Oregon’s 2006 History Teacher of the Year, eighth-grade teacher Lois MacMillan, describes to KQED News how she is captivating her students’ attention by using Broadway sensation ‘Hamilton’ to supplement her lesson plans.
"After hearing the 46-song soundtrack, she knew instantly that the music needed to find its way into her classroom,” said the article.
"MacMillan’s main educational goal in focusing on Hamilton is to underscore the primacy of writing. Alexander Hamilton wrote his way out of poverty, she said, and she reminds her students that skilled writing is the clearest sign of scholarship — and the best way to rise up and alter your circumstance.”
MacMillan isn’t the only U.S. history teacher who has recognized the educational value in Hamilton.
New York history teacher Dr. Jim Cullen will be offering an entire elective for 11th and 12th grade students dedicated to the musical’s content.
Hamilton, the article says, helps teachers add dimensionality to historical characters by portraying them as “husbands, rivals, fathers, friends, lovers--all of them human, and afflicted with vices along with their virtues: pride, arrogance, anger, envy, lust and greed.”
Read the full post.
Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor
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