'Marching Down Freedom's Road:' PPS teacher taking part in Classrooms Without Borders
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Most teachers are probably already looking forward to summer vacation but one local teacher is taking a trip, starting this weekend, to help her students next year feel more connected to the Civil Rights Movement.
Jacqueline Clarke teaches psychology and African-American history at Pittsburgh Obama Academy.
Right now, she's packing to head down south with Classrooms Without Borders.
They're a non-profit that organizes trips for educators to learn more about history in real life.
"As soon as I saw the itinerary, I was like, 'Oh my gosh this is absolutely something that I would be interested in' so I filled out the application and a couple of weeks later, I found out that I was selected to be part of the trip," Clarke explained.
This trip is called "Marching Down Freedom's Road."
The group will go to cities like Atlanta and Selma, learning first-hand about the Civil Rights Movement at sites like the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr., and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.
"All of these places that we are going to really allow us perspective into the past but also the answers, or at least I would hope some of the answers, to the future in support of the work around civil rights," Clarke said.
Clarke said she once visited some of these sites as a teenager. She knew they were important but didn't have the capacity to fully understand.
Now, as an African-American history teacher, she feels the trip is a full-circle moment for her.
She already is thinking about how she wants to incorporate what she will learn and see into her curriculum.
She also has said she wants to include a virtual experience somehow as well as talking with PPS to potentially organize a trip for teachers and students.