(Originally Published Saturday, May 22, 2010 – Blogger: One Daughter’s Point of View)
It should go without saying that one of the missions of the DAR is to promote American History education. One of the most visible ways in which the DAR seeks to achieve this goal every year is with essay contests.
I had the honor of being tapped as the American History chairman for my DAR chapter last year. While I was unsuccessful at securing any local entries, I still learned much about both the DAR and my own American history and consider it a wonderfully successful experience.
One of the DAR’s annual essay contests topics is targeted at grades 5th – 8th and last year the topic was focused on the transcontinental railroad. Having chaired similar essay contests before, and anticipating the need review and evaluate essays, I perused the recommended reading provided by the DAR and selected a book to learn more about the building of the transcontinental railroad.
Before reading Stephen Ambrose’s book Nothing Like It In The World; The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869, my education about the transcontinental railroad was severely limited. I remember watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City where there was a wonderful portrayal of two trains meeting in Utah, one coming from the east and the other from the west. I also remember watching a mini-series on TV a couple of years ago that included a few scenes where the characters were workers on the building of the transcontinental railroad – to include references to the large number of Chinese who worked on this enterprise.
Needless to say, I was in for quite an education.
Through my readings I learned that Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln was a staunch advocate of a transcontinental railroad. It was actually during his administration that the act was passed, sparking the competition between the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads to build the first ever transcontinental railroad.
The railroad changed the way of life, accelerating transportation times in a period of history where the west was still open and vast and Indians continued to roam the prairies. The story of the building of the transcontinental railroad includes a wide ranging cast of characters: former Union and Confederate soldiers working side-by-side; Irishmen and Chinese; former slaves and Indians; engineers, businessmen, and lobbyists.
It’s an amazing story from our American history that should get much more attention in our modern era. In many ways, the construction of the transcontinental railroad ignited the possibilities that launched the modern era. All of the men who built the transcontinental railroad were born at time when man traveled at the same speed as an ancient Roman emperor and then many lived to see the Wright Brothers’ machine take flight at Kitty Hawk. Their children and grandchildren travel the world today via air travel and explore the new frontier in space travel.
The specific essay contest topic asked children to pretend they were a settler planning to travel west via the railroad for a new way of life; an Irish or Chinese worker who helped build the line; or a Native American whose way of life changed forever with the building of the railroad. Then from the chosen perspective, the writer was to describe how they felt when the golden spike was driven at Promontory Summit, Utah to ceremonially link the east and west on May 10, 1869 and thus completing the world’s first transcontinental railroad. (Ironically, I finished reading the book on May 10th.)
One of the amazing things about this contest is that by promoting an American history topic to this age group – 10 year-olds to 13 year-olds – the DAR may be the first to introduce concrete American history topics to these youths and therefore may be providing the first opportunity many of these young people have to research, read about, and ponder in depth a topic related to American history. And if some school systems successfully pursue options to limit American history education to post-Reconstruction periods, then the DAR essay contests may be one of the few outlets via which children are challenged to learn about American history during the Revolutionary periods and immediately following. Imagine – an American history class without a discussion on Washington, Adams, or Lincoln – or mention of the wonderful and life changing creation known as the transcontinental railroad.
A Robynn’s Chirps 