Trade Books’ Historical Representation Of Eleanor Roosevelt

At the beginning of the article, “Trade Books’ Historical Representation of Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the World”, John H. Bickford III and Taylor A. Badal start by discussing a memorial service held by the General Assembly of the United Nations to celebrate Eleanor Roosevelt’s “involvement, interests, and ideals”. The service took place on November 9, 1962, and Adlai Stevenson shared a eulogy that exemplified the worldwide respect and appreciation she evoked.

In Stevenson’s piece of writing, he shared personal thoughts of Roosevelt and explained how the United Nations had hope and meaning because of her love and her labors. After a few short weeks of Franklin Roosevelt’s death, she fulfilled her duty of serving as one of the nation’s delegates to the first regular session of the General Assembly. Stevenson continued to talk about her as a courteous woman and ultimately referred to her as “The First Lady of the World”. When teaching about Eleanor Roosevelt, teachers actually have the chance to incorporate human rights, civil rights, and poverty initiatives into the discussion because she rejected residual Victorian gender norms, as well as race restrictions and social conventions of affluence.

While Eleanor Roosevelt is considered an extremely important historical figure and educators can share knowledge about her within early-grades and middle-grades, Roosevelt’s accomplishments and experiences are usually discussed in high school history content. When it comes to finding resources for this topic to use in the classroom, textbooks, primary sources, and trade books are all possible options. However, textbooks can be expensive, inexperience learners may find the syntax of primary sources to be antiquated and prose dense, and trade books can conceal an unreliable historicity.

There is no doubt that published research can be misrepresented and problematic. Early and middle-grades trade books do not match the exact details from historians and educators should be cautious of misrepresentative narratives. With that being said, trade books are an “age-appropriate curricular tool” that can be used for both early and middle-grades curricula in social studies, history, and English language arts. Significant findings should have comparable grade ranges and contemplation of genre because Eleanor Roosevelt is an extremely important historical figure to learn about in all age levels.

When students are learning about factors and figures that impacted Roosevelt’s life in the Victorian era, it can be difficult for some children to understand the wealthy, prominent family aspect that greatly shaped her. John H. Bickford III and Taylor A. Badal provided examples of trade books that shared the historical representation of Victorian society and family wealth of the Roosevelts. There were several individuals that influence Eleanor Roosevelt in both positive and negative ways. Further on in the article, it is also mentioned the empathy that she had for victims of inequality. In her lifetime, she took the time to teach poor children of immigrants and supported legislation to end child labor. She also worked at soup kitchens, demanded better care for soldiers from Congress, encouraged federal intervention when states failed to meet their citizens’ basic needs, and much more. While wealth may have given Roosevelt more opportunities and put her in a social class, she spent a majority of her adult life bettering humanity.

In the classroom, teachers can integrate several resources and active lessons. However, the historical representation in some texts is not always going to be accurate. Within history-based trade books intended for both early and middle-grades, the representation of Eleanor Roosevelt is significant for several reasons. In the article, it is stated that numerous people have argued that Roosevelt is the “most consequential American woman of the 20th century” and that her contributions are unparalleled by any First Lady. Overall, there are definitely problematic elements within certain resources like trade books. When teaching about such a historical figure such as Eleanor Roosevelt, teachers have to find the necessary research and resources that will be the most logical curricular tool for helping their students learn about this topic.

Personal Experiences

For my topic, I chose to research about First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. Therefore, I felt that this article discussing First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt would have some similarities to Jacqueline’s life. As an elementary student and middle level student, I recall learning about the Roosevelts through different textbook readings and documentaries. A few examples of pieces of knowledge I retained include that Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States and that she advocated for women, African Americans, and Depression-era workers.

With that being said, my elementary and middle-grade teachers did not always cover background information on Roosevelt such as her relationships with other Roosevelts, as well as the effect that elite Victorian society had on her. In the article, John H. Bickford III and Taylor A. Badal touched on how Eleanor’s father was kind and supportive, but hardly present due to his alcoholism. Eleanor’s mother-in-law was also financially supportive, but very controlling. After reading the article, I personally feel that these two relationships alone had to impact Eleanor Roosevelt’s life.

One of the main focuses on the article was the idea of dense misrepresentations in various resources. As a student, the textbooks I used only touched briefly on each historical topic and I am aware that some of my classmates found the textbooks to be boring. In ELE 3340, there has been much class discussion regarding false information that is presented in certain social studies textbooks. In my chosen article, the authors talked about how textbooks have “distinct complications” such as high expense, denseness, and swarming with historical misrepresentations. As a future teacher, I want to create lessons that not only engage my students but give my students the most accurate description of historical subjects such as Eleanor Roosevelt.

In ELE 3340, we have also discussed primary sources and have actually examined different pieces of writing from historical figures such as Rosa Parks and Helen Keller. In the article, the authors talk about how when students look over historical documents, they can inspect the sources like a historian. Primary source material could ultimately resolve confusion, as well as disagreement. I personally have enjoyed this part of our class discussions the most, and I can definitely see myself integrating primary sources into my future classroom.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article discussing First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt and the possible resources that teachers have used or continue to use when discussing historical topics. As a teacher candidate and future educator, I am aware that there are a lot of false representations of historical figures and events in resources such as textbooks. When I become a teacher, I will make sure to do my own research in finding the most accurate resources for my future students’ benefits. First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt is an extremely significant figure to teach and learn about, and she is just one of the many topics I wish to teach about one day.