National History Day Helps 600,000 Kids Bring the Past to Life

On June 18, 2015, awards were presented for the 41st annual National History Day Contest at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. More than 600,000 students from around the world competed in five categories: documentaries, exhibits, papers, performances, and websites.

What drew nearly 3,000 middle and high school students to present their work at the final competition related to the 2015 theme, “Leadership and Legacy in History?” What inspires a passion in history in the contestants from 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and international schools in Central America, China, Korea, and South Asia?

That’s what National History Day Executive Director Dr. Cathy Gorn (pictured above with President Obama) explains in this month’s Q&A with Grateful American™ Foundation founder David Bruce Smith, and executive producer Hope Katz Gibbs. Scroll down for more.

Hope Katz Gibbs: Tell us about this interesting organization. When was it founded? What is its mission?

Cathy Gorn: National History Day was founded in 1974 by Dr. David Van Tassel on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Professor Van Tassel was worried about the decline of the humanities in general, and history in particular, in America’s schools. Van Tassel was particularly distressed by the boring, rote memorization he saw in most history classrooms. He wanted to invigorate the teaching and learning of history. National History Day is the means. The program, for students in grades 6 through 12. teaches students to become historians, which is what makes history come alive. It’s the antithesis of learning history by memorization. They conduct research in archives and libraries; they do oral history interviews. Then they compile their research into a project related to an annual theme. This year it was “Leadership and Legacy in History.” Students enter their projects in the National History Day contest at a local level. Winners move to the state competition, and the top contestants come to the national contest. ...