spectrum of the American experience. Lloyd is vice president of programs and interpretation at the Tenement Museum, which argues that it's also important to go small, studying history through the lives of ordinary people."
Kat Lloyd leads students through a restored 1863 New York tenement, inviting them to imagine daily life among mostly German immigrant families. The Tenement Museum recreates 22 apartments to interpret American experience through the lived environments of immigrant, migrant and African American families from the 1860s through the 1980s. The museum emphasizes sensory, tactile encounters—smelling, touching, seeing—to make history tangible. Teachers attend specialized training to incorporate immersive, small-scale history into K–12 instruction. The approach complements traditional narratives focused on leaders and founding documents by foregrounding ordinary lives and everyday practices.
Read at www.npr.org
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