The Stories We Know: How Content Knowledge Fuels Learning

(Published in honor of Father's Day)

Captured just after my father’s official swearing-in as Town Supervisor

Growing up, I didn’t realize I was receiving a history education before I ever walked into a classroom. My dad was passionate about history. We lived in an old Revolutionary War-era home, and he filled our days with stories of the past—recounting historical events over dinner, watching Ken Burns documentaries on weekends, and finding ways to turn every family vacation into a historical tour. Whether it was a battlefield, a monument, or a hidden landmark off the side of the road, history was always part of our journey.

But it wasn’t just about dates and events. My dad was also deeply involved in local politics. He believed in the power of government to do good and often talked about justice and civic responsibility. From a young age, we understood the importance of voting, engaging in our community, and standing up for what’s right. In school, history felt familiar because it mirrored the conversations and values I had grown up with at home. I always knew my upbringing played a role, but I didn’t fully grasp the depth of that influence until much later in life.

Now, as an educator, I see how starkly different that experience is for many students. Too many children arrive at school without that background knowledge, without those stories, that context, that foundation. And when we, as a system, respond by narrowing our focus solely to reading and math, we risk widening the gap. One of the biggest mistakes schools make is removing the very subjects that build background knowledge, like social studies and science, in the name of test prep or “intervention time.” In my district, the social studies department had been asked to prioritize reading skills over content for years. While well-intentioned, that shift came at a cost.

Reading is more than decoding. Catts (2021), reminds us that knowledge is essential to comprehension. In fact, he argues that “comprehension depends heavily on the reader’s knowledge of the topic being read” (Catts, 2021). When students lack the necessary background knowledge, even the best reading strategies fall flat. They can decode the words, but they can’t make sense of what they’re reading.

Social Studies teachers gathered outside the historic Kingston Courthouse, highlighting their commitment to education and community engagement.

That’s why this year, we took a different approach. At our Superintendent’s Conference Day, our entire secondary social studies department visited the Kingston Courthouse for professional development with a local historian. Our city is rich with history: the first capital of New York, the burning of the courthouse during the Revolutionary War, and home to influential figures like Sojourner Truth, Ezra Fitch (as in Abercrombie and Fitch), and George Clinton. The courthouse itself is home to many famous court cases, including the Sojourner Truth case. Truth was the first black woman to initiate a case against a white man and win. In 1827 after months of legal proceedings, Truth had her son returned to her after he was illegally sold to an owner in Alabama. In 1777 John Jay met in the courthouse to stage a constitutional convention and draft the state's constitution. These are stories that deserve to be told—and our teachers deserve the knowledge to tell them well. One of our teachers shared, “This was one of the most informative and relevant professional development sessions I’ve had in years. It was such a meaningful use of our time.” Another said they left with specific ideas on how to integrate local history into their curriculum, bringing the past to life for students who may never have heard these stories before.

What this experience reinforced is that teacher knowledge matters. If we want students to learn deeply, we have to equip teachers with the tools, knowledge, and experiences they need to teach deeply. When we provide rich professional learning grounded in content, not just pedagogy, we empower teachers to build the background knowledge that fuels learning for every student.

Let’s not take content areas off the schedule. Let’s teach knowledge. Let’s teach it deeply. Let’s make it stick.

As we celebrate Father’s Day, I want to take a moment to thank my dad, not just for teaching me about history, but for making me love it. For every Ken Burns film he made us watch, for every detour to a historical landmark, and for every story he told that helped me understand how the past shapes our present. Those experiences built a foundation that made learning easier and richer for me.

Schools have the opportunity, and more importantly the responsibility, to provide those kinds of experiences for all students. When we partner with our communities, as we did with our local historian, we can extend that learning to our teachers, too.

Because knowledge isn’t just power, it’s the key to understanding, to connection, and to real, lasting learning.

Reference

Catts, H. W. (2021). The Simple View of Reading: Advancing the Discussion. Reading Research Quarterly, 56(S1), S25–S44. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.411