On the April episode of Crossroads of Rockland History we explored the life and artistic legacy of Sidney A. Simon (1917–1997). On the occasion of an exhibition of his works at the Blue Hill Art and Cultural Center (Pearl River, NY), two of Simon’s children, Teru Simon and Mark Simon, joined Clare Sheridan to share memories of their father and their own recollections of growing up on South Mountain Road in Rockland County. [Read more…] about Life and Artistic Legacy of Sidney Simon
Education
Hudson River Lesson Plans For K-12 Teachers
The Hudson River Estuary Program announced a new Hudson River Curriculum Guide, featuring original lesson plans from the Estuary Program and its partners. The inquiry-based, multi-component science guide is designed for teachers and students to enhance STEM learning, as well as deepen their engagement and understanding of the Hudson River and its watershed. [Read more…] about Hudson River Lesson Plans For K-12 Teachers
Cornell Agricultural Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey: A Man for All Seasons
I joined the faculty of Syracuse University in 1975. I was surprised to learn that my institution once had a farm and hopes for a college of agriculture.
To my chagrin, I learned that my school lost out to Cornell back in 1904 when Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954) bested Syracuse University’s Chancellor James R. Day in getting legislation passed in Albany to provide Cornell with state funding for an agricultural school. [Read more…] about Cornell Agricultural Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey: A Man for All Seasons
A History of Kindergarten: From Spa to Tenement
Migration is more than the mere movement of people and populations. It implies a transmission of ideas, customs, and practices. The arrival in the mid-nineteenth century of large numbers of political refugees in the United States from German-speaking territories would transform economic and cultural life in the locations of settlement. It had a major impact on the philosophy of education in Boston, New York, and elsewhere. [Read more…] about A History of Kindergarten: From Spa to Tenement
Salmon Thrive in North Country Schools With Salmon in the Classroom Program
Atlantic salmon eggs are on their way to hatching in 18 schools across New York’s North Country, as part of the “Salmon in the Classroom” program sponsored by the Lake Champlain Chapter of Trout Unlimited. [Read more…] about Salmon Thrive in North Country Schools With Salmon in the Classroom Program
Beriah Green, Oneida Institute and Education as Liberation
In his classic The Souls of Black Folk (1903), the famous activist, sociologist, and historian W. E. B. Du Bois, tells of how Alexander Crummell told Du Bois that he had experienced “three years of perfect equality” under the tutelage of Rev. Beriah Green when a student at Oneida Institute in Upstate New York.
Crummell, along with Henry Highland Garnet and Thomas Sidney, found an educational haven at Green’s school. They had been admitted to the Noyes Academy in Canaan, New Hampshire, but outraged whites used teams of oxen to drag the academy building away. Crummell and his friends then journeyed to Whitesboro, New York, and enrolled in Green’s school. Du Bois said of Green that “only [a] crank and an abolitionist” would have dared to accept students of color such as Crummell at a time when African Americans were excluded from opportunities for higher education. [Read more…] about Beriah Green, Oneida Institute and Education as Liberation
America’s 250th Student Fellowships Funded In Western NY
The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation has awarded SUNY distinguished professor of history Michael Leroy Oberg, the SUNY Geneseo Center for Local and Municipal History, and a consortium of six other colleges and universities, a three-year grant of more than $300K for American War of Independence Semiquincentennial student fellowships.
Several of the institutions in the fellowship program have committed $150K of matching funds for the project, bringing the total to over $450K. [Read more…] about America’s 250th Student Fellowships Funded In Western NY
Gymnastics History: The Legacy of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn’s Turnerism
By the mid-nineteenth century European gymnastics was an established system that had evolved through a century of innovation and adaptation. Originating in the Enlightenment with the
experiments of educational reformers intent on reviving a Greek ideal which the Roman poet Juvenal had summarized as mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body), gymnastics achieved widespread recognition after Friedrich Ludwig Jahn initiated the Turnverein (gymnastics club) movement.
The inventor of apparatus such as the balance beam, parallel bars, and vaulting horse, he used the discipline of organized exercise to inspire young gymnasts with a sense of national (Prussian) duty and solidarity. Jahn turned gymnastics into an agency of German patriotism.
The ambiguity of his message: enjoyment of competition and companionship versus militant nationalism, brought about Jahn’s contrasting legacies in Europe and the United States. [Read more…] about Gymnastics History: The Legacy of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn’s Turnerism
Harry James Carman: Farm Boy to Columbia University Dean
“Here is a good dirt farmer gone wrong” is how Harry James Carman described himself.
He started out as a farm-raised country boy in Saratoga County, NY and rose to the position of Dean of Columbia University in New York City. [Read more…] about Harry James Carman: Farm Boy to Columbia University Dean
Education Center Updated at Fahnestock State Park
The modernized Taconic Outdoor Education Center at Fahnestock State Park has opened in November after a two-year renovation project. [Read more…] about Education Center Updated at Fahnestock State Park