For a seventy-year period, when America cared little about the education of African Americans, and discrimination was law and custom, the Bordentown School was an educational utopia. An incubator for black pride and intellect, it taught values, discipline,and life skills to generations of Black children. A Place Out of Time – The Bordentown School tells the story of that remarkable school, through testimony by Bordentown alumni, rare archival footage and commentary by leading historians including Pulitzer Prize winner David Levering Lewis and renowned New Jersey-‐ based historian Clement A. Price.
The story of Bordentown is also the story of Black education in America. The film examines the political and historical forces that forged the school's creation and ascent: the violent backlash against Reconstruction reforms, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and the birth of the Civil Rights movement. It also explores the causes of its demise, triggered —ironically — by the same advocates for social justice who, by the 1940s, came to see an all-‐black school as a deplorable symbol of Jim Crow. Many of the lessons examined in the film still resonate as Americans endeavor to create a public education that is equitable for all.
Because of its broad historical arc that is grounded in the story of a real location populated by real characters who lived the experience, A Place Out of Time provides teachers a touchstone to convey important concepts in American history to high schoolers. The ten lessons included in this curriculum package cover a wide range of issues from the importance of "Black Spaces" to the development of the African American identity to educating the "whole child." Each lesson is fluidly ingegrated to relevant scenes in the film and all include activities to engage students in the learning process, including debate, obtaining oral histories and even making short documentaries.
Lesson Summaries
Through ten unique lessons, teachers of social studies and history in grades 9 -12 can use this documentary film as a catalyst to discuss a variety of issues around race in America from the 19th Century to the present. All lessons are written to meet the standards of the National Council for the Social Studies and National History Standards. Click on each title to link to a PDF of the full lesson. The DVD is available through www.shoppbs.org.
Lesson 1: Divergent Educational Philosophies: Washington, Dubois and Garvey: Students engage in the educational philosophies of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois and Marcus Garvey through reading primary source documents and debate. Students will begin to place these writings within the historical context of African American history as depicted in the Bordentown film.
Lesson 2: Segregation in the South and the North: Through video, text and image, students analyze the effects of Jim Crow and the Great Migration in bringing greater numbers of African Americans into northern states and the greater efforts at segregation in response to this migration.
Lesson 3: Creation of the "Proper Negro": Role of Education in Racial Uplift and Creation of the "Proper Negro" — Students inverstigate the manner in which education at Bordentown focused on development of both the mind and character of students within the norms of the late 19th and early 20th century views of the "proper place" of education for African Americans.
Lesson 4: Leadership Within the Black Community: Students consider the ways in which Black leadership shifted from educators and clergy to lawyers and politicians as a result of the civil rights struggle post-World War II.
Lesson 5: Segregated Schools before Brown vs. Board of Education: What was Gained and What was Lost?: Students explore the history and context of segregation, Jim Crow laws, and the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, assess what was gained and lost by integrating schools after Brown vs. Board, particularly in terms of Bordentown and the value of that school. Students will use video, image, and text to make their explorations.
Lesson 6: Segregation at the Local Level: Students learn about Brown v. Board of Education, and the goals of the decision to end segregation. They will engage in a picture an film analysis and read primary documents. They will also analyze the meaning of segregation, and decide if separate institutions can also be equal.
Lesson 7: Using Oral History to Understand Segregation: Students compare ideas and information from various sources to understand how oral histories contribute to our understanding of segregation. Students then conduct their own interviews to further their own understanding of individual experiences during segregation.
Lesson 8: Black Spaces in White America: Through class discussion and film analysis, students explore the ways in which African Americans created their own spaces ("Black Spaces") in "White America," and the effect that these black spaces had on the success of African Americans. Specifically, students consider the ways in which an all-black schools like Bordentown provided unique opportunities that ceased to exist after desegregation.
Lesson 9: Deconstructing the Documentary: What happens when we watch a documentary? This lesson will ask students to analyze A Place Out of Time – The Bordentown School, to differentiate between narrative (fiction) and documentary storytelling, and to consider the ways in which all films are constructed by filmmaking decisions. They will ultimately consider the ways in which the final product (this documentary film) might or might not reflect the complete “reality” of the topic it presents.
Lesson 10: Educating the "Whole Child": Then and Now: Through class discussion and film analysis, students will explore how the Bordentown faculty and campus became the students' community and functioned as their home away from home. Students will analyze how the Bordentown community fostered a wellrounded education for the "whole child," and they will understand the value of this school in the context of segregated society.
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