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Why you NEED History in your Life with Barbara Mojica
154 Plays2 years ago
In this episode we have Barbara Mojica on the podcast! Barbara is a historian, parent, grandparent, author, and retired educator with forty years of experience! She has worked with children in both the general and special needs population serving as a teacher, principal and special education administrator.
We discuss:
- why you need to know your history
- how to play a part in history
- Barbara's journey as an author
- the character 'Little Miss History'
- what critical thinking is
- why critical thinking is so important
- the online merch store opening March 1st!!
- ...and so much more!
Explore Barbara's website here!
Let us know if you enjoyed the episode by giving a review and rating the podcast 5 stars! Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and hit the notification so you'll always be in the know about how to succeed in your education. For more study tips and tricks, check out our Instagram @allthingseducation21
Want to learn in-demand skills, start a business, or learn how to succeed in the 21st century? Check out fiverr.com to learn more!
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Transcript
Introduction to All Things Education
00:00:05
Speaker
Hey, it's Mary Coleman, your host for the All Things Education podcast. If you don't know, I'm a student too and I'm currently studying psychology. I'm so glad you're listening today because we learn about study and lifestyle tips, chat with professional guests about a range of topics. We learn about the ins and outs of school and uni life, how to form solid friendships, actualize career aspirations, chat about relationships, moving, traveling, and so much more. We have a range of content on this podcast and it's all to help you be that much more informed about the world we live in.
00:00:34
Speaker
So let's get educated, shall we?
Welcoming Barbara Mojica and Topic Overview
00:00:36
Speaker
Hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to another episode of Legends. What is up? Yes, it's Mary. Welcome to the podcast. If you are new and you've never listened to this channel before, welcome. Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:00:49
Speaker
We basically talk about, as we were saying before, like talking about study tips and tricks. We talk about a lot of career pathways, especially if you want to get into a certain career pathway, but you don't quite know how it works or what it is or just like options to get in. We interview a bunch of people on this episode, on the podcast, and we just talk about lots of different things of different careers.
00:01:09
Speaker
Today, we're speaking to Barbara Mojica. I'm really excited for that. I'll talk a little bit more about her in a second. But yeah, very keen for this episode. There's going to be a lot of awesome content.
Merch Store Announcement and Charity Support
00:01:20
Speaker
And also, we've actually got a merch store that donates a significant amount of profits to
00:01:25
Speaker
the organization Bright Futures Child Aid and Development. I'll speak a little bit more about them in a second. But this is a store that's opening up on the 1st of March. So get really keen, you guys. I am so excited. Oh, there's so much is happening for that. And it's kind of killing me because I'm just doing 100 things at once to open this store and to get everything underway. But definitely stay tuned for that. And there's going to be a lot of cool stuff. But I'll talk about that in just a second.
00:01:54
Speaker
This episode today, like I said, is all about history. History was one of my favorite subjects in high school. I did well in it. I had really fun teachers and everything was just well and good learning about history. Speaking to Barbara today in this episode that I'm going to share with you guys in our conversation we had, we talk really about the importance of history and
00:02:17
Speaker
She talks about why it's just so important and the role that we play in history. So the role that each individual person plays as well as your community and your family and learning about history and why it actually is so important to know your history. I feel like more and more people are not learning, learning their history as much, I guess. Um, and we also speak about her book and she's an author and, um, how history, she's incorporated history into her books and how she teaches younger kids.
00:02:44
Speaker
about history and the importance of learning it and everything like that. So definitely get keen for this episode. History is not something I thought I would talk about on this podcast for at least a little bit. But Barbara, awesome person to talk to and the perfect person to talk to about history. So yeah, get keen for our interview. I'm going to share with you guys in a second.
Personal Updates and Evolving Content
00:03:04
Speaker
Um, just a quick life update. Wow. Well, I'm moving to New South Wales in less than a week. So what? That is wild. And that's something really exciting on the Instagram at all things education 21. I am literally posting videos every single day about, you know, like come and like buy travel items with me and let's pack my bag together. And like, let's pack my makeup bag, my like,
00:03:30
Speaker
you know my little toiletries travel pack and there's just a hundred and one things like let's pack the carry-on suitcase together like it's just constantly like uh just a lot of different things of packing and and preparing so please definitely go check that out if you haven't already there's it's usually quite a lot of study content but lately it's been a lot of lifestyle content just because
00:03:52
Speaker
study is kind of being put on pause for a little bit just before I move to Sydney but actually speaking of which I have my exam well actually I have an exam today it's already happened and I've got another one that started about half an hour ago but it's so good because it's online so all I'm doing is I have 24 hours to complete it and once that's done then I'm finished so I've got two today that I have to complete in 24 hours and then I've got one on Thursday or Friday so that's pretty exciting
00:04:19
Speaker
So that is pretty much a life update, big moves, big changes, big happenings, big things that are happening and of course the online merch store is a massive life update as well. A lot has happened this week and it's been a pretty big couple of weeks as well.
00:04:37
Speaker
I reckon that this section of the podcast is just gonna grow and grow these life updates because there are gonna be a lot of updates in life that are gonna be happening once I move into state. So I would definitely keep you all tuned in and updated all about that. Let's talk about the online merch store a little bit more in depth because I know that you guys had a lot of questions and we're very interested about that. So yeah, let's have a chat about that.
00:05:04
Speaker
Okay, so Bright Futures Child Aid and Development, let's talk about it. Alrighty, it is an Australian-based aid and development agency, which basically works to provide education and development opportunities for children and communities in poverty. So Bright Futures currently operates in four main countries, India, Pakistan, Kenya, and Uganda. And Bright Futures works with its overseas development partners to provide so many different programs, which are
00:05:32
Speaker
relevant to their local needs. So these programs can include things like schooling or health clinics, clean water projects, vocational training, self-help groups, and so many more things. So for example, in Kenya, for just $25 a month from you guys, you can join the Uniting Dynamic Women Project, which helps support up to four women each and every year through vocational and business skills training. And in India, for example, $42 per month, you can help HR living in poverty.
00:05:59
Speaker
to receive a life-changing education and help from their family and their community, which basically provides them with healthcare, training, and clean water. So you can see that there are just so many different opportunities that, you know, supporting and donating a monthly cost, which is relatively low. Like if you think about it, $25 is what, maybe like two mils from McDonald's or something like that, and $42 a month for sponsoring a child in India.
00:06:27
Speaker
is, you know, I mean maybe a phone bill. So basically, you know, it's a little amount of money per month that you can spend and you can really make a difference in the lives of others who are less fortunate than us. So essentially the best thing and the most thing I'm excited for is I've been partnering with Bright Futures Child Aid and Development and what I'm able to do now is I'm able to, well, we're all gonna help and we're going to buy merch from the online merch store that I have, the All Things Education merch,
00:06:55
Speaker
100% of profits. 100% guys. I'm not even talking like 20% of profits. No, no, no. I am giving 100% of profits to child aid to help bright futures with these kids and the communities and the women and helping them and their families just to have a better future.
00:07:15
Speaker
It's something that I am so, so passionate about. And I know that you guys listening today, you want to make a difference, obviously. And I'm sure you do. You want to help people have a better life. And obviously, these people in this community, they don't have the necessary skills and money to be able to successfully become maybe a doctor or something like that. They need help from others. And I think that this is just such a great way to help
00:07:45
Speaker
a charity. So this online store, 100% of profits. 100%, that's like literally all the profits are going to charity, going to Bright Futures. So Get Keen, that store is opening on the 1st of March and you can tell I'm so passionate about it. I'm beyond excited to be able to help such an amazing organization that is helping children in their aid and development.
00:08:12
Speaker
So that's humming, that's happening and the best thing is you actually get something out of it as well. So obviously there are straight up donations. If you wanted to donate directly to Bright Futures there'll be a link on the website which again will be released on the 1st of March. So get hyped, put it in your calendars, write it down. First of March there'll be a website store that will be opening up and there will be a directory link that will take you to the Bright Futures
00:08:36
Speaker
website where you're able to like literally just donate straight in like BSB and account number sort of thing. And the other thing is on the Instagram page, there is going to be a lot of a lot of content that is related to the Bright Futures organization. So we're going to be showcasing a lot of amazing stories from individuals.
00:08:55
Speaker
And on the website as well, there are going to be a lot of different case studies of children and communities and families that are living in those four main countries I was saying before. And we're going to showcase their families and the community and just why they need so much help and why it's so important to help them out, right? So yeah, that's happening. That's obviously, you can see how much time that's taking up. But I do think that it is such an important mission
00:09:22
Speaker
for us to help other people. Especially, I mean, me, I'm turning 20 this year, which is really exciting, first of all, but I also know that there are other people, there are like millions, billions of people turning 20 this year. Maybe not billions, millions of people who are turning 20. And it's just so interesting to see where they're sitting in the world and how much they've progressed and how far they've come and the successes that they're having. And of course, I wanna live up to the amazing expectation and opportunity that I've been given.
00:09:50
Speaker
partnering with Bright Futures has been such a great opportunity so far and I'm very keen to donate 100% of profits, 100% like, whoa. Yeah, so that's happening and I really appreciate your support on that. I'm gonna stop ranting about that now.
Who is Barbara Mojica?
00:10:06
Speaker
I'm gonna give a little bit of an introduction about Barbara Mojica who is our wonderful guest on the podcast today. So Barbara is a historian, she's a parent, she's a grandparent, she's an author and a retired educator
00:10:18
Speaker
With 40 years of experience, she's worked with children in both the general and special needs population, serving as a teacher, a principal, and special education administrator. So her mission is essentially to entertain, inspire, and empower the youth with the skills needed to become tomorrow's leaders. She also provides parents and teachers with strategies and tools to accomplish this. And honestly, the way she speaks, she speaks of so much clarity and wisdom. You can tell that she has so much experience in the education field.
00:10:47
Speaker
And I think what I'm most excited for you guys to hear in this episode today is really why should anyone care about history? Like, you know, history is a subject people find boring and people don't want to learn about and people learning about less and less or some people are learning about more and more. And so like, why should we care about it? So we speak about that. We also speak about how can we really help children become tomorrow's leaders? So what can we practically implement into our lives to help? Like when I say children, I mean like
00:11:13
Speaker
you know, 18 to 24. How can we help these people become the leaders of tomorrow? And how can we become critical thinkers? What is critical thinking? We also speak about how Barbara's children series came about and what are some of the problems with the educational system today and how can we sort of fix them from a student perspective and also parents? How can they fix it from that parent perspective?
00:11:35
Speaker
And yeah, so I'm just gonna again encourage you guys just like a couple of episodes before that we've had an episode with Jeannie Bellaski when we were talking to her and I said all of those students are listening, please pass this on to your parents. This is the same sort of episode. I would love for you guys to share this link, share the podcast episode link to your parents and just ask them to listen to this because we do speak about a lot of content that parents can take a lot from as well. And again, if you're a parent, please definitely pass this on to your child because this is something that children or your children can definitely learn a lot from.
00:12:05
Speaker
So, yep, without further ado, let's jump right into the episode with Barbara Mojica.
Why is History Crucial for Critical Thinking?
00:12:11
Speaker
Barbara, hey, welcome to the All Things Education podcast. How are you? Thank you so much, Mary. I'm very happy to be here and happy to connect with visitors way far away from where I am. Yes, I know. We're actually based. I live in upstate New York on the east coast of USA.
00:12:33
Speaker
Amazing. I would really love to travel there one day. Well, we were just talking about the weather, so maybe not right now, but still. I'd love to travel to Austria. It's a long trip. That would be so good. Yes. It would be a trip of a lifetime for sure. I think let's just jump straight into it. We're going to talk about history. You are an history expert, so super amazing in this field. Let's jump right into it.
00:12:58
Speaker
bit blunt, but why should anyone care about history? Okay, well, lots of kids think that way, unfortunately. And here in America, history is not that big a part of the curriculum anymore, which is one of the big problems I see in history.
00:13:19
Speaker
Because history is so important in developing critical thinking skills, and I guess maybe we can get into that later. But why should you study history?
00:13:32
Speaker
What is history? History is not just a story of events or you know dates and times and massive world occurrences but it's a story about all of us. So if we want to understand how
00:13:55
Speaker
we arrived at the point we are today, and if we want to have a way to do better in our lives today, and then perhaps create a plan for those who will come after us,
00:14:12
Speaker
We have to understand we have to we have to know it in order to understand it so I see history as something that's Evolutionary it's not just something Random or isolated and if you think about it everything has a history yes because
00:14:36
Speaker
We don't just start suddenly. So when we're children, we think about, you know, little kids want to know, you know, who am I? Where did I come from? How did I get in this place? Why am I with this family? And why do I live in the community that I live in? And how is this all connected? So history starts with the family.
00:15:05
Speaker
And again, when you think about history, how did we first communicate with each other? Okay, even before there was language, there were the cave paintings. So the people would survive by passing on their knowledge to
00:15:28
Speaker
their children and their children would pass the knowledge on and so on down and down the generations. So it's something that is so critical in order to understand ourselves. History gives us an identity. It also
00:15:49
Speaker
gives us a kind of moral understanding because as children we learn about our morals and our values from the people in our family. And then when we extend that out to the community,
00:16:07
Speaker
We learn about the community we belong to and that encompasses our culture and what is culture? Well, it's almost everything. It's our religion, our traditions, the foods we eat, the way we dress, the kind of jobs we use to earn a living. It's all of those things together. And then as we get older,
00:16:34
Speaker
We reach out from our community, and we seek to get a greater global understanding of how is our community connected to that big world around us, and how do we affect events how do the events affect us but that.
Challenges of Social Media in Understanding History
00:16:53
Speaker
And we all have a part to play because when I explain history to children, I tell them that we are all characters in history. We all have a role to play. So it's not just these famous people who have done something very good or something very bad.
00:17:16
Speaker
But it's all of us. And in my work and in my books, I try to touch on a lot of those people and events that were forgotten in history or that most people are not aware of. And then, of course, I try to teach those critical thinking skills and
00:17:41
Speaker
know critical thinking of course is being able to focus on a problem or a person or an event and not just to learn the basic facts what it is but it is to be able to take that information to compare and contrast to infer to get other
00:18:05
Speaker
information from that by putting pieces of that information together we can infer new information we need to
00:18:17
Speaker
be able to communicate that information. And we need to understand that the way information was passed on has changed. The way we communicate in the 21st century is a lot different from the way we communicated even 100 years ago. So what we
00:18:42
Speaker
rely on today, sometimes it's not at all really related to the facts. So we talk about social media and do we get the information that we need to do critical thinking on social media? Probably not. We get a lot of noise. We get a lot of people's opinions on social media.
00:19:10
Speaker
But with social media, we are only getting part of the story. We're not getting those primary real sources that tell us whether something is factual or just an opinion. So way back in time when we studied history, we
00:19:30
Speaker
We went back to those primary sources. We went back to the artifacts and those we do, of course, use when we can find them. But we had the letters, we had the diaries, we had the journals. Those were all real primary sources of history, things that you could rely on because we know that that person wrote it. We know that that newspaper
00:19:57
Speaker
reported the event that was accurately happening at the time. But now with social media, when we get something on social media,
00:20:08
Speaker
We don't get the same information that everybody else does. The algorithm determines what part of the population is going to get that particular information. And then, of course, it reinforces that information because the people that we choose to interact with on social media, well, that loop is getting reinforced. So we're going to be fed more information
00:20:39
Speaker
from the people that agree with us because the algorithm knows that that's what we want to hear and interact with. So if we don't interact with something, we're probably not going to see that piece of information again.
00:20:54
Speaker
So social media is creating kind of an arbitrary system in which we're just constantly being fed a part of the information and we can't make accurate judgments with that. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's actually really interesting. I've never really thought about like that. Yeah. What I would love to touch on Barbara
00:21:22
Speaker
is critical thinking skills. I guess the term is thrown around a lot in school and I mean I know in in my school in my education in English class I was constantly told developing critical thinking schools like keep going keep going I haven't knew what it meant so yeah would you be able to explain to us Barbara about the critical thinking skills what are they and what are they in a practical manner and also actually could you talk about how can we
00:21:51
Speaker
practically implement the critical thinking skills into our daily lives, particularly learning about history? Well, OK, so let's say I would closely compare critical thinking. Critical thinking is important in any subject in school, and it's also important in any career that you choose to go into. But if you take science, for instance,
00:22:20
Speaker
Critical thinking is a lot like science because what do you start with? You start with a question.
00:22:28
Speaker
All right, so it's very much like a hypothesis. So you start with something that you want to find the information or the answer to. And then you test that question. You apply various things to try to answer it. So what would you do in history? You would look for those primary sources of information, the real, those things that were written
00:22:58
Speaker
by people living in that time that were discussing what was happening to them and around them right then at that time. So it's like the variables in science. We test certain things to see if we get a certain result.
00:23:19
Speaker
Now, sometimes with history, we take all of those sources and we get conflicting information. So we have to analyze it, we have to compare it, we have to contrast it. And sometimes
00:23:37
Speaker
we don't get an answer at all. Just like in science, sometimes the experiment doesn't succeed and we try and we test and we just can't seem to get a definitive answer. History is the same way. I mean, sometimes there isn't just one conclusion. Sometimes there are multiple reasons for something, multiple perspectives and multiple answers.
00:24:02
Speaker
And sometimes there's just no answer at all. You know, even going through all of that information and sorting it, we can't say for sure what one definitive answer is. So if you take that in any discipline, I mean, if you're a lawyer, you need critical thinking, or going in a courtroom is very much the same thing.
Problems in Education and Liberal Arts Benefits
00:24:29
Speaker
You know, you have to form
00:24:33
Speaker
different scenarios, different hypotheses for whatever, and then test and try different things in order to try to win your argument. So it's the same in any kind of profession that you choose. You don't go into it knowing everything.
00:24:56
Speaker
You have to learn, and as you learn, you take information, you analyze it, you learn from some of the other people around you who communicate with you. You try things in different contexts and different situations. And then as you grow in the experience, you learn what works and what doesn't work. So again, it's a lot like critical thinking.
00:25:25
Speaker
In general, I would say critical thinking, if you had to explain it in one or two sentences, critical thinking is how you think, how it's the process of how you think.
00:25:44
Speaker
Rather than getting the answer, the answer is not the critical thinking part. And in schools, at least here in my country today, I don't think they're doing a good job of teaching that process of thinking. We're teaching to the test. We want the answer. We want the outcome.
00:26:07
Speaker
And there isn't that much tolerance for various ways of doing that. It's become very regimented and everybody has to follow the same formula and everybody has to collect the same data. And if you pass the test, you have met the standard and that's the result they're looking for. But that doesn't do justice to
00:26:37
Speaker
Different students who have different types of learning, and who cannot learn in that one regiment today, especially students with special needs, who need very different approaches and I've worked with both types of populations of students.
00:26:56
Speaker
So I've learned in my career that some things are never going to work. And as I proceeded throughout my career, I was met with more and more barriers to the teacher being able to
00:27:16
Speaker
adapt and change the teaching style to fit the students. It's more like, this is what we're going to do and you just have to do it. So to me, you know, that's been very frustrating and a lot of parents now
00:27:34
Speaker
are becoming very frustrated and looking for different types of approaches, you know, and different ways of doing things. Yeah, wow. Well, actually, Barbara, I'm not sure if you're familiar, but are you aware of liberal arts courses?
00:27:51
Speaker
Oh yeah, I'm the product of my undergraduate was a liberal arts college. I'm literally going to study in a couple weeks. I'm going to go study a liberal arts degree. I'm going to go move into state, which is super exciting. Yeah, and that's when you were just talking about people thinking skills and critical thinking.
00:28:11
Speaker
everything you were saying before. I was just pinpointing it back to liberal arts degree. What's your take? Actually, this is not off script. What's your take on a liberal arts course? And I guess the benefits and the pros and cons just off the top of your head. I think it's a very good idea to have a liberal arts
00:28:32
Speaker
background initially when you go into a college level or I guess it would be called like the tertiary third phase of education in Europe. That benefited me greatly because personally when I first started college I was interested in history and I thought I wanted to major in history but the college that I attended required
00:28:59
Speaker
basically two years of a liberal arts background before you really got into your major so I had to take courses in math and science in English in
00:29:17
Speaker
virtually any you know a broad spectrum of discipline. So I had social science, I had physical sciences, I had an introductory history course, I had a writing basic literature course and basic writing courses in English and that benefited me because when I did get to my major
00:29:45
Speaker
I was able to see the benefit of supplementing my major with courses in other disciplines that complemented it. So I was interested in ancient history. So there was only one course available in ancient history undergraduate. So what did I do? I took courses in
00:30:14
Speaker
anthropology and I took courses in the classics. I took a couple of classics courses. I took a term of basic Latin because I thought that would help me. And I took ancient art history. So I was able to like
00:30:34
Speaker
supplement everything. And during the summer break, I found a affiliated school to my university that was teaching ancient Near Eastern history. So I took that course during the summer. So I was able to create for myself
00:30:52
Speaker
a very, very broad background and a much better comprehension of ancient history by, you know, branching out into those liberal arts and making a
00:31:07
Speaker
a giant inclusive package of learning from doing that. So you know I think it's a good idea to get your feet wet and to understand a little bit about as many disciplines as possible and that'll help you when you do decide on a course of action you know I think that will help a lot in as it did with me you know to give you an idea of
00:31:36
Speaker
What are the things that are important to the course that you really want to pursue? Yes. Exactly. And I mean, I'm studying psychology right now alongside or about to begin, sorry, liberal arts as mentioned before. And I think, of course, the arts in itself is not an exact career, but as you were saying, you can use it and put it into
00:32:02
Speaker
and apply it to another degree, another career, and I just get love. I love that it's foundational knowledge. The particular course that I'm studying, it is liberal arts. It's probably not as extensive as you were describing. I know that America does have a very big culture of liberal arts, so a lot of campuses, colleges.
00:32:22
Speaker
It's very popular for an undergraduate study. Today, younger people are pursuing more offshoots that are kind of narrow and specified. Personally, I don't think there is any great benefit. For instance, I took a course in women's studies when I was an undergraduate. Now, this is a long time ago.
00:32:52
Speaker
it was a general course and it was informative but now there are people that major in women's studies and they're taking all of these very narrow specific courses and while it may it may benefit them personally long-term career wise there are not too many careers you can pursue with
00:33:21
Speaker
a degree in women's studies or gender studies or, you know, it's not nearly as practical. It may be personally, and it's something that may be important to you now.
00:33:38
Speaker
But probably long-term won't be that beneficial to building a career, you know, in some field. Okay. Yeah. And the critical thinking sort of, um.
00:33:54
Speaker
Like that broader range, the big picture sort of thinking instead of that niche topic. Yeah. Wow. That's super interesting. Yeah. Yeah.
Making History Engaging for Children
00:34:02
Speaker
Yeah. Well, um, you spoke about characters in history before and you touched on it and I'd really love to explore that a little bit further. And I guess just chat about what is each person's role and responsibility as a character in history. And could you perhaps explain what that means as well?
00:34:22
Speaker
Well, when I say a character, I don't mean, you know, a character in the sense of being a play or a player or an actor.
00:34:33
Speaker
I alluded a little bit to it before, we all have a role to play in passing down our values and our culture and our beliefs to those who are in our immediate circle of family and then of course within
00:34:57
Speaker
The families settle in communities for reasons. Initially, it might have been something economic. They might have been drawn to the community because they participate in a particular kind of work and that industry is located. Like here in America, there were mill towns and factory towns.
00:35:25
Speaker
You know, a lot of people might have been drawn to that community because they had certain skills working in a particular trade. But and some people may settle in communities because there are large numbers of people with their particular heritage or culture, whether that be their religion or whether that be their ethnic culture.
00:35:54
Speaker
Of course, today in America, most of that has changed. But that's initially the way they form. But when I say each of us has a role, in my books, I try to bring out people and events that maybe have been forgotten or little known or
00:36:22
Speaker
neglected because, again, history might have been presented in a narrow focus by certain groups for certain other groups. So I do things in my books like present to children
00:36:46
Speaker
events, scenarios, places. To take an example, my first book was about Mount Rushmore. Now Mount Rushmore is a
00:36:58
Speaker
carving, the heads of four of our presidents, four of our most influential presidents, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. And they carved them on this mountain in South Dakota. And
00:37:23
Speaker
It was a massive undertaking. The sculptor was someone from Europe, Leon Gutsman, and he spent 40 years working on this project. It was monumental. They had to climb 506 steps every day just to get up there and carry the materials and blast the dynamite. So that's one aspect of it which I explained to the children how it was done.
00:37:52
Speaker
and the reasons that these people were chosen. But one important thing is how they got the land. Now the land was taken from the Lakota Sioux Native American tribe. Originally that land had been given to them by treaty, but then the government took it back arbitrarily. And this was the land that these sculptures were placed on.
00:38:23
Speaker
And in the book, I bring up to the children, was it, you know, was this the right thing to do? I always ask them all kinds of critical thinking questions within the story. And they learn the story of the Lakota Sioux and they learn how the land was taken. They learn that today the Lakota tribes, they recently protested and then they
00:38:52
Speaker
took land nearby, they're building their own memorial to their leader, Crazy Horse. And they're going to make that bigger than the sculptures on Mount Rushmore. They plant this beautiful sculpture that they're doing. But they're not doing it with government funds or anything. They're raising the money on their own. And this is going to a project that's going to take them years.
00:39:16
Speaker
So we talk about that and then we talk about Native American rights and we talk about the UN and how they're trying to get rights for indigenous peoples. And so what I do is I bring up questions. Some of my books.
00:39:35
Speaker
are national parks. So I'll talk for instance about the Sequoia trees in Sequoia National Park. Now those trees can live up to 3,000 years, some of them. So we talk about these massive trees, we talk about how they grow. So my books don't just cover history, they cover a lot of other disciplines. So in this one, we talk about science, we talk about the wildlife,
00:40:02
Speaker
We talk about the animals that live there. We talk about the geology of the park. We talk about who settled the park, the first peoples, what they were like, what they did. And we talk about
00:40:16
Speaker
pollution. Where does pollution come in and a beautiful national park? It's what it's one of the, in fact, it is the most polluted national park in the whole national park system, because it's in the San Joaquin Valley of California, where there are lots of diesel trucks that go across this beautiful farmland, but that are polluting it. And sometimes it's actually unhealthy to breathe the air there.
00:40:42
Speaker
And they have to put up signs and warn people that today it's unhealthy to breathe the air here. And when they advertise for people to work there, they have to make them aware of that before they sign a contract to work there that sometimes the air is unhealthy to breathe there.
00:41:04
Speaker
You know, very few people know about that. So I asked the children again, what do they have any ideas? What do they think we could do to solve some of some of these problems? I bring up national heroes who were forgotten.
00:41:24
Speaker
There was a case, one of my books is about the world, well, it's not just World War II, but it's about the Intrepid Sierra and Space Museum, which is on an aircraft carrier in New York City. And in that book, we talk about all of the events that that
00:41:49
Speaker
ship took part in, which were many, many. So this ship took part in World War II, the Vietnam War
00:42:00
Speaker
It took a part in the Cold War as an anti-submarine ship, which later fitted and re-adapted. It took a part in the space program. It recovered space capsules in the early part of the space program. And today on its aircraft carrier deck, children can see planes from World War II, World War I,
00:42:27
Speaker
The Vietnam War, they can see the Enterprise space shuttle, which sits on a bubble on the deck. So they can actually see the space shuttle. They can climb into a helicopter that was used in the Vietnam War. They can go into this area that they call the Explorium, and they can see the space capsules. They can touch them. They can see movies of World War II.
00:42:56
Speaker
They find out about heroes again that were forgotten. Alonzo Swan was an African-American soldier who at that time the units were segregated so he was in an all-black unit. He was one of the heroes who saved the ship during World War II. Intrepid is
00:43:19
Speaker
You know, they called it the Fighting I and it was one of the most frequently hit ships. It's amazing that it survived and it's standing there today, but he Was one of the few survivors in that unit from the kamikaze attack and they gave him a bronze star and
00:43:40
Speaker
which he thought was merited, but he thought that the survivors in that unit deserved more. And he kept advocating for that. And 50 years later, he was given the Naval Cross, which is the highest military honor for the Navy. So these are things that a lot of people don't know. I like to expose children.
00:44:07
Speaker
to the fact that there are, you know, everyday heroes like Alonzo Thuan and, you know, there were people like Gudson Borglung who had such energy and dedication and
00:44:24
Speaker
the ability to just survive and persist over such overwhelming odds to get this done. He actually did die before the project was finished, shortly before it was finished and his son finished it out. But I want children to see themselves as that part of history and that's why I use this character called Little Miss History
00:44:52
Speaker
who is kind of a, well, she's modeled on me. My husband created the character as he made it a cartoon version of a younger me. And she wears these pigtails, which I used to wear. She wears hiking boots and a kind of camping outfit. I love to go hiking and I loved to explore. I always wanted to travel.
00:45:20
Speaker
which I did later on when once I started working, but I came from a poorer family who didn't have a car and we didn't have much opportunity to travel and go places outside of my community. So that was, you know, that was a need in me to be this explorer and, you know, wanderer and adventurer. So she's this crazy adventurer and she wears these
00:45:45
Speaker
giant boots that are hiking boots and they're in memory of my father. She's just this crazy composite, but she is kind of
00:45:57
Speaker
a person that kids can identify with, they can see themselves, you know, as part of her as she narrates these inventions adventures. So she experiences the emotions, you know, when she's talking about the Civil War,
00:46:19
Speaker
She's very sad. When she's at Ellis Island, she's an immigrant who's just coming over for the first time. She can be happy and adventurous. When she's at Sequoia Park, she parachutes into the park and she's a great outdoor adventurer. When she's at Mount Vernon, she rides a horse like George Washington did. So I'm trying to immerse
00:46:48
Speaker
children, and their parents and grandparents, because adults who read the books, you know, are always telling me, gee, I never knew that, you know, I found out a lot that I didn't know about it myself. So, you know, they kind of get involved with the stories. And because they're so illustrated, they I use actual photography, we go to the sites, we use photo, it's a mixed media kind of approach. So there are portraits of the people
00:47:18
Speaker
There are drawings and maps and
00:47:23
Speaker
there are all kinds of different representations of art, so that the children can see it in like so many different ways. And that helps to portray this, the different types of moods and situations. And then, like I said, of course, those critical thinking questions that all throughout, you know, I'm asking their opinions, I'm asking what they think and how could
00:47:52
Speaker
how could they do this better or do they think it could be changed? You know, all of that is a big part of it. Wow, yeah. And Barbara, I was just going to ask, how did the series actually come about?
00:48:05
Speaker
Well, the series came about because after I retired, I kind of wanted to get back to my passion. So I returned to history again. I started writing articles for a local news magazine about history, but I wanted to keep in touch with the kids.
00:48:27
Speaker
I do have my own grandchildren. I have grandchildren, but they don't live close by. So I don't see them often. But I missed the teaching, and I wanted to get back with kids in some way. So I thought this would be a good way to combine it, to write history that would be entertaining, yet inspiring and interactive.
00:48:56
Speaker
giving them a taste of what some of these leadership skills are and how they might aspire to, you know, use some of these things in their own life. So I said, oh, I think I want to write some books for kids about history. And my husband said, well, why don't I create
00:49:18
Speaker
a fun character that could kind of narrate the series. And that's how it came about. So he created the character. As I said, he loves history as much as I do. So we have no problems going on field trips and visiting these places. And there are a few that I haven't visited. I have a book on the North Pole that hasn't been there.
00:49:41
Speaker
But, you know, in most cases, they're, you know, they're personal, they're, you know, very well researched. Because I go to the site, I, you know, gather that information firsthand, and then I go back and do even more research. So I take, again, critical thinking, I take all of this,
00:50:10
Speaker
And then I have to put it together and I have to put it together in a way that's appropriate for a younger child to read, but still interesting for adults. So that takes a lot of rewriting, a lot of editing, you know, a lot of refining to get it to that point.
Importance of History in Understanding Culture
00:50:34
Speaker
I'm doing, you know, kind of all the things that I've always been interested in and pulling them all together. And then, of course, that led to doing a lot more.
00:50:49
Speaker
I'm interested in children's books, so I review children's books. I have a blog. I give tips for parents and teachers on various subjects, not just history. I do many videos, like two-minute teacher kind of videos that
00:51:08
Speaker
teachers or parents could use, and then I have videos for kids on my YouTube channel. So, you know, I'm trying to, at this point, kind of pull all the resources that I have and put them in one place so that hopefully parents, teachers, kids, you know, all kinds of groups can benefit from them, hopefully in some way.
00:51:37
Speaker
nice yes i was going to say when we get towards the end of this episode we'll definitely have to get you to share all of those amazing resources and links in the show notes i know you also have 14 reasons you need history a book and i'll put that in the show notes as well yeah do you have anything else did you want to add anything to that
00:51:59
Speaker
Well, we talked about something. Some of the things are history. As we said, it provides an identity. It gives you kind of a moral compass. It helps you to be a better student, obviously, because you're going to have to be exposed to those critical thinking skills. It helps you to do things like to
00:52:27
Speaker
look at the evidence, how to find out what's a fact, what's an opinion, what is real, what might just be some fluff, and then to take that and to go over the two sides to, this is another thing I think,
00:52:51
Speaker
children and and young adults still need practice in doing to be able to look at find different points of view and then to assess those different points of view to see what the pros are the cons to try to to go through them and then once you do that you can kind of look at
00:53:18
Speaker
Examples of change, you know, you can you can look at what has happened in the past, what's happening now, and you can kind of figure out a path. It gives you a kind of broader perspective on things, because once you gather all of this information, you can see whether it's working or not working in a particular situation.
00:53:47
Speaker
So it may have worked at one time in one place. It may work for
00:53:57
Speaker
somebody else in your own country or nearby, but it may not work in your particular situation. Because when you're studying history, you are, you know, some historians say there are something like six, some they'll disagree whether there were four or five or six, but the seas of history, the content of the information, the context,
00:54:26
Speaker
where and why and what's going on around it. Again, that communication. How is it being communicated? Is it being communicated as fact? Is it being communicated as opinion? Are the sources real or could they possibly be made up or could they possibly be slanted to one side or the other?
00:54:55
Speaker
It just helps. And another big thing that we didn't talk about too much is it helps us to learn about other cultures. We all have our own culture, but depending on where we live, the type of community we live
00:55:14
Speaker
And our family, if we live in a family that's maybe first generation, their native culture is very, very strong. But if we live in a family that has been assimilated into the community where they live for a long time,
00:55:36
Speaker
They're going to have more of an amalgam of cultures. Their native culture isn't going to be as strong. So that plays a big role in it and understanding that somebody else in our community may come from a very different place. So it helps us to understand, again, different points of view, different perspectives. It gives you a wider picture.
00:56:04
Speaker
and helps you I think to become more tolerant because you have made an effort to understand why that person is different not just oh well they're different or they're weird because you know they're they're not like us so that that's you know and
00:56:27
Speaker
That's an important fact.
Connecting with Barbara Mojica's Resources
00:56:29
Speaker
So there are just like so many reasons to just in general to understand change. To understand a little bit about why things change and what the influences are that sometimes make change.
00:56:48
Speaker
randomly sometimes make change forcibly as in the case of some external event you know that's imposed on you or your community and you're forced to change your entire lifestyle because of it but it just gives us this whole
00:57:10
Speaker
broader picture that helps the broader picture actually helps us to filter it down to ourselves and to help us see you know how it affects us why it affects us again it's the process of the thinking you know but so in the the seeds of history it's the context the communication
00:57:37
Speaker
the clues of what is going on in the rest of the world because sometimes what's going on in the rest of our world influences us even though it could be thousands of miles away. So again,
00:57:53
Speaker
That whole global perspective, the way we live today, we live in a global world. We're no longer isolated. It's not that the letter takes two weeks to get a couple of states away. Now everything is instantaneous and we can actually physically see
00:58:19
Speaker
people that live continents away from us. So it gives us a whole, when you see the person, it gives you a whole different, again, perspective. So that's something that has so radically changed the way we live. For good or for bad, you know, there are blushes and there are minuses. Yes. Yes, for sure. Definitely.
00:58:47
Speaker
Oh wow, Barbara, I think we just had the best conversation today. Thank you so, so much for your time. I was scribbling down notes left, right, and center, because there's just so many content, piece of information. Oh, I appreciate it. I enjoyed it as well. I'm glad. And where can people find you? YouTube, Instagram. Well, I have a website, which is kind of like the go to place. The website is simply
00:59:14
Speaker
Little Miss History dot com, which is the name of the book series. And if you go to that website, I have an email, which is Barbara at Little Miss History dot com, but they don't need that really, because if they go to the website, I also have an instant chat. Cool.
00:59:32
Speaker
So they can contact me through that or email me. And there are links to all of my materials. That's amazing. If you go to the website, you can see the books and read about the books and the reviews. But you can also see the blog where I have the tips and the book reviews.
01:00:00
Speaker
And I have the YouTube channel where I have the teaching videos and videos on like a myriad of different things for kids and for adults. And I have a link, social media, I have, you know, you can go right to LinkedIn or Instagram or Facebook or any of the other other pages. But, you know, I really,
01:00:28
Speaker
I just really want to be a resource for people. I love to connect. So, you know, anyone who has a question or wants to write or needs anything, I'd be glad to be in touch with them. Yes. No, definitely for sure. LittleMissHistory.com. Everyone remember it. But I mean, also be in the show notes in case anyone forgets. Thank you so much, Barbara. Really appreciate your time. Thank you so, so much.
01:00:54
Speaker
Well, thank you and have a lovely day. Thank you so much. We'll talk soon. Bye.
01:03:56
Speaker
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01:04:17
Speaker
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01:04:43
Speaker
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