Amy's Biography
Amy Cohen spent 20 years as a classroom social studies teacher. She began her career teaching World Geography and European History at Abington Junior High School and then moved to Julia R. Reynolds Laboratory and Demonstration School, the top public academic middle and high school in the state. Ms. Cohen served as Social Studies Department Chair. She continued to teach 7th grade World Geography, launched an Urban Studies/Philadelphia History elective for seniors, and was also among the first cohort of educators to teach African American History once it became a graduation requirement.
In her fifth year of teaching, Ms. Cohen was a finalist for Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year (1997). She has also won the Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award from the National Council on Geographic Education (1999), the Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools Award for Excellence (2000), the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (2005), and the Outstanding Educator Award from National History Day Philadelphia in both 2006 and 2015.
While still a classroom teacher, Ms. Cohen avidly sought meaningful professional development experiences. She participated in two Pennsylvania Geographic Alliance summer courses, two Gilder Lehrman Summer Institutes and in National Park Service institutes in both Philadelphia and Little Rock, Arkansas.
She is currently the Director of Education at History Making Productions where she develops educational materials to accompany documentaries about the history of Philadelphia. In this capacity, she has presented professional development sessions to hundreds of teachers and administrators in the Philadelphia region. Furthermore, she has produced two short documentaries, Cecil’s People (about the Girard College Freedom Fighters) and Octavius V. Catto: A Legacy for the 21st Century, both of which won Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards for Historic/Cultural Program Features.
She is also a developer of curriculum for organizations such as the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Mann Music Center, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and PBS Learning. Her work has been published in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s Legacies magazine, the PCSS Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Philadelphia Post. Recently, she became a monthly columnist for Hidden City, an on-line magazine about Philadelphia’s history and built environment.
She is a long-time member of PCSS and NCSS and has presented in numerous conferences at the state, regional, and national level throughout and after her teaching career. In 2009, she was awarded a scholarship through the Pennsylvania Geographic Alliance to present at the National Council Conference for Geographic Education annual meeting. She has also presented at seminars and conferences including the Philadelphia Writing Project, Teach for America, NEH Landmark Institutes, the Association of American Urban Historians, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
For several years, Ms. Cohen has been an active member of the Teacher Advisory Groups of both the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and National History Day Philly.
She wrote a curriculum guide for Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality During Civil War America. Some of these lessons were reprinted in Envisioning Freedom: A Teacher’s Resource, published in conjunction with a Hidden History symposium, “Education in Black & White” Octavius Catto, the Institute for Colored Youth, and the Ongoing Struggle for Education.” She is currently working with Temple Press on a young adult version of the book.
Finally, Amy Cohen has done extensive work with pre-service teachers and has worked as an adjunct professor in the education programs at Temple University, Drexel University, and Haverford and Bryn Mawr colleges.
She was born and raised in Philadelphia and currently lives in the Mount Airy neighborhood with her husband and two teenaged daughters.
Future of Social Studies in Pennsylvania
“Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong” is the provocative title an article by Natalie Wexler in the August 2019 issue of The Atlantic. Using solid data, Wexler argues that the emphasis on teaching reading and math skills in isolation—as is common in most American elementary schools—has not only pushed science and social studies out of the curriculum but has also failed to improve students’ reading skills. Sadly, the impact is greatest on the students of lesser socio-economic status.
When teachers base reading lessons on content (such as a scientific concept or a historical event) rather than discrete reading skills (such as finding the main point of a paragraph), students become more interested in what they are reading and more aware of the world around them. “Children usually find these topics—including and perhaps especially the historical ones—far more engaging than a steady diet of skills,” asserts Wexler. This is especially important for children from impoverished families who are less likely to learn about these concepts at home.
As a Pennsylvania social studies educator, I advocate for a reprioritization of history and civics in elementary school classrooms. This would provide a solid base on which to build knowledge and understanding as students progress through middle and high school. Furthermore, integrating a strong social studies component into the elementary curriculum will help to make Pennsylvania’s education system more equitable. As a state comprised of markedly poor urban and rural sectors and notably wealthy suburbs, a vast achievement gap has for too long been a salient characteristic of Pennsylvania’s educational landscape.
Amy Cohen
August 2019