A history education that only focuses on the students’ nation’s history has been proven to leads to isolationist ways of thinking. It produces a ‘me versus them’ mentality. The best way to combat this ignorance is with unbiased, well-rounded, and accessible education. That is why for my last project as a Communications Design major at Pratt, my thesis, I wanted to make a week-long, comprehensive lesson plan for middle schoolers that focuses on the history of Latin America complete with accessible resources. I wanted to approach the topic in a way that is less Eurocentric than the current curriculum we see in modern American middle schools.
It was equally important to me to make sure this lesson-plan was expansive enough while also being short enough to easily incorporate into the already jam-packed school year. Everyone deserves the ability to access education and I wanted to make sure that everything I made for this project remained that way. In conjunction with the daily readings being available directly on this website, there are handouts and a workbook available for order at request! A Look into Latin America is more than ready to make it’s way into your classroom.