GW, Hip-Hop, and Bringing History to Life

Sean Miller—a social studies teacher at South County High School in Fairfax, Virginia, and the 2021 Mount Vernon History Teacher of the Year—talks to Mount Vernon magazine

How do you incorporate George Washington into your teaching?
I talk about George Washington regularly, particularly when discussing the framing of the Constitution. I refer to him as a rock star. Everyone knows him as a huge figure in history, but it’s important to think back to some of the defeats he had in warfare and how he persevered. On the flip side, we also recognize his role in the enslavement of Africans. In my classroom, the goal is not to deify or demonize anyone, but rather to allow the students to view Washington and other historical figuresholistically, as whole human beings.

What’s been the feedback from students?
One of the questions I’ve had through the years is “Why should we learn about negative things?” I always say, “You want to be fully aware of history so, hopefully, you will be problemsolvers going forward.” That’s where I want my students to be when they walk out of my classroom. How can they be change agents themselves?

Talk about your teaching methods.
We understand you use comic strips, hip-hop, and vision boards. I’m really into the arts and use them as part of my instruction. Last week, I provided students with four different pieces of hip-hop music and asked them to analyze the lyrics: Are they able to draw connections from what occurred in times of slavery to things they may see now? So, they’re
looking at hip-hop as a primary source of history. This allows students to see how artists see history. They dig the unique perspectives.

How do you make 18th-century events resonate with young people?
In our long-term nation-building project, students look at primary source documents [such as the Constitution] and figure out if some of the tenets would work if the nation were being created today. What are the things they would keep, and what are the things they would tweak? Students get a real kick out of this exercisebecause it becomes real to them.

What do you hope students take away from your classes? 
That they all have the potential to leave a legacy. My goal is to expand their understanding of what history is, and to also be contributors to history. Not just to take information and memorize it, but to think about how it relates to current events. And most important, how does it connect to their personal lives? If students cannot find a morsel that connects to their lives, then I haven’t done my job.

As part of your award, your students get to visit Mount Vernon.
We’re scheduled to bring 100 students to the estate. I’m excited about it, and they’re all excited. I’m eager for them to bring what they know of Washington, to be on the grounds to see Mount Vernon with their own eyes, and say, “OK, this is a real thing that involved real people.”