Jeff for America

As a history teacher, I’m always telling my kids about the importance of using primary sources in their learning. And when I teach about them, I usually reference things like diaries, photos and documents as places to look for information about the past. In my slavery unit this past month, I taught about the experience of slaves on Southern plantations using interviews of former slaves that were taped and transcribed for the Federal Writer’s Project in the 1930′s. They are amazing resources for my students to get insight into the daily lives of these important historical figures, but this type of rich and (practically) unfiltered primary source is rare.

During one of these lessons, all this talk about primary sources got one of my students thinking about the primary sources that we’ll be leaving behind. In other words, he wanted to know what the people of the future will be using to understand our history. It’s a fun thought experiment to consider – what are you leaving behind that will be around for someone to sift through, dust off and make conclusions about how you lived your life or what you thought? For me, it’s this blog, a few knick-knacks I’ve left around and probably some news articles that have quoted me. Not much, really – and probably more than most.

Even before I was a history teacher, and got on tangents about primary sources, I was interested in leaving behind something more. And I’m not the only one with this instinct. StoryCorps started as a small non-profit venture that set out to record the everyday stories of Americans from across the country. They wanted to capture the folklore of our day and cement it in the Library of Congress for all of posterity. I thought it was a fun idea, and I especially loved the idea of sharing our personal narratives with someone else. Check out the website for more information about how it works, but it really is quite simple. The website even gives little snippets of select interviews, like this one.

What started as a stationary booth in NYC has blossomed into a mobile listening booth that travels around the US and a second and third booth in DC and SF. They have expanded their mission and have collected tens of thousands of stories. And of those stories, I account for three. I’ve interviewed my closest of friends Diana and Gina, my grandparents Ed and Helen and my dad Mike. Over the last three years, I’ve gone to all three booths in NYC and SF and just recently interviewed my dad during the holiday. He wasn’t nervous at first, but I could tell the pressure was on – especially when I asked about his first kiss. The point of the interviews aren’t to role play Oprah or Dr. Phil – it’s more about revealing than revelations. I want to leave something behind that explains where my family came from and the people they were. My interview questions range form childhood memories to life regrets, and my partner can take it as deep or shallow as they want. If you are in any of the cities StoryCorps visits, I recommend making an appointment (hurry – they run out quick!) and picking a friend or loved one who you want to interview. It’s a great experience for both – and they give you a copy of the interview to take home – something you’ll have forever.

I just imagine the school kids of the future, listening in on these interviews, learning about our lives and the ways we thought and interacted. And the teacher who so eagerly uses the stories we told to teach his students about the past, a little more knowledgeable because of we left something behind.

- Jeff