GLC Teacher Spotlight Series: Kevin Staton

Yale GLC: An Impactful Legacy

By Kevin Staton (Fairfield Public Schools, CT)

My connection to the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale (GLC) can actually be traced back to my family legacy in terms of the Great Migration. My mother was part of the last wave of southern migrants that arrived in the late 1960s to work at places like Winchester, Pratt & Whitney, American Linen, or Southern New England Telephone for example. As these companies began to lay off workers, she used her experience as a registered nurse in the military to gain employment at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Conversely, many of the parents of my childhood friends were also employed by Yale University,  and these parents as well as my own benefitted from a rental program through the university for employees that allowed my mother to rent a  home on Mansfield Street near Ingalls rink. This proximity to Yale University would produce a familiarity that would benefit me as a New Haven resident and eventually as a participant in the GLC program, because I understood the value of having access to the resources of Yale University at a young age.

I first became involved in Yale GLC programming in 2006 after I had been teaching for a decade at the elementary and middle school levels. I was in the process of being certified to teach high school, so I was actively looking for programs that would enrich my content knowledge while also providing strategies that would enhance my pedagogical development. At the time of my involvement in GLC I was teaching World History at the middle school level, but several teachers from my school were also GLC participants with me as US History teachers. The initial workshops centered on Transatlantic Slave Trade, and it was a blend of scholarship, teaching strategies, and connections with like-minded educators who shared a profound appreciation for history, especially the contextualization of historical events. There are many of my fellow participants who are not just colleagues but part of an intricate supportive network that has evolved and withstood the test of time for almost two decades now.

I would be remiss if I did not share past experiences from my involvement with GLC, beginning with a student-centered experience that the scholarly aspects of the program influenced. In 2017 the Yale Beinecke Library had an exhibit called Gather Out of Star-Dust: The Harlem Renaissance. At the time I was collaborating with some ELA teachers on a project that would not only expand student knowledge about the artists, musicians, and literary figures of the time period but also provide opportunities for student inquiry into factors that shaped this epoch in American history. Through the networks I developed as a GLC participant, I collaborated with the GLC and Beinecke on a “scavenger hunt” that incorporated the ELA standards of the district while  students were  assisted throughout the activity by Beinecke staff members who engaged the students in critical analysis of the exhibit artifacts. At the close of the activity the students spoke about how they planned to return on their own time to examine the various artifacts without time constraints, and we all know how vital it is to motivate students to seek out information on their own, especially primary sources. The very next year I was selected by the GLC to participate in a cohort with teachers from Sierra Leone, which was life-altering to say the least. Whether it was communing with the spirits of my enslaved ancestors at Bunce Island, spending the day at the marketplace in Freetown, or having the people of Kabala celebrate me as their “long lost brother” from 400 years ago and then guide me up Wara Wara Mountain in the footsteps of those who would not allow themselves to be captured and sold into slavery, I cannot put into words how grateful I am for the opportunities afforded me as a participant in the GLC program. I am entering my 30th and final year as a public school educator, and I would advise any educator to take advantage of the resources GLC will provide as early in your career as possible. 

To Learn More About Kevin Staton’s work, please explore the links down below:

They Have Taken Helm’s Deep: Protecting School’s Libraries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc6tZlHPeKs&list=PLz5Zqpy28ynEPAxW-IdyGLs0I401dbP7P&index=9