My Roman Holiday (in the UK!)

There is something powerful about standing in a seemingly ordinary place in your community and learning that something extraordinary happened there. In Rochester, NY, we are surrounded by history but when teaching world history, I do not have this same sense of place or the understanding of how a site was shaped by the people who lived there and how time and culture helped to define a community, a country or a civilization.  While there are plenty of online and print materials to support curriculum development, the “being there” part that helps connect time and place to my students’ learning is missing. Making it meaningful and connected to our own community just adds to the challenge. 

This summer I plan to explore the ruins of Roman settlements and garrisons in Great Britain, in particular, trying to reconstruct what life was like for the Romans as well as the local population along Hadrian’s Wall. The Romans built the wall to keep the “barbarians” out, the citizens in, and yet both groups relied on each other for the trade of goods and labor. The irony is 2,000 years later, barriers continue to be built between “us” and “them,” whether they be physical barricades in the forms of walled borders and barbed wire, or more subtle socio-political and economic barriers.  While I have taught an expedition on the Roman Empire for several years now, I am looking for a way to re-invent the learning by looking at the Roman Conquest of Britain from multiple perspectives and have students take on these roles though research, debate, and reenactment.  My plan is to meet with local historians, historical re-enactors, museum educators and field archaeologists to learn what I can about life along Hadrian’s Wall and prepare my students for an expedition that will require them to think deeply and critically about the role of culture, power, public works, and the “other.” My guiding questions and complementary learning targets are as follows:

What can the artifacts of the past tell us about the people who lived there and then?

I can interpret ancient ruins and archaeological sites and explain their roles in both Roman and British history.

How do walls both protect and punish those on either side?

I can evaluate how the Romans, Picts and Britons viewed Hadrian’s Wall and interacted with it. 

Why do some cultures endure while others perish?

I can describe the legacy of Rome in the modern era.

The goal of visiting various Roman sites in Britain is to get a better sense of what life was like for Romans, living 1,400 miles away from the capital of the Empire. By exploring these sites in Britain, I will have a more complete picture of the breadth of the Roman Empire, its impact on local cultures and the impact local cultures had on the Romans. The idea of studying Hadrian’s Wall as a public work project piqued my interest. People settled by choice along the 73 miles of this stone and turf wall. Our identities are often forged by our sense of place and prejudices often emerge as a consequence. I hope to expand my historical worldview of these issues while also examining the divides of our own community. Our public works projects, however well intentioned, have consequences. I want to make that connection clear for my students and show them that two millennia on, we are still grappling for answers. I want to develop an expedition that better explores cultural diffusion and makes connections to present day issues of barriers in our own community.

But it won't be all research and reflection – my family is traveling with me and as much as I want them to be immersed in the Roman world, I know I am competing with tween and teen sensibilities and 21^st century culture. It will be an interesting adventure, to be sure! So, follow the blog, leave comments, pose questions and live vicariously through my Fund for Teachers fellowship!