A Million Dollar Investment in Educational Excellence

By Joseph Rogers

When you were young, were you ever asked: “what would you do if you had a million dollars?” When I was 8 years old, I think I said that I would buy a big house, a boat, or superpowers (after all, Batman and the Green Arrow bought most of their powers). Regardless, it was a question that I left for idle thoughts about winning the lottery that I never played or the discovery of some rich, long lost relatives who passed away and left their fortune to me.

So, after months of presenting our case to the Virginia Department of Education and the General Assembly, I was delighted to learn that the Museum had received a $1 million appropriation in Virginia’s 2020 budget.

For more than a year, staff and board members worked with policymakers on the idea of Virginia financially supporting the Museum’s mission to serve the Commonwealth’s students and educators. We demonstrated both the impact current offerings had with students and educators and also highlighted the possibilities of expanded funding. With state approval, the new funds made museum admission and programming (both in-person and online) free for all Virginia K-12 public school students and educators for the duration of the funding period.

With all of the planning, the timing of this money provided a tremendous opportunity – and a great responsibility. We received the funding at a time that COVID-19 was forcing schools to reimagine educational experiences and to chart their courses amid great uncertainty. As we talked with our educator colleagues, our team quickly and creatively transformed our programs.

We launched the first Homefront Education video in March to support learning for homebound students and educators, including parents who found themselves as teachers in classrooms at home. By using the programs already developed and by adapting them for digital teaching, we utilized a newly essential medium to reach our audience. That first storytime video now has evolved into a collection of more than 15 pre-recorded programs and gallery walk-throughs, more than 25 thematically-organized educator resources, and nine children’s book read-alouds related to the Civil War and our collection. Stay tuned for the second season to be released in March.

By fall 2020, we created and hired a new coordinator position for our education programs. Aida Ali has been essential in our efforts both to establish and build relationships with all 132 Virginia school districts and to implement our educational programs and experiences, virtually and physically. Aida led the enhanced targeted outreach to schools to create deeper relationships with as many districts as possible across Virginia. She continues to create new virtual programs and is the primary point of contact for our Virginia Teacher Advisory Council.

Aida Ali, Education Programs Coordinator

ACWM

Our virtual programs have seen a huge increase in demand, both in Virginia and across the country. While most Virginia schools teach the Civil War era in the spring, we still facilitated virtual conversations with more than 300 students from across the Commonwealth and had 300 more come in-person to our locations at Richmond and Appomattox in small, COVID-appropriate groups or with their families. Even teachers from neighboring counties have come to host their class at the Museum for a day, while we conduct before-hours tours of the galleries and Q&A segments that elicit some incredibly insightful questions.

We’ve heard great feedback from program participants. “I liked the information that was brought up and the interaction so that it’s not just a lecture,” said one student of an online interactive program. “It’s consistent with people that come in and talk to us, and we learn a lot about Black American History,” said another. They’ve also let us know how we can do better, and we have taken those suggestions to heart.

In a year that gave us a global pandemic, nationwide unrest, and significant changes on the local level, the funding’s focus “to support the advancement of experiential learning opportunities for K-12 students” and “support high-quality off-site learning experience for students to engage in educational content” initially seemed a daunting task. Nearly 12 months later, however, we have:

• a new slate of digital programs on our web page in the Homefront Ed Series

• two full-time positions funded for the Museum’s education staff, plus additional staff time from other departments

• an updated Virtual Programs and Educator Resources guide

• a new arm of our Teacher Advisory Council, specifically of, by, and for Virginia educators

• become a founding partner of the Virginia Declaration of Learning educator professional development initiative, in collaboration with three other museums, the U.S. State Department, and the Virginia Department of Education

• a contributing partnership for the REAL Richmond history initiative with Richmond Public Schools

And it doesn’t stop there. This winter, we launched a new two-month digital initiative for Virginia students and educators: The Peake Series. Named for Mary S. Peake, a free African-American woman who dedicated her time and skills to education under difficult circumstances, this student-centered series highlights the stories of African Americans and of women throughout the Civil War and beyond. Throughout the months of February and March these programs will be a combination of studentfocused live talks and Q&A sessions with our staff. Separately, this April, we will launch the Civil War and Emancipation Day Teacher Cohort for Richmond region educators in partnership with the Library of Virginia, the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and Richmond National Battlefield Park

It has become obvious to me that, however well-intentioned the 8-year-old me may have been wanting the house and the boat and the powers, there is so much more that can be done with a million dollars, and that the best way we could possibly spend it is in service to others. We will continue to build our programs and partnerships to bring the highest quality content to our community and to our audience. We will continue to show students of diverse ages, regions, and backgrounds that Civil War stories matter because their stories matter. By seeing themselves in the stories of our past, students understand that they are part of the tapestry that makes up our ever-evolving future.

Joseph S. H. Rogers is the Museum’s Education Programs Manager.