Why Teach This?

The Goal of a History Curriculum

At Heroes of La Florida, our goal is to help the heroes of Florida’s future find their footing by learning about the heroes of La Florida’s past. Social studies education provides students with an opportunity to understand the broad movements of society over time and to understand the role of an individual within that society.

At all ages, but especially in childhood, people grasp narratives more easily than they grasp broad concepts. It is our belief that social studies education is strengthened by an emphasis on reading narratives about people living at particular periods.

La Florida History

Every state has a distinctive history. In Florida, we can take pride in a history that is at once captivating, complex, and a challenge. When we teach students about the Spanish La Florida period, we have the opportunity to discuss not only the evils of the exploitative behavior that often characterized Spanish (and European generally) exploration and conquest of the new world, but also the beautiful lives and communities that developed amid the changes of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.

La Florida saw the waning days of the Timucuan and Apalachee cultures, and it saw the dawning of the kind of cultural interchange that characterizes America even to this day. La Florida saw great violence as European wars bled into the New World and as different indigenous peoples warred with one another and with European powers to defend their ways of life.

The activity, complexity, and, often, great sadness of this period of time makes study of Florida history of vital importance for Floridians today. From studying conquistadors, students learn the motives of those who abuse power; other Spaniards offer examples of how to use power for the sake of the powerless. The Apalachee and the Timucua model the maintenance of an individual tribal identity that can persist despite significant changes in belief and lifestyle.

The benefits for your students

Our goal is to teach Florida history by introducing individuals from the past. Our researchers have done extensive study into written documentation of those who lived and died in historical La Florida. This research enables us to tell stories about people instead of simply about nations, which should help to make history important and accessible to young people. More importantly still, the individuals whose lives are described in these works were heroic, highly moral people with virtues worthy of imitation.