Money, Materialism, Monopolies and Millionaires

April has been a busy month, bringing our two part workshop series on economics and industrialization. Seventy teachers joined us in Urbana Middle School on April 17th and 24th for an in-depth look at how economics could be brought into the classroom. We opened the series with a keynote from Dr. Mark Leff, who used charts and graphs to root his discussion of finance between the Gilded Ages in concrete examples.


After small group discussions with Dr. Leff, time in the computer lab and boxed lunches from Za's, everyone reconvened to discuss how they could use the fabulous books, magazines, videos and website lists that they had been given that morning.


Next Project Director Kathy Barbour and Program Coordinator Alexis Jones led us in some great economics lessons. In Kathy's room, teachers studied how the Constitution has shaped the economic system of the United States.
Everyone was working hard...even Activity Coordinator Jen Bredemeier and AHTC Bookkeeper Ambar Rizwan joined in the historical fun!

Meanwhile, Alexis used the children's book Saturday Sancocho to teach us all about bartering. We all had a wonderful time trying to gather chickens, carrots and cumin to make our own sancocho.


After a fun day of economics activities, everyone returned home, where I'm sure they were anxiously awaiting next Saturday, April 24th.

We kicked off our second day with a keynote by Lead Historian Dr. Jim Barrett. Dr. Barrett discussed the way industrialization transformed both the people who experienced it and the way we think about and perform work. As part of his keynote, Dr. Barrett led us in a document analysis exercise using An Exposition of the System of Moral and Mental Labor, established at the Glass Factory of Dyottville in the County of Philadelphia by T.W Dyott (1833) and The Factory Bell from The Factory Girls' Garland (1844).


Next, Urbana High School teacher Matt Buckles led the group in a lesson on the uses of space and land throughout the pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial periods. Everyone enjoyed the map analysis and playing with the magnifying glasses!



In the computer lab, Alexis led the group through some of the best websites on the economy and the census that we had found in our preparation for these days. As always, website lists can be found on our website under Web resources. One of the favorites was a video from 1904 of women punching in at a Westinghouse company.

To round out our day, William Maury, the Lead Historian of the U.S. Census Bureau came to discuss with us how the census became what it is today.


Thank you all for giving up two spring Saturdays to join us for these workshops, and thanks to all of our presenters for making both days so interesting and informative!