News

Local history course offered on line for teachers

Jennie Jones Giles teachers Henderson County history and heritage course.

By Bill Moss, Published: June 11, 2014

For the first time, a local history class will be offered on line to public school teachers in a cooperative effort announced today by the Center for Cultural Preservation and Blue Ridge Community College.

Taught by Jennie Jones Giles, the Henderson County History and Heritage course will be offered as an online course beginning this summer. BRCC's Continuing Education Department will offer 2.4 CEU credits for completion of the 24-hour course. The registration fee is $70. The course is open to all Henderson County public school teachers K-12. The course begins June 23.

The course examines Henderson County from prehistory to the mid-20th century. The first half of the course includes geography and natural resources, Cherokee and Catawba history and culture, early Spanish and British exploration, colonial history in the western regions of North and South Carolina, including the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. The county's early settlers, Appalachian Mountain culture and early black history is also part of the course.

The second half of the course begins with the Civil War and Reconstruction and the impact of these events on the people of Henderson County, including black history during Reconstruction. Students will identify the impact cultural changes, political and economic issues, agriculture, transportation, religious history, education, and industrialization have had on the people of Henderson County. Henderson County during the Spanish-American and Philippine-American War, World War I, Prohibition, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression and World War II.

Students who take the course also invited on field trips held each month to different communities within Henderson County. Giles, a former Times-News reporter who specialized in local history stories, served as director of the Henderson County Heritage Museum.

Public school teachers can register online at the BRCC web site at http://www.blueridge.edu/continuing-education/registration-information, register in person at the Continuing Education Dept. in the Patton Building or call the college at 694-1742 for more information or help with the registration process. The course number is EDU 8219203.

For more information about the Center for Cultural Preservation, contact the Center at (828) 692-8062.