Charles City teacher admitted to elite WWI history program

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

When Charles City teacher Ann Prichard logs in for her online graduate class, sometimes she hears her instructor say, “… and good morning to those of you in Asia. …”

Although she’s still right here in Iowa, Prichard is one of 114 teachers selected worldwide for an elite National History Day program entitled “Legacies of World War I.” The program is a partnership between the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission and National History Day. The educational partnership will educate both teachers and school students about World War I through a series of more than 100 teaching events nationwide.

“I was interested in knowing more about World War I,” Prichard said. “This is a great opportunity to do that, and it’s so timely, with this being the 100th anniversary of the war. It’s been all over the media and in the news.”

Prichard said another teacher had alerted her to the program and she sent in an application, not expecting to be one of just two teachers from the state of Iowa who was accepted into the program. Each of the 57 National History Day affiliates could choose two teachers for this honor, and the National History Day program in Iowa selected Prichard.

“I was surprised to learn I was in,” she said. “I’m thrilled. I’d always enjoyed teaching National History Day with students, but I always wanted to know more. It all ties in with National History Day.”

Prichard will participate in webinars and discussions while learning about World War I with other teachers from around the world. She receives free tuition, graduate credits and materials for the online program.

“As part of the commemoration of the centennial of The Great War, National History Day is proud to partner with the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission to help teachers delve into the history of this global event,” said National History Day Executive Director Cathy Gorn. “Prichard will learn about specific aspects of the war she can take back to the classroom to ensure this piece of global history is not forgotten.”

Prichard teaches K-6 talented and gifted students at the elementary and middle schools. She has been employed at the Charles City School District since 2014. She went to high school in Riceville and college at Northern Iowa. She has sponsored students for National History Day Contests in previous years.

National History Day is a non-profit organization that seeks to improve the teaching and learning of history. The contests were established in 1974 and engage more than half a million students in conducting original research on historical topics of interest.

Students present their research as a documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Projects compete first at the local and affiliate levels, where the top entries are invited to the National Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Prichard said the semester-long course, which is good for three graduate credits, has been eye-opening for her so far, and she’ll be able to apply much of what she learns to the National History Day Contests. Class topics have included the start of World War I, women in World War I and African-Americans in World War I, among others. The class will feature four different instructors, and include readings and documents from the period.

“It’s good, because we’re seeing the actual documents, we’re not just hearing someone’s opinion,” Prichard said.

So far, instructors have been from Texas A&M and the U.S. Army War College.

“These are heavy hitters,” Prichard said.

Prichard said she had always been aware of the shorter version of how World War I started, which has been taught in history classes for nearly a century now — the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo triggered a chain of events that resulted in the outbreak of war.

“We’ve learned that there was a lot more to it than that,” Prichard said. “The professor told us, ‘you can spend 15 minutes on how World War I started, or you can spend an entire semester.”

Prichard also learned more about how women famously supported the war effort back home, but said the class is also going in the direction of how that impacted the right to vote and the 19th Amendment.

“That directly applies to the Carrie Chapman Catt girlhood home and museum right here in Charles City,” she said. “I’d really like to hear some World War I stories from people around here, some Charles City stories.”