Christy Elsen, a teacher at Pepperell Middle School, is one of 40 teachers across the country to be selected to participate this summer in a workshop about Pearl Harbor.   The six-day workshop “Pearl Harbor: History, Memory, Memorial,” will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii and is sponsored by the Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for Schoolteachers supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) under the We the People Initiative. Additional support for the program is provided by the Arizona Memorial Museum Association, the National Park Service and the Japan American Society of Hawaii.

According to the workshop’s website, “Pearl Harbor: History, Memory, Memorial,” will provide the larger historical and cultural context for understanding the Pearl Harbor attacks by illuminating one of most important (if at times antagonistic) bilateral relationships in the 20th century—that between the United States and Japan—and the impact of that relationship on both nations’ international affairs. Importantly, it will explore the multiple histories that converge at Pearl Harbor—including not only American and Japanese but also Hawaiian and diverse American experiences, especially those of Americans of Japanese ancestry—reminding us that despite the mythic status of the Pearl Harbor story in American culture, there are in fact a number of “Pearl Harbors,” with different impacts and memories for diverse Americans and for people throughout the world.

During the workshop, participants will visit the Arizona Memorial and related attack sites in order to gain a sense of the time and place represented by these historic resources. Since the history of Pearl Harbor is still a living history, participants will also have the unique opportunity to meet with Pearl Harbor survivors, WW II generation residents of Hawaii, and Japanese Americans who spent the wartime years in internment camps, and to experience history “come alive” through their oral histories.

Elsen and the 39 other participants will engage in rigorous conversations with leading U.S. and Japanese scholars about the historical significance and meanings of the events surrounding the attacks and important cultural and historical issues that continue to shape national perceptions of Pearl Harbor. Through hands-on sessions, participants will work closely with the scholars as well as with a group of teachers from Japan and with one another as they explore issues of content in teaching Pearl Harbor and develop plans for collaborative projects and lesson plans that integrate materials from the workshop.

Elsen has worked to make the Pearl Harbor experience come alive for her students at Pepperell Middle.  She has hosted Pearl Harbor and World War II survivors in her classroom to share their experiences with the children.  Dorinda Nicholson, an author Elsen met while touring Pearl Harbor on vacation, was one of those classroom visitors.  Elsen had been sharing Nicolson’s book with her students and invited the author to visit her classroom during their chance meeting at the historical site.  Nicholson’s book was written about her experience of being a child during the Pearl Harbor attack.  While visiting Elsen’s classroom, the author invited her to apply to attend the summer workshop.    

Elsen will be attending the workshop July 27 – August 1, 2008.  Workshop participants will tour the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Missouri, the USS Bowfin submarine, the Pearl Harbor attack area, Ford Island, Fort DeRussy Army Museum, Hickam Headquarters and the National Memorial Cemetery.  The group will also participate in a number of workshops on teaching students about Pearl Harbor.