GRANDVIEW, Mo. — As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare for another AFC Championship Game, the team's success on the field is helping teachers incorporate new lessons into the classroom.
Jamie Frye teaches American history at Grandview Middle School.
She says her eighth-grade class is currently discussing the Revolutionary War — talking about enemies, both foreign and domestic.
"And I wanted to bring in some local history by tying in the Chiefs with the game coming up this weekend, to bring in a little local history with the Chiefs having won the first Super Bowl back in 1969," Frye said. "Then talking about modern-day differences between groups of people and the idea of segregation, which was in the Revolutionary War. It's going through the Civil Rights movement in the 60s and even still present ... today."
Frye says seeing that representation on the field plays a key part in teaching students because the lessons learned are expanded outside of the classroom.
"When they can see young African American, young Caucasian and Hispanic people being successful and seeing them on TV and seeing them do the things they're passionate about, they become passionate and they become invested not only in their community but in their own education and their own self worth and confidence," Frye said. "Which as a teacher, that's something that I go for. I mean I teach American history, but I also teach 13-year-olds how to be people in the world."
