Living as we do in Cleveland, we often think that the weather is against us personally. Often enough in the course of human events the weather really IS against us. The Dust-Bowl of the 1930's is one of the larger instances of the weather trying to kill America.
From 1930 to 1940 a good deal of the American prairie dried up and flew into the air, creating a huge sea of dust, which wreaked havoc on most of the midwest, ruining the lives of many, many people. As with all great ecological disasters, some amount of blame inevitably falls upon the victims. In the case of the Dust Bowl, people had been farming on shallow soil while using terrible land management techniques. Ignoring sound, time tested strategies such as Crop Rotation, Lying Fallow the settlers has made matters worse by denuding the land of the native prairie grasses, which left the thin layer of topsoil present loose and ready to blow up into the sky.
Of course, human folly is only properly exposed in a calamity. As has been said: When the tide goes out you see who's been swimming naked. When drought came to the midwest the indifferent farming practices of the recent settlers made matters far, far worse. The loose soil sprang up at the merest wind and filled the sky, sometimes billowing as far to the East as New York City. The whole cover of topsoil of the region ended up blowing straight into the Atlantic Ocean.
On to the Lesson:
I - Description: This lesson is meant to teach you about the Dust Bowl, how it came about, how it affected our past society and how it informs our present. It is hoped that you will see the potentially negative effects of human behavior on the environment so that you can come to understand the scope of human activities and their influence on the natural world. You should also see the effects of natural disasters on your countrymen for the unfortunate, terrible and consequential things that they are, it is hoped that you will learn to have some sympathy for people so badly mistreated by the elements. Finally, you should be able to parse value and meaning from Original Primary Sources, as well as to Analyze those Sources successfully.
II - Goals: When we've completed this lesson you should be able to:
a. Explain why why they left the Dust Bowl, where they went, and also explain why some chose to stay.
b. You will be able to use your primary documents as an analytical tool to help you compose a diary entry from the perspective of one of the Dust Bowl's Victims.
c. Geography: You will be able to name and identify the places where the Dust Bowl Struck
d. Ecological Consciousness - You will understand the role that people have played in modifying the environment, sometimes to their dismay.
e. History Analysis: You will be able to read between the lines and discover what true meanings lie behind the Primary Sources.
A. Use Primary Source Material.
B. Explain the specific effects of the Dust Bowl on the greater nation
C. Attempt to understand the plight of those less fortunate
IV - You Will Need: You will need access to the internet and the ability to find and link
text, video and images. You will also need a word
processor. Alternatively you will need a pen, paper and library card.
V - The Lecture Element: In exchange for your participation I promise to educate you about this terrible period of our history as well as I am able.
Think about Dust. Think about it settling over you in a sheet, a blanket, imagine if the whole sky was made of dust. This is what people living in the 1930's in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles dealt with. They lived under the dust. Think of it ruining your water, spoiling your meals, clogging your nose, hurting your lungs. The dust hung in the sky for ten years, and still people stayed and endured it.
Most left. The Dust Bowl caused the greatest migration in American history. Two and a half million people left their homes and everything they couldn't carry behind and they went... West. The dust blew east to the Atlantic, and so the Okies, as they were known pejoratively, went west, to California.
Let's talk about these things...
VI - Group Work: You will now break into groups as I assign you and using the links provided in this entry create your diary entries based on the source material and the lecture. Use photographs, videos, and whatever else you need from the provided links and handouts. In the meantime - here are some musical selections contemporary to the Dust Bowl.
Finally, for the sake of inspiration and comparison - this is the video project of a high school Senior.
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