Barbara Ann Mojica Little Miss History

Barbara Ann Mojica

[00:00:00] Barbara Ann Mojica: Uh, a book like Ford's Theater,

but I talk about the museums that are a part of Ford's theater. We talk about some of the, uh, again, characters that aren't as well known.

[00:00:26] So I talk about, um, Anderson, um, Ruffin Abbott, who was an, uh, African American surgeon. He volunteered his services, uh, during the Civil War. He never actually enlisted, they didn't allow him to enlist as a surgeon. But he volunteered and he was one of the first African American black surgeons in the country.

[00:00:51] He was at Ford's theater when Lincoln was shot. And he was there on a date with Mary Todd Lincoln's maid, who was a freed black woman, Elizabeth Keckley. And he was there and witnessed the assassination. So, you know, we, he, he even remained a friend of the family and he, and they, um, Mary Lincoln gave him a shawl that had belonged to Lincoln.

[00:01:19] There's all kinds of threads of history that I try to make children aware of that, you know, it, it's not just this textbook with a, with a lot of information in it. It's real everyday living experience.

[00:01:46] Ed Watters: To overcome, you must educate. Educate not only yourself, but educate anyone seeking to learn. We are all Dead America, we can all learn something. To learn, we must challenge what we already understand, the way we do that is through conversation. Sometimes we have conversations with others, however, some of the best conversations happen with ourself. Reach out and challenge yourself; let's dive in and learn something right now.

[00:02:37] Today we are speaking with Barbara Ann Mojica, she is the author of a book series titled, Little Miss History. Barbara, could you please introduce yourself, let people know just a little bit more about you, please?

[00:02:52] Barbara Ann Mojica: Hi. Thank you so much, Ed, for inviting me to the podcast today and I'm very happy to have the opportunity to speak with your listening audience. I am, as you said, an author, but I am also a parent, a grandparent, I am a teacher with a 40 year career in education. I've worked both with children in the general education setting and with children who have very distinct special needs. So at the beginning of my career, I taught , uh, in elementary school and I realized that there were so many children whose needs were not being met.

[00:03:37] So I went back to school and I took courses in special education. I got a, a degree in special education and I went into that field. I started working with children who had severe needs like Autism, and Fragile X, and Down syndrome. And I learned so, so much from working with a multidisciplinary staff of speech therapists, and occupational therapists, and psychologists and it kind of filled out my career.

[00:04:11] I eventually became a principal in special education and an administrator to be at the other end, actually getting the services for the children who needed them. So, uh, I, I had a long kind of circuitous career and when I finally did, quote, retire, I didn't last very long in retirement. I decided I wanted to

[00:04:41] keep doing pretty much what I had been doing on a more informal basis. So I started, uh, writing a series of books, uh, combining my two loves. My undergraduate and graduate degrees originally were in history, so I've always loved finding out about people and places and why people did the things they did and why, uh, they initiated all of these wonderful discoveries that led to the modern world today.

[00:05:11] So I loved history. And now I'm combining my love of history with my love of teaching. So I write a series of non-fiction books, but I want to make learning history fun because most kids when they think of history they say, ugh, you know, just a series of facts and events and all of this stuff. Why do I have to learn this anyway?

[00:05:34] And I wanted to show them that history is not a series of facts and events, but it is dynamic and that we are all part of history. So when I speak to children, I tell them, you are a character in history from the day you're born. Because history is about real people just like us, who got up in the morning, who ate, who

[00:06:01] had to find some way of supporting themselves and their families. And taken all together, this is, is a part of all of us. And then I tell them, well, you know, everything in the world has a history. So history is a part of anything that you can think of. It's a part of art, it's a part of music, it's a part of architecture, it's

[00:06:28] any, any kind of thing that exists has a history, it has, it has a previous past. And if we want to understand how we got to where we are today and possibly plan for a better future, we have to know our history. Cause how can we understand where we are or where we're going if we don't know where we've been. So that was my, uh, my premise

[00:06:57] for writing the series. And what I try to do is I try to get children to be critical thinkers because I think one of the things that's missing in education today, we are all concerned about, what we are teaching. And we're teaching to the common core, we're teaching to the test, we're trying to meet this arbitrary standard, and again, we're not accounting for the learning styles of individual children. But we're also not teaching them how to think.

[00:07:34] So we have to become critical thinkers. And if we're going to be a success in life, we have to learn how to think critically. Because we cannot succeed in anything unless we have these skills. So my books are written with those things in mind and I approach my subjects with, uh, a character who narrates the series,

[00:08:00] that's how I make it fun. So I have a character, Little Miss History, hence the name of the series. Little Miss History travels too, she is the narrator and she takes children on an adventure. And not only does she take them on this adventure, but she also introduces them to other types of discipline. So in my books, the kinds of, um, subjects that I

[00:08:30] choose always involve other fields. Uh, so some of my books go to Science, some of my books go to Geography, some of my books go to Nature and Wildlife. Uh, some of them explore, uh, Modern day issues, like issues of Native American rights or uh, blacks in history who have been ignored in the past and their stories might have been hidden.

[00:09:02] Uh, and I always try to bring those people and issues to the forefront. And, uh, my character is, is an incarnation of a past life of mine because she's a version of, a younger version of myself. So my illustrator created her based on me, and my illustrator does know me well because my illustrator happens to be my husband, who has been an artist since the age of five.

[00:09:32] So, uh, she wears these rose colored glasses because she has an optimistic view of the world. Uh, sees the glass always half full rather than empty. That's another thing in education, we sometimes don't teach children to be positive thinkers, we're always teaching them to look at the negative side. Uh, she wears these hiking boots because she's wearing kind of a park [00:10:00] ranger hiker's outfit.

[00:10:02] And I used to love to hike. Uh, the, the large boots are in memory of my dad who had huge feet. So that, that's a little bit of my family in there. And I love to travel so all of those things are an incorporation of my, uh, my interests and a little bit of me in the book. So she takes them on the adventures,

[00:10:25] she asks them questions. My books are kind of interactive because I bring up these issues, and people and places, and I ask children's opinions on things throughout the books. And when I do have the opportunity to go into the classroom, I, uh, garner my discussions with this in mind. And I try to elicit the children, uh, in those discussions. So that's just a little bit.

[00:10:56] Ed Watters: So, do you have a favorite book that you've written, or are they all your babies?

[00:11:02] Barbara Ann Mojica: Well, that's kind of like asking me which one is your favorite child?

[00:11:08] Ed Watters: Exactly.

[00:11:09] Barbara Ann Mojica: Uh, I, you know, I have some that are, I, I would say I'm, I was more enthused about than others. I love, um, the Sequoia National Park book, uh, and, because that one involves, uh, as I said, multidisciplinary thinking. So I have there, uh, the trees, the uh, the, uh, Sequoia trees, I talk about Sequoia trees and Redwood trees, how they're the same and the different, how they grow from, from seeds, uh, and how they're sometimes spread by the wind. I have

[00:11:50] diagrams and pictures that, uh, show the children the contrast. I talk about who came to Sequoia National Park, how it was originally, uh, inhabited by Native Americans, and they guided the early explorers to the park. So then I talk about the early explorers and we talk about the nature in the park. We, we talk about the kind, uh, uh, of wildlife you would find.

[00:12:18] Uh, and then I bring up the questions, um, about people and places within the book to, you know, elicit children's opinions. And we also talk about the, uh, the pollution because the, uh, it's one of the most beautiful parks, uh, yet it is the most polluted park in the National Park system. And they sometimes post a sign, that it's unhealthy to breathe the air here.

[00:12:46] In fact, when they hire people to work there, they give them this, uh, warning ahead of time that there is, um, an, sometimes an abnormal amount of pollution. So I talk about that and I ask the children, well, what do they think about these problems? The pollution was, is caused because it's in the industrial valley with all the, uh, the,

[00:13:10] the trucking routes and the, the freight lines. And, and I even have a, a Little Miss History wearing a kind of gas mask to, to really illustrate the point. So in my books that we use multimedia, so Little Miss History is that character that's drawn, hand drawn, and she's in many of the episodes, the pages. But there are also in almost all of my books, with the exception of a few, like the North Pole, which I have not personally visited,

[00:13:42] uh, we use actual photography. So we visit sites, uh, we take, uh, photographs. So there are, it's a combination of portraits of people, uh, photography, uh, and mixed media. So that's another thing that I think makes them more appealing to children. It's a mix of the old and a mix of what technology we now have in, in the modern world as well.

[00:14:16] Ed Watters: Yeah. Very interesting what you've done. Uh, I noticed you go through battleships, you have one on Hyde Park. You know Hyde Park is very interesting and what, what Roosevelt actually, uh, did there. So how do you come up with the books subjects? Like do you have a whole list of them or do they just come up and you, Hey, I'm gonna write a book about this?

[00:14:52] Barbara Ann Mojica: Well, they mostly,

[00:14:53] Ed Watters: How do you come up with the material?

[00:14:55] Barbara Ann Mojica: A combination of some of them are iconic historical sites that, uh, you know, would be recognizable to everybody like the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore. Uh, others are, I think more of, uh, those that children with a particular kind of focus or interest might, might want to see.

[00:15:20] So I try to do a combination, uh, of the familiar and the unfamiliar or, uh, a, a little bit of a variation of subject. And as I said, I, I tend to be very multidisciplinary and I see, again, history as a reality, everyday people involved in everyday things. So I have a book like on the La Brea tar pits and children that are interested in pre-history or archeology are very into that

[00:15:51] book. And I even have a four, four year old fan who just adores, uh, fossils. And, and he actually sent me a drawing of, of, you know, what he learned from reading the book and, which is really, really cute. Uh, but, you know, so that's a specific history, uh, you know, that area is pre-history. So that's the only book I have on pre-history.

[00:16:17] But again, that book is very diverse because I also include the museum. So we talk about scientists and how they work and I show them a picture of the scientists working outside in the pits and also working inside where they're cleaning the fossils. And if you visit there, you can actually watch the scientists in what they call the fish bowl. Cause it's a glass enclosure,

[00:16:45] the children can see the scientists working. They can see them outside, they can go into, outside and see the, the fossils that are still in the pits. Then they can come inside and they can see these reconstructions of these mammoth creatures, or watch a film about the mammoth creatures, or walk in the garden.

[00:17:07] They have recreated a prehistoric garden, so they recreated this garden space with the kinds of plants that were growing for 40, uh, you know, thousand years ago. So, uh, we can, you know, kind of experience it in a multitude of ways. So, so that's an example of a book that appeals to a more specific

[00:17:33] interest. And then again, uh, a book like Ford's Theater, I have a book on Lincoln's assassination at Ford's theater and the theater itself. So I focus not specifically on the assassination, though that's a part of the story, but I talk about the museums that are a part of Ford's theater. We talk about some of the,

[00:17:59] uh, again, characters that aren't as well known. So I talk about, um, Anderson, um, Ruffin Abbott, who was an, uh, African American surgeon. He volunteered his services, uh, during the Civil War. He never actually enlisted, they didn't allow him to enlist as a surgeon. But he volunteered and he was one of the first African American black surgeons in the country.

[00:18:26] He was at Ford's theater when Lincoln was shot. And he was there on a date with Mary Todd Lincoln's maid, who was a freed black woman, Elizabeth Keckley. And he was there and witnessed the assassination. So, you know, we, he, he even remained a friend of the family and he, and they, um, Mary Lincoln gave him a shawl that had belonged to Lincoln. There's all kinds of threads of history that I try to make children aware of that, you know, it, it's not just this textbook with a, with a lot of information in it. It's real everyday living experience.

[00:19:16] Ed Watters: So how did you discover the story behind the story like that with the slave and the doctor being at Ford's Theater? How did you obtain that history?

[00:19:31] Barbara Ann Mojica: Well, in, just in, in doing research about Ford's Theater, I came across that, that story. I just came across that, uh, Anderson Abbott Ruffin was there and then I researched him and I had seen the shawl in the, in one of the museums. So, um, I connected all the dots with that. So that's what I mean, like, I kind of tried to [00:20:00] pull

[00:20:00] more of the story, more, put more of the threads of the story together when I find things like that. Um, in that story also I talk about, um, uh, some of the, uh, the literary references that the theater, how John Wilkes Booth was, Booth was an actor, uh, and, uh, how that influenced him. And I talk about, um, , also the curse of the theater.

[00:20:34] So Ford's Theater for many years was believed to be cursed. And it was virtually locked and shuttered for many years after the assassination. And after many, many years they finally started to use it again. But then they had all kinds of accidents and, and, you know, it, it, that's another part, a little part of the story.

[00:20:58] So, um, that's also something that children are interested in, oh, what could, you know, what could this curse be? So it, I talk about the history, how it was originally bought by John Ford, and, and how there was a fire and it burned down right away in its early history. And then he made it even better, he wanted to make it an Athenaeum to like, modeled on ancient Greek theaters and he built it

[00:21:28] bigger and better. And then the story of, you know, what happened, the assassination, the curse, and, and all of that. So we talk a little bit about that. We talk a little bit about the Civil war and, and how it was ended and the irony of how one of the first battles and one, and, and the signing of, the end of the war at Appomattox.

[00:21:54] It wasn't really at a courthouse, it was at the McLean house. And how they say that the war began on the front porch and ended on the back steps of, of his porch. So it, it's just kind of storytelling, uh, and, and making, uh, history something that's more palatable, more amenable to them. Uh, and, and then again, try, trying to use those skills that a child has uh, and develop them. You know, uh, children have insatiable curiosity, and that's one of the things I think we should be, curious till the day we die. Um, we should always be learning something new no matter how old we get. But children are just

[00:22:43] Ed Watters: That's right.

[00:22:43] Barbara Ann Mojica: little sponges, they just, you know, they wanna learn about everything. But in the process of guiding them to learn, we have to teach them, when they're thinking, how to think, how to learn that there are, is always more than one side to a story, there's always more than one avenue to explore. And that's so difficult today with, uh, our instant modern communication system, of course, they're used to going to the internet, typing in a question and getting the answer. And as soon as they get the answer, oh, well, this is the answer.

[00:23:26] Do they take it a step further to see, well, there might be another answer, there might be another opinion? Well, what's the difference between a fact and opinion? Something else that is very important to teach children. Uh, uh, we are so opinionated today, uh, we go on social media, uh, we look at the opinions that are presented there.

[00:23:53] Sometimes we don't get all the, all, all of the information on social media. Again, the algorithms give us a certain amount of information, but they don't present all of the information. They don't give us all the points of view, so what happens is we see certain points of view over and over again. These become the accepted points of view, then that becomes almost our bias, or our way of thinking. Again, not teaching children critical

[00:24:28] Ed Watters: I agree.

[00:24:28] Barbara Ann Mojica: thinking. So, uh,

[00:24:30] Ed Watters: Yes.

[00:24:30] Barbara Ann Mojica: you know, parents can play a part in that. Uh, and parents of course are our first teachers, our most important teachers. And, uh, well, I think one of the most important skills of parenting is being a good mentor, uh, more than, uh, you know, this authoritarian figure. Of course, children have to respect their parents and they have to learn that their parents are allowed to exercise a certain amount of control. But at the same time, parents have to teach children that there is more than one side to every story, there's more than one point of view. And if they're constantly imposing their point of view on a child, they're not allowing them to think and grow. What they should be saying is, this is what I think, what do you think about it? You know, and depending upon the age of the child, you can develop that, you know, curiosity and that,

[00:25:39] Ed Watters: Yes.

[00:25:39] Barbara Ann Mojica: that, giving them the feeling that they can have a point of view. They might be right, they might be wrong. We have to teach children that there's a certain amount of negotiation in situations and if, if they want to be a leader, they have to learn to negotiate, there has to be give and take. And I think parents have to show that with their children, I mean, not that you're going to negotiate every little issue, but at times you can ask the child, well, I think you should do this, but can you give me an argument for changing my mind? For instance, suppose a child wants to go to a sleepover party or they wanna go to a party and they wanna stay out later than they're normally supposed to stay out. Uh, you could ask them, well, can you give me a good reason for that?

[00:26:36] Oh, well, because everybody's going to be going to the movies, and then they're going to come back to the house and they're going to have pizza, and after that all the children are gonna go home. Well, then you might want to rethink, well, maybe in this one instance you can stay out a little bit later, you know, giving them the sense that you can be fair about things. That there's not, you know, always one answer. There's always, um, there's always a way to communicate, you know? Uh, To express your opinion and see the different sides. And the same thing with what children are watching, uh, or what they're seeing on, on the internet, or in the news, showing them, again, that's an opinion that somebody has. Is that a fact, because they say it's so? You know, teaching them the difference between facts and opinions. Uh,

[00:27:43] Ed Watters: Yes.

[00:27:43] Barbara Ann Mojica: that's one of the things I try to do.

[00:27:45] Ed Watters: And, and active participation. You know, the, the participation factor there, allowing them to initiate the outcome themselves, that's very important. You know, and a lot of parents, they don't allow that participation in understanding why, why is this good? Why is this bad? The critical thinking. It's very, very interesting how you've put that together.

[00:28:17] Barbara Ann Mojica: And I think it, it's important to allow children a certain boldness to try new things and let them see that they're going to succeed at some and they're going to fail at some. Uh, you know?

[00:28:32] Ed Watters: Yes.

[00:28:33] Barbara Ann Mojica: I, and that's a very, very important part of growing up and learning

[00:28:40] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:28:41] Barbara Ann Mojica: to be, uh, a responsible adult. And again, that's one of the skills you need in leadership, right? You have to have compassion, but you also have to realize that there has to be a certain amount of risk taking. Uh, not that you want to show a child that they need to take unnecessary risks. But, it's okay

[00:29:08] Ed Watters: Right.

[00:29:08] Barbara Ann Mojica: to try something different, it's okay. Uh, and it's okay if it doesn't always work out, you know? Uh, uh, children need to understand that change is an important part of life and, uh, sometimes change is good. Uh, you know, children tend to be fearful of change, you know, uh, especially a change, like a move.

[00:29:32] You know, they, they, they are, uh, accustomed to their friends, they're accustomed to their life situation and, you know, they, they don't wanna try something new. But sometimes it turns out that it's wonderful. They make wonderful new friends, and they love their new school, and

[00:29:51] Ed Watters: Yeah.

[00:29:52] Barbara Ann Mojica: it, it turns out it's a great experience.

[00:29:56] Ed Watters: Yeah, life it, it's funny how we have to live it, [00:30:00] you know? But we all have to go through those funny times in life. And having a good teacher, a good moral backing behind you to help you along the way, not hold your hand all the way, but just when you need that helping hand, it, it, it's a lost art in today's society. You know, you can't even walk down the street alone as a child now. You, you know, when I was a child, I, I used to go miles from home and be, be out until dark. You don't get that opportunity and that, that learning that is involved in that freedom, it's just something that is missing today, and that's unfortunate, you know, because that freedom of going out and observing, learning for yourself and not having somebody there to hold your hand all the time, that's when you're going to really learn that critical thinking and you know, the rights and the wrongs. Is this gonna hurt? It might. So, yeah, I, I really enjoy what you brought up there. I, I think, uh, learning lessons in life, it's not always easy. So what do you have coming up for people next, Barbara?

[00:31:39] Barbara Ann Mojica: Well, as far as my book series, uh, the next book will be Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello. So we'll be exploring his home, the fascinating roles that he played in history, in addition to being president, and writer of the Declaration of Independence, his experiences with, uh, African Americans and the black culture. And how, uh, there is a very interesting project going on, uh, doing oral histories with the, uh, descendants of Thomas Jefferson.

[00:32:16] And he had, again, like most people of the age, he had a very complicated structure of thinking. Uh, he was a talented architect, he was, uh, again, uh, had a great interest in farming. Um, a part of his culture, the way of thinking at the time, the southern gentleman and his, uh, experience with the plantation system. Uh, again, uh, he, he was a complicated personality with that as well. Uh, we talk about what happened to Monticello through the ages, how it changed and evolved. Uh, we talk about people and the issues. We talk a little bit about some of Jefferson's influences in other parts of our history, like the Smithsonian Institution. Uh, his relationships with other people of, of the time,

[00:33:28] uh, and so on. Uh, I have other drafts of books, uh, already in progress. I, as you mentioned, I do have some books on military history, uh, be, I find military history fascinating for children because again, it involves, usually when I'm talking about military history, I'm talking about a whole series of issues that involve not just the United States, but world history. So I have a book on the Intrepid, the Intrepid is a museum today. It took part in world, uh, in, in World War II, the Vietnam War, it took part in the Space Age as a recovery vessel for capsules, took part in anti submarine warfare during the Cold War, has a whole plethora of issues. Children that go to the Intrepid can have a very hands-on experience with history because they go to, um, , the Exploreum where they can get into a helicopter that was used during the Vet, Vietnam War.

[00:34:42] They could see a space capsule that was returned, they can see the Enterprise space shuttle on the flight deck, they can look at planes from World War I and World War II, they could see movies of how life was then. Again, it's a very multi-dimensional experience. So I have a book on the Iowa, the Battleship Iowa as well, which has a, an unique history. I'm going to do a book on the Slater, the USS Slater is, uh, the surviving destroyer of, uh, world War II. And that also has a very, very unique and complex history and you can still visit it today, uh, and that is an, a wonderful experience. There are a group of volunteers who are restoring every part of it

[00:35:36] and it is fascinating. It, again, it, it's a view into everyday life, uh, and how, how it would've been because the destroyers during World War II were protecting the Merchant Marine, uh, they were protecting the military, and they were such an important part of our winning the war, so that's another fascinating experience. I am teaching a lot. Uh, during Covid when I wasn't able to get out into the classrooms at all or do book events and get out and meeting children, I did a lot of videos. So I have, uh, teaching videos for parents and teachers on my YouTube channel, I have videos of history for, for kids told by kids, and I have videos on the national parks and different aspects of history.

[00:36:35] Um, what's a fact, what's an opinion? How you can tell the difference? How you can be, little videos on how to be a good citizen, so all kinds of teaching videos. Uh, and on my blog I review literature, uh, family friendly books. So books for toddlers, preschoolers, elementary age, all the way up. I do book reviews and, uh, provide lists of things, uh, that I would recommend. So I have tips and tricks on my blog as well. Uh, and I'm active on social media again, sharing advice. Pinterest, I have Pinterest board for parents and teachers and, um, I share all kinds of things on my Facebook and Instagram. So I'm just trying to provide all kinds of opportunities for children to developed their critical thinking. And aids for parents, and teachers, and even authors. Uh, I share a little bit of my experience as an author, um, and some tips for authors as well.

[00:37:46] Ed Watters: That sounds exciting. So do you have a call to action for people?

[00:37:53] Barbara Ann Mojica: Yes. Become a character in history today. Uh, my, my little character has a famous, her, her favorite quote is, if you don't know your history, you don't know what you're talking about. And I think people should find out more about history as our legacy, our foundation, our culture, our way of thinking. I have a little, uh, article on my blog, 14 Reasons You Need To Understand History. And that, that kind of encapsulates some of the things that we're talking about. And, um, I would be glad to send that to anybody, uh, who's interested or any of my resources, uh, for that matter. Anybody who wants to, to contact me directly, they can click on my blog, uh, littlemisshistory.com and it's a direct contact form and I would be glad to provide them with anything that they think would be useful to them.

[00:38:58] Ed Watters: All right, and that was the next question, how to get ahold of you, is that the best way on your website?

[00:39:04] Barbara Ann Mojica: Yes, on my website, littlemisshistory.com, I have the books, uh, little snippets of information about each one, where you can buy them, what people have said about them. I have links to my blog where you can get the reviews on the articles. I have links to my YouTube channel where you can connect with the articles and there are links to everything else, my Pinterest, uh, Instagram, Twitter, and so on. So just, pretty much go to littlemisshistory.com, click any of those or direct contact me through the contact form.

[00:39:44] Ed Watters: Barbara, it's very fascinating and exciting what you're doing, and I think it's very helpful in the world today. I wanna say thank you for being part of the Dead America podcast and enjoy the rest of your [00:40:00] day.

[00:40:00] Barbara Ann Mojica: Thank you. I've enjoyed our conversation immensely.

[00:40:06] Ed Watters: Thank you for joining us today. If you found this podcast enlightening, entertaining, educational, in any way, please share, like, subscribe, and join us right back here next week for another great episode of Dead America Podcast. I'm Ed Watters your host, enjoy your afternoon wherever you may be.

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