In this article Paul Sutton examines the concerns associated with place in films. He points out the problems that this poses for our students--problems mainly, but not only, associated with a common lack of geographical authenticity. But this, he suggests, can be turned to our advantage. For what are films, after all, but exercises in historical…

This document contains the 10 quarterly issues of "Rural Matters: The Rural Challenge News," published from Fall 1997 to Winter 2000 (the final issue). This newsletter focused on projects funded by the Annenberg Rural Challenge, as well as research summaries and opinion pieces on the benefits of small schools, place-based education, and…

Describes the Community-Based Arts Project in central New York State, which offers a course through Cornell University that allows students to explore local history and family traditions through storytelling. The steps of story collecting and sharing are a circular transaction of reflecting, listening, telling, and reflecting with the audience,…

Educators are rediscovering the benefits of using the local natural environment as an integrating context (EIC) for curriculum. Once called "nature study," this form of hands-on environmental education draws on the connectedness inherent in natural systems to forge meaningful links in student learning. Sidebars describe EIC projects at…

Valley Quest is an intertown treasure hunt in which schoolchildren or community groups create maps of their towns' special places to exchange with people in nearby communities. Aiming to strengthen connections to community, it is also a year-long curriculum integrating local history, mapping skills, interviews with community elders, poetry…

Nonlinear imagination-based thinking draws on intuition to allow insight into the unseen realms that govern everyday life. Largely abandoned by Western education in favor of materialist rationalism, this faculty is being promoted by a sustainability center in Montpelier (Vermont) that demonstrates methods of harmonizing thinking, learning, and…

Recollections of a small childhood neighborhood suggest that the theory and research on integrating curriculum and community can be implemented by sharing curriculum mandates or standards with students. Once they know what they need to learn, students can draw on shared experience to identify places and people in the community where they might…

Dewey-inspired educational progressivism in the early 20th century is generally seen as an urban phenomenon. This article traces a tradition of rural progressivism during 1910-50, centered at Teachers College in New York City, and explores the implications of that tradition for educators and rural education reformers today. (Contains 47…

This guide addresses community-based art learning experiences in both theory and practice. After making a convincing case for community-based art curricula, a wide range of instructional strategies are outlined. Suggested lessons represent visual odysseys beyond the classroom. These focus on the school yard, the city block, a five minute walk, a…

Liz Taylor invites history teachers to consider how diverse and "un"common the "common" person's experience of place might be. She draws upon cultural geography to show how words like "place", "space" and "landscape" can be unpacked and questioned and so become better tools for pupils' critical…

The hillbilly stereotype has created image distortions of Appalachian people and culture in mainstream America, in academia, and among mountain people themselves. This paper examines Appalachian student reactions to the stereotype and ways in which students can explore the concept and image of hillbilly and develop their cultural identity.…

This book contains three essays on teaching outdoors about the natural world and engaging students in the natural and cultural history of their communities. An introduction, "To Learn from Wood and Stone" (Ann Zwinger), discusses the opportunities that arise when a teacher makes connections between the classroom world and the world…

Place-based education is a relatively new term, but progressive educators have promoted the concept for over 100 years. Place-based education usually includes conventional outdoor education and experiential methodologies as advocated by John Dewey to help students connect with their particular corner of the world. Proponents of place-based…

Presents suggestions for class activities that integrate community resources and local contexts into curriculum and instruction. Activities include field trips to a historic one-room schoolhouse, a local track meet, a beauty salon, and local manufacturing companies; explorations of local water supply systems and community history and sociology;…

Community-oriented pedagogy, or place-based schooling, uses schools as a source of community renewal, not community disintegration; allows students to construct their own understandings through interaction with the community environment; creates creative and critical thinkers who can also meet academic standards; and addresses our society's…