[. . .] “No matter what challenges you face, you can overcome them. It doesn’t matter where you came from or who your parents are. That’s what ‘Hamilton’ is about,” said Emma Le, a freshman at Independence High School in San Jose, who was among 20 or so students chosen to perform prior to a “Hamilton” matinee in San Francisco recently. “Alexander Hamilton was an immigrant. He was an orphan. He had nothing. And he did it, he rose to the top.” The “Hamilton” education program, called EduHam, began about two years ago when Ron Chernow, author of “Alexander Hamilton,” the book on which the musical is based, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the musical, approached the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, a nonprofit devoted to history education, about drawing up an educational companion to the Hamilton story. “The founding era used to be the castor oil of history education, but it’s been re-invented as the most fun, most sexy, most relevant part of the history curriculum,” said James Basker, president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Educators and historians at the Gilder Lehrman Institute created a high-school curriculum combining the music and creativity of the play, the historical narrative of Chernow’s book, and original documents available in the institute’s archives, such as the Federalist Papers and Hamilton’s letters to his wife. Students in history, civics, drama, rhetoric or literature classes spend weeks poring over the Hamilton materials, and then – thanks to a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation – the students can see a matinee of “Hamilton” and meet members of the cast. One or two from each high school are selected to perform their original work before the show. The curriculum is available to all schools, but the free tickets are available only to schools where the majority of students come from low-income families, also known as Title I schools. In all, EduHam will reach 250,000 Title I students over the next five years, said James Basker, president of the Institute. [. . .] Jasmine Hussain and Angelica Aguilera, juniors at Hayward High School, were among the 8,000 or so Northern California high-school students to see one of the four EduHam performances in San Francisco. But they were “Hamilton” fans long before their teacher rolled out the Chernow book and played the soundtrack. In fact, they’re the ones who arranged for their school to participate. “My cousin at another high school said she was going, and I was like, no way. I was so jealous,” said Angelica. “So I talked to our teacher and principal, and they said OK. Oh man, we were so excited. We were freaking out. It’s so unreal. I still can’t believe it.” “This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me since the new J.K. Rowling book came out,” said Jasmine, Angelica’s best friend. But even if the principal said no, the pair would have found a way to see the show anyway. “Plan B was a fundraiser,” Jasmine said. “Well, a lot of fundraisers.” Angelica and Jasmine, both daughters of immigrants, said they love the drama and emotion of the Hamilton story, especially the subplots surrounding Hamilton’s wife, Eliza, and her sister. Angelica and two other girls performed a poem they wrote about Eliza’s sister, who was known for her intelligence, wit and independence. [. . .]
'Hamilton' curriculum brings U.S. history to life for high school students (EdSource)
