I don’t know anything about judo, but I’ve heard, – probably from some movie I’ve long since forgotten – that it’s unique among the martial arts for using an opponent’s force against them. By turning, twisting and redirecting attacks, you can defend yourself while saving your energy and sapping your opponent’s strength. The attacks on history and history education in recent Executive Orders, the dismantling of the Department of Education, the Institute of Museum of Museum and Library Services, the National Park Service, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and various threats against college and universities are part a determined effort to redefine and control public memory.
It’s possible to use the philosophy of judo with the Executive Orders attacking history and civics education by using them as primary source documents in a lesson. We can have students analyze the text closely, read for meaning, or do a full OPVL (Origins, Purpose, Value, and Limitations) analysis. This could serve a reflective discussion for the end of the year, just before our classrooms turn into waiting rooms.
This lesson would use the text of recent Executive Orders as a primary source analysis exercise, allowing students to practice the close reading and language analysis skills they’ve been learning while also launching reflective and exploratory discussions about the purposes of public education in history and the role of national parks, museums, and historical markers in public memory. The language of these Executive Orders—particularly those targeting history education and institutionalized public memory—provides strong material for students to analyze, while simultaneously presenting them with thought-provoking questions about what they’ve learned and what they think they should be learning.
Analysis techniques and frameworks like Origin, Purpose, Value and Limitation (OPVL), or any of those found at DocsTeach, or Project Zero’s Thinking Routines can serve well to immerse students in the documents. The excerpted text could be expanded or cut in order to customize the lesson for students in any context, though it is recommended that the language itself be unmodified.
There are dozens of ways to slice, dice and customize this idea into an activity for students. Here are two excerpts from the Jan 29 and March 27th orders, and here are sample slides of questions and highlighted text to bring attention to the language.
