Why teaching history matters

In these last days of summer, the fog is hanging over San Francisco and my kids are running wild. Meanwhile, I’m counting the hours until they’re back at the school gate.

After a summer of adventures, our CalMigration team is back in the office, and we’re ready to launch ourselves into a host of new creative projects. But before we get to those, an enormous thank-you to all of you who were able to join us in June for our Melting Spots listening party at Manny’s in the Mission. We loved getting a chance to share some of our favorite stories in-person. More widely, we’ve seen a big public response to Melting Spots, so an additional thank-you to the many restaurant and chef partners, and La Cocina, for helping us to spread the word about immigration history and San Francisco food!

Oh, and one more piece of exciting news—many people have asked us whether the Melting Spots stories will be made available as an audio-only playlist. Well, we’re going one step further: in a few months, we’ll be launching Melting Spots as a podcast miniseries.

Looking back at photos from our launch, June already feels like an age ago. We’re living in a new political reality, and I know I’m not the only one who’s now far more hopeful about the future than I was just a few months ago. Wherever we end up in 2024, our work telling immigration histories will be of vital importance to that future.

And finally, for an inspired perspective on how we teach history and why it matters? I suggest this short NY Times feature on high school geography teacher Tim Walz. It's from 2008, but some things really do age well.

In hope,

Katy Long & the CalMigration Team