Neighborhood Field Studies

History gets a bad rap, and as a history teacher, I've heard it all. It's boring, it doesn't apply to me now, it's.... OLD. Which is why at Seabury, we work hard to bring "history" to life for our students, and this is certainly true with our current study of Tacoma and Washington State history. We are studying Tacoma's history through looking at how it developed. How and why it was founded, where people moved, and how it's changed (and is still changing) over time.

This week, our students broke into groups and got out into the city, visiting one of seven neighborhoods in the city of Tacoma, including Hilltop, 6th Avenue, Proctor, and Lincoln. Students were instructed to visit their neighborhoods not as tourists, but as researchers. They took pictures, made notes, interviewed shopkeepers and residents, took tours of historical buildings, visited local grocery stores and shops, and most importantly, ate lunch at a locally run restaurant.

 

One group got the opportunity to learn from a 90 year old, family-run hardware store in Lincoln how the various immigrant groups have changed and molded the neighborhood. They chatted with a shopkeeper at a vacuum repair shop about the art of repairing machinery rather than tossing it out and buying new in a disposable age. And they learned all about a real, live turkey race on 38th Avenue in 1939 that drew a crowd of thousands!

https://tacomahistory.live/2018/04/05/best-bully-friend/

Another group visiting the 6th Avenue neighborhood talked with residents and storekeepers about how the neighborhood is working to become safer, more integrated, and more walkable. They learned about how their neighborhood had a rigid geographic divide based on race that the residents and business now are trying to overcome and make more unified. And students who visited the Ruston neighborhood learned about the economic growth and improvement taking place in the area, from recent shopping and housing improvements to an upcoming hotel and potential ferry directly to Seattle.

Students will take this research back to Seabury and use it, along with additional research they do from school, to prepare lesson plans, to teach each other about their neighborhoods. Then, as a school, they will make some conclusions about where Tacoma has been and where it's going.

Seabury believes that the city is our classroom our students used this classroom well this week!