Bringing 'Lincoln' to the Classroom

Emancipation Digital Classroom explores Steven Spielberg’s 'Lincoln'

by Tony Moore

The 85th-annual Academy Awards presentation will take place on Sunday, Feb. 24, and in the running across 12 categories is Steven Spielberg's epic Civil War drama Lincoln. And while Lincoln's Oscar fate is still undecided, teachers across the United States already have been embracing the film as an educational tool, with a little help from a project under way at Dickinson.

Facilitating the classroom exploration of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation—which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year—is a new online tool called the Emancipation Digital Classroom, developed by Associate Professor of History and Brian C. Pohanka '77 Chair in American Civil War History Matthew Pinsker as part of his House Divided project.

The Emancipation Digital Classroom offers an in-depth look at the overarching history of the emancipation era, using several resources, among them Spielberg's Lincoln.

"Spielberg's movie recreates mood and atmosphere," says Pinsker. "If kids can visualize and imagine how history unfolded, perhaps they'll become more interested in it."

The film's educational use is heightened by the Emancipation Digital Classroom's "Unofficial Teacher's Guide to Spielberg's Lincoln," which features a scene-by-scene summary of Tony Kushner's Oscar-nominated script, analysis of artistic license taken by the filmmakers and historians' reaction to the work. The Teacher's Guide, which also features side-by-side comparisons of historical figures and the actors who play them in the film, has already been used in classrooms across the country.

The Emancipation Digital Classroom, while broad in scope itself, is part of the broader House Divided project. House Divided has served as an online repository of digital American Civil War resources for K-12 and undergraduate classrooms, and since its 2011 public launch it has had more than 500,000 unique visitors, a number surely to rise with Lincoln's box office and Oscar successes.

photo © Dreamworks 2012 

Published February 21, 2013