Jaimee Martin

Jaimee Martin now teaches an AP U.S. Government and Politics class that her former eighth graders helped bring to their school. They wanted another AP option, approached her, and worked with administrators to make it happen. At West Bridgewater Middle-Senior High School, Martin gets to teach those students again, alongside her eighth-grade civics classes.

Her Civics Walks take students to local churches, memorials, and historic sites. A student’s question about the Underground Railroad sent the class looking for answers close to home. They found an 1850 sermon opposing the Fugitive Slave Act, delivered in a church within walking distance of school.

Students read the sermon at the church and compared the Declaration of Independence with a runaway slave advertisement during the walking tour. They examined the gap between the country’s promises and the treatment of people denied freedom, then considered how people in their town had responded. Back at school, students wrote letters to U.S. representatives about humanitarian issues.

“I don’t believe in busy work. I believe in hard work,” Martin says. A childhood trip to Boston’s Freedom Trail sparked her own interest in history. She gives students opportunities to make similar discoveries in their town and put their ideas to work before they’re old enough to vote.