Teach stories, not statistics, history teacher tells crowd

The Dunedin teacher gives lectures urging parents to make history fun for their kids.

By LORRI HELFAND, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 22, 2003

Hoisting a massive world history book, Dunedin High School teacher Alan Kay started leafing front to back. He stopped on a page crammed with print and only tiny photos.

"Does this look like it's a fun book to read?" he asked 6-year-old Alanna Bell.

"Nah-ah," the girl said, shaking her head.

"We take all these awesome stories of incredible sacrifice and incredible victories and devoid them of all emotion and list it as a bunch of statistics," Kay said, obviously dismayed.

His audience, sitting in a meeting room Tuesday night at Clearwater's North Greenwood Library, nodded in emphatic agreement.

For Kay, it was another night's work, spreading the word that history can and should be brought alive.

An author and longtime history teacher, Kay, 37, visits libraries, bookstores and local schools to talk up history. He calls his appearances Family History Night -- that is, unless it's daytime.

Tuesday, Kay, who also is coordinator of the annual Pinellas County History Fair, stopped by the Greenwood library carrying a box stuffed with his historical novels, free lesson plans, lists of history Web sites and the textbook.

"The idea is not to get rid of the textbooks but use it as a tool instead of the tool," Kay said.

Kay tailors his talks to his audience.

"With the kids, I like to focus on how storytelling is fun, like sitting around a fire telling stories," he said.

He also shares ways that parents can get children excited about history.

And he often slips in a lesson in perseverance. He loves to show a mound of rejection letters he collected before he got a 1999 deal to write Young Heroes of History, a Civil War series published by White Mane Kids. The fourth book in his series, Nowhere to Turn, came out last week.

In Tuesday's audience was Willie Mae Merthie, who was drawn by the subject matter, especially African-American history. She planned to stop by an African-American culture program at her church right after Kay's presentation.

"I've seen a lot of historic changes in the area," Merthie, 57, told the group.

Steve Guss and his wife, Susan, a special education teacher at St. Cecelia School, also came by.

"Any time we see anything relating to history we get excited," Steve Guss said.

After the program, he bought one of Kay's books for his great-niece and Susan Guss stocked up on some free lesson plans for her peers.

Kay will lead another Family History Night at Clearwater Countryside Library on Thursday. His sessions are for anyone, of any age, interested in history.

It's a good way to introduce children to history, according to Jana Fine, the Clearwater Public Libraries youth services manager.

"I think they can gain a sense that history is more than what's in a book," she said. "A lot of personal history is gone. This is an ideal way to get them interested by taking scenes from history and making it personal."

-- Lorri Helfand can be reached at 445-4155 or at lorri@sptimes.com .

If you go:

The next Family History Night will start at 7 p.m. Thursday at Clearwater Countryside Library, 2741 State Road 580. For information, call 462-6800 ext. 239.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright