Historic-Retrospective

Biographic Portrayals in the Classroom:

Retrospective was created with the assistance of a Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Grant in 2004 and a Lilly Fellow Grant in collaboartion with Indiana State University in 2005 and 2009.

As a teacher for more than 3 decades - I have witnessed the profession of "teaching" becoming more focussed on sound bites and the drill/practice of standards ... with the students understanding little of the interconnectedness of history and the importance that it plays in their (our) lives today.

After I had  purchased a simple costume and began exploring the events prior - during - and after the Revolutionary War - my class was electricified!  Questions became insightful and thought-provoking and their own answers became more relevant and "what-if?" in nature.  History was no longer seen as black and white and not merely the "good guys and the bad guys."

This is what Retrospective is all about ... providng students with real-life information as to what life was like for everyone.  Artifacts, maps, pictures, flags, posters, stories, marching, shooting, family life, medicine, rural life, city life, slavery, clothing, languages, cultures ... differences in viewpoints.

Historic-Retrospective was formed to fill a niche in the standards.

Over time I realized that the actual portrayal of real or imagined persons would limit the interaction with the life and times of today - real-time comparisons might be difficult for some.  So my programs feature the wearing of the clothing as a prop for interaction and do not portray actual or imagined characters.

As a trained and licensed teacher, I provide all day or half day presentations on the period prior to the French and Indian War (Seven Years War) through the final battle of the American Revolution.  The program is hands-on with real interaction and comparision to present-day "what-if's" in three broad re-enactor periods:  the fur trade (1750s) - the plantation/city life (1774) - the soldier (1782).

Please look through my collection of web pages and history and contact me if you have any questions.  My presentations are FREE (currently restricted to the state of Indiana) with a request for mileage.

Jeff King