history

Maurice Hilleman was a scientist.  He studied microbiology, single cell organisms that cause infectious diseases, like COVID.  He also created vaccines to protect children.  Use this story to talk about disease and ways that we protect ourselves from disease, including hand washing, wearing masks, social distancing and getting vaccinated.

This story reviews the highlights of Billie Jean King's career in tennis and and social activism. But King was a popular culture icon who was larger than sports.  Women and many minorities who suffered discrimination are still very aware of the contribution she made.  And people who admired athletics and activism hold her in very high esteem and like to talk about her. But sometimes you can turn from a conversation about her to a conversation about the participants and how her work impacted many, many Americans.

Ruby Bridges was the first African American child who attended a white school in the segregated South during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on 14 November, 1960. She is also the subject of a 1964 painting, The Problem We All Live With, by Norman Rockwell. In this video, she talks with President Barack Obama at the Norman Rockwell Museum in front of the iconic picture. Along with the story about the Norman Rockwell Painting, this story can be used to talk about being different, being excluded and belonging, civil rights, history. But you can also use this on a very personal level to talk about the real person in the painting who went to first grade as a little girl.