EDUCATION
AJA’s Stanhope Enjoys
No Summer Slowdown
By Leah Levy
[email protected]
She uses art from a different culture to help students separate themselves from the situation. “The identlanta Jewish Academy Up- tity politics of 18th-century New Spain
per School humanities teacher that lurk beneath the casta paintings
Sally Stanhope has had a busy of that time touch upon many of the
summer.
issues that present-day debates over
She took off to Fort Wayne, Ind., race and privilege raise yet are safely
on June 21 for a little more than a week entrenched in the past,” she said. Such
to attend a Passport to Innovative Edu- a lesson “exemplifies how social studcation Summit. She colies can prepare students to
laborated with experts in
read texts critically.”
character education and
As for her final sumteachers from around the
mer stop, the seminar on
country to develop lessons
Mediterranean
history,
that infuse character eduStanhope said: “Because
cation into the curriculum.
we’re a Jewish school and
On June 30, she was
Israel is so close to my stuoff again to the World Hisdents’ hearts, I am delighttory Association’s annual
ed to learn more about the
conference in Savannah,
region without the filter of
where she gave a presentamedia bias.”
Sally Stanhope
tion on “The Intersection
“Sally takes profesof Identity Politics of the
sional development very
Past and Present.” Stanhope was one seriously,” said Joel Rojek, the general
of two teachers who received the 2015 studies principal at AJA Upper School.
William H. McNeill Scholarship for the “Every summer she has attended at
conference.
least one national summer conference
With one day between programs or similar opportunity to learn about
for the second time this summer, she trends in history and to meet other edleft for three weeks at the University of ucators from across the country. … KuDenver. Stanhope was chosen as a Na- dos to Sally for seeking these out and
tional Endowment for the Humanities pursuing them.”
summer scholar and participated in a
This school year Stanhope is
Summer Institute for Teachers course teaching three levels of world history
titled “Teaching Connected Histories of (college prep, honors and Advanced
the Mediterranean.”
Placement), college-prep U.S. history,
“The truth is, I didn’t realize how and a new class she developed called
busy I was until now,” she said during “History of the Human Body: Perspecthe Denver course.
tives of the Body in the Nineteenth and
The first program she attended, Early Twentieth Centuries.”
the Passport to Innovative Education
That new course will highlight the
Summit, addressed a topic that has social values placed on different bodies
long been important to Stanhope and and how closer global interrelationa big part of AJA’s educational vision. “I ships led to an idealization of certain
became interested in character educa- attributes. Topics include politics betion in a graduate school history class, hind the dress code in Manchu China
and I’m particularly interested in how and fitness in American culture.
to teach students grit, a word I would
Stanhope developed the class afuse to describe how to recover from ter polling AJA Upper School students
failure.”
about which of five possible classes
Stanhope has been a member of they would most like to take.
the WHA since 2009, but this summer
Rojek said Stanhope is much more
was only her second time attending the than an innovative teacher. She is the
annual con