The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Teaching how history connects, not divides
Jason Cleaver has a goal of teaching his students more than just history — he wants to show them how American history, and particularly Cleveland’s history, should connect people more than divide them.
Cleaver, a U.S. history and African-American history class teacher at Euclid High School, has taken his students to participate in several Teaching Cleveland Student Challenges. Held by the Teaching Cleveland organization every other year, it offers an opportunity for students from schools all around the Greater Cleveland area to join together and consider issues affecting the country.
Cleaver said the 2020 event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but he is excited for when it can safely be held again.
He said he is passionate about connecting his students to others in different districts as a way of breaking down barriers and stereotypes they might have held, and TCSC provides a way to achieve that.
“They call on school districts from around Northeast Ohio to bring kids in and share their experience, what they basically want is to get kids from around Northeast Ohio to see how connected we really are, and to understand the depth of Cleveland in our history and how ultimately we have more in common than we don’t have in common,” Cleaver said.
He explained that one of the TCSCs he brought some students to was specifically tailored to addressing and overcoming racial divisions in the Cleveland area, and he said he found the scenario simulations the challenge used to be helpful in giving students a voice. The program then brought in local leaders from companies, nonprofits and other institutions as guest speakers to share their thoughts and experiences.
“And for our kids, this was just wonderful to hear what they had to say,” Cleaver said. “And then at the end of it, they would ask for the kids to come up with a project that would demonstrate a solution to how do you bridge the racial divide and so on, and where in your community is there a problem? Things of that nature.
“So it really made them feel empowered.”
Cleaver’s personal interest in breaking down the walls that divide people groups — be it from race, socio-economic status or age — began at a young age. However, he said it blossomed during his time working as a teacher with AmeriCorps on a Native American reservation in South Dakota.
He said that experience taught him a lot about the shared human experience, and no matter how different people may seem, there are always commonalities — even if it was just sitting around a campfire telling jokes with elders of the reservation.
“We’re all pretty much the same, that we’re just humans and our humanity is the same — and regardless of their poverty situation and the circumstances,” Cleaver said. “They’re just regular folks, just trying to get by just like everyone else. And that’s the same as Cleveland or Euclid.”
He added that he tries to teach this idea to his students and utilizing resources like TCSC to show students how to think about the big picture and come up with ways to solve social problems and issues with racial division in their own community has been very beneficial.
“People are forgetting the connectedness,” Cleaver said. “They’re focusing on this one thing — or themselves personally — and not seeing how we’re all so much in this together. So the fact that they come to those conclusions on their own, because of Teaching Cleveland, it makes me very happy.
“And so then when I see them after graduating high school, doing these things themselves — this is why I’m a teacher. This is what it’s all about. And it’s it all very worthwhile to me.”