Works in Progress: Letters to Lincolnby Jim Amidon '87 |
| Printer-friendly version | Email this article |
|
"It was cool to watch the kids playing, running around outside, climbing trees, even fighting," the teacher education student recalls. "They formed their own groups, played games, set rules, and solved problems. It was amazing to see the creativity develop in them. It was so unstructured, but yet there was a discipline to it."
About the same time he was corresponding with several of his senior football teammates, who were similarly trying to set up a disciplined, yet unstructured summer鈥攐ne that would prepare them for a 2007 season of great promise.
Knowing that his teammates were sweating out 6 a.m. training workouts throughout the spring, Gardiner tried to stay in shape in Copenhagen. But he longed to be horsing around with his friends and football brothers, just like the Danish kindergartners he was observing. He became determined to land a summer internship on campus so that he could spend time with fellow senior defensive standouts Adi Pynenberg and Andy Deig.
Then he found online the Krache Fund for undergraduate research related to military history. He didn鈥檛 know exactly what he was signing up for, but as a history major he figured it couldn鈥檛 be that bad. He had no idea that the internship would become a life-changing experience.
Gardiner鈥檚 Krache Fund internship with 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 archivist Beth Swift focused on the papers of Illinois Governor and later Senator Richard Yates, a Civil War-era Whig-turned-Republican.
Winfred A. Harbison 鈥�24, 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 graduate and professor at Wayne State University, had collected the rare documents and had begun to write Yates鈥� biography when he fell ill and died. His son, Stanley Harbison, gave the complete collection to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播. The papers sat in the College Archives鈥攍argely unexamined鈥攗ntil Gardiner鈥檚 summer internship.
"I had no idea of the magnitude of the work until I walked into the Archives that first day," he recalls. "That work would become the most pivotal academic experience of my whole life. It鈥檚 affected every aspect of my 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 career."
As a historian and aspiring high school teacher, Gardiner was like a kid in a candy shop as he cracked open envelopes that contained letters Yates had sent to his friend in Washington, Abraham Lincoln. He also researched documents related to the Andrew Johnson impeachment trial, Reconstruction, and Yates鈥� personal battles with alcoholism.
The opportunity for an undergraduate history major to source and catalog such important documents is about as rare as the pristine documents themselves. His appreciation for original source material came from his mentors in the history department.
"When I first came to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播, I wanted to do business, so I was looking at majoring in rhetoric or economics," says Gardiner, whose hometown鈥檚 name (Monticello, IN) has an historical ring of its own. "Just before my sophomore year, I started helping out with my high school football program, and I knew then that I wanted to do something that would allow me to interact with people. Teaching and coaching felt like a perfect fit."
His early classroom experiences with professors Rick Warner and Michelle Rhoades reinforced the kindling desire. They taught him much about effective writing and how to look at information in a different light, Gardiner says.
"Here at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播, you have the opportunity to really analyze the texts and have heated arguments about topics, which just sharpens your critical thinking skills. And I learned from Dr. Rhoades that it鈥檚 okay to be critical of an historian if you can support your argument with source materials."
The Harbison Collection allowed Gar-diner to do exactly that鈥攖o refute what other historians had written about Yates.
Swift鈥檚 encouragement of Gardiner drove his work.
"She鈥檚 not only one of the nicest people I鈥檝e ever met, her enthusiasm spreads to everything she does," he says. "She taught me important archival skills, but like my coaches, she never let me do anything halfway; she was a great influence for me."
Gardiner spent the fall semester harassing opposing running backs and quarterbacks on 新澳门六合彩开奖直播鈥檚 11-2 conference championship football team. He also spent a fair amount of time wowing audiences with presentations of his research of Richard Yates. One of his lectures was featured during Founders鈥� Week, which commemorated 新澳门六合彩开奖直播鈥檚 175th anniversary. With every presentation, Gardiner鈥檚 confidence grew and his style as a teacher began to emerge.
He still has one semester remaining to finish up his student teaching to become certified, but he hopes that his experiences wallowing in 新澳门六合彩开奖直播鈥檚 archives, analyzing historical documents, and refuting the work of fellow historians will pay off.
Asked if he felt honored to be among the first persons to unpack nearly 150-year-old documents, Gardiner seems to know the significance on a personal level.
"Conducting that research gave me a true appreciation for what I鈥檓 studying at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 and made me certain that I not only chose the right major but the right career path."
|
Justin Gardiner spent 50 hours last spring with an overseas child development program observing Danish kindergarten children as part of his preparation to become a high school teacher and coach. He remembers how laid back and unstructured the class was, likening it to an American Montessori program.