In the school year of 2001-2002 I was in the eight grade. Eight grade was a year of American history. One of the things we did learn about was political histories. Political histories are defined as written histories that focus on political events (Martin & Nakayama, 2013, p. 125). If my American history textbook doesn’t explain this, I don’t know what else does. We even experienced events that would become political histories such as the attacks on The World Trade Centers on September 11, 2011. It was not considered a political history at the time, but it is now. We as America lived through that day that would be labeled as a political history.
In spring 2002 I had the opportunity to go to Washington, D.C. for my eight grade class trip. I was very nervous about going. I never did well when being separated from my parents. I really had a hard time with separation anxiety. Our trip last about 5 days. When we started we would go the Gettysburg, PA to the see The Battlefield of Gettysburg. That was a really cool thing to see. Washington, D.C. the best part of the entire trip and the most educational.
Before going on the trip, the eight grade classes learn a lot about national histories. National histories(Martin & Nakayama, 2013, p. 127) are defined as a body of knowledge based on pasts events that influences a country’s development. My history teacher made us memorize the preamble to The Constitution and recite it in front of the class. Along with memorizing and reciting that, we also had to do the same for The Gettysburg Address. One of my favorite parts of my trip was being able to see monuments for some of the most influential presidents we had for our country. I remember turning my back to the Lincoln Memorial and reciting the Gettysburg address.
References
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
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