Welcome to Humanizing History!
Illustration: Humanizing History Visuals.
Welcome to Humanizing History™, a resource for educators and parents who want to talk to kids about race, culture, and our inspiring, collective story
This edition of Humanizing History™ is just over 500 words, an estimated 2.5-minute read.
Why Humanizing History™ Is Needed
Effective storytelling — in the form of facts-based history — can expand awareness, debunk stereotypes, and enhance empathy and connection. How we tell the human story matters, yet teachers and caregivers who want to talk to kids about race and culture face a big challenge: when they were students themselves, they likely did not receive a comprehensive facts-based education on race, U.S. and World history, so the contributions of millions of people people remained hidden.
Humanizing History™ aims to bridge that gap — providing informative, brief, developmentally appropriate, culturally expansive, multiracial histories. It’s an antiracist, humanizing approach to social studies, or how we connect the past to our present — empowering those whose work is inspiring the next generation.
What Matters to Humanizing History™
Humanizing History™ is facts-based and non-partisan. Our focus is not to “delete” history, instead, we aim to expand it. We believe no racial, ethnic, or cultural identity is superior or inferior to another. We also believe in nuance, and that no group is a monolith, meaning there is great diversity within and across social identities, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, and/or culture.
Our approach is “a way” to have a discussion or teach a lesson, it’s not “the only” way.
In our newsletters, we’ll discuss various topics, such as how the human story begins in Africa. We'll share the names of people who made a big impact on our world, though their contributions were often erased. We'll examine sites from long ago — across regions typically overlooked in primary school curricula, such as the Americas before colonization, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Eurasia, Oceania — to better understand how technological and cultural innovations span across time and place, across lines of what we’ve been taught to call “race,” and other forms of identity.
Story by story, we’ll piece together a multiracial, nuanced tapestry of the millions of fingerprints and footprints who came before us — building some of the paths and bridges we find ourselves standing on today.
How Will Humanizing History™ Expand Our Awareness?
Once you sign up for Humanizing History™, every Tuesday, we’ll send you a newsletter.
Every month, our newsletters will have a specific theme (i.e., “Land Shapes People & People Shape Land”).
Each week, our focus will rotate by category:
“Racial Literacy 101” – our newsletters that examine facts and frameworks to expand our understanding of race and antiracist approaches
“Multiracial Hidden Histories” – our newsletters that feature facts-based biographies to highlight contributions of people throughout U.S. and World history
“How To” – our newsletters that feature recommendations for teaching or discussing our humanizing historical content with children
“Field Trip” – our newsletters that highlight significant historic, archaeological, and/or cultural sites around the world
“Banned Together” – our newsletters that feature recommendations for books (including “banned” books) and other resources
Say Hello
We’d love to hear from you! Reach out on our website, or reply to one of our emailed newsletters. Introduce yourself. Share what drew you to Humanizing History™, and what you'd like to learn. While we may not be able to reply to every email, we’ll make sure to read each of them!
Thank you for joining our growing community and expanding how you tell the human story!