Students will get the chance this fall to learn more about the Battle of New Orleans as the state commemorates the 200th anniversary of the final major conflict of the War of 1812.
Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne last week presented the curriculum, which discusses how the battle blocked the British Army from seizing the city and territory the United States had acquired with the Louisiana Purchase, during a meeting of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. BESE quickly endorsed the teaching material, which will be available to teachers throughout the state.
“As we commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, we are ensuring Louisiana’s students learn about the significance of the battle and its contribution to our history, not only as a state, but as a nation,” Dardenne said.
The Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism’s education team will present the curriculum to teachers at the Louisiana Council for the Social Studies annual conference in October.
The curriculum is the third K-12 curriculum to be released since Dardenne took office. Previous curricula covered the state’s Bicentennial and the Atchafalaya National Heritage area.
Dardenne and Gary Joiner, education chair for the Battle of New Orleans Bicentennial Commission, this week accepted a $37,500 check from Sonia Perez, AT&T Louisiana president, toward the creation and promotion of the curriculum.
“AT&T’s generous donation is making a very important education piece available to Louisiana schools which had very little information on the importance of the Battle of New Orleans,” Henson Moore, BONO Bicentennial Commission chairman, said.