Last week at the end of one of my classes we were talking about how everyone was adjusting to wearing masks all day and social distancing in school. A couple of my students grumbled about it. That grumbling was met by a reply from another student who said, “Guys, it’s not that big a deal! It’s not like World War II and we have to ration everything!” That statement then launched the conversation down the road to explaining what rationing in WWII meant. (Yes, this was all happening in my computer science class). I did a quick Google search to find some images of ration books from WWII to help some of the students understand what we were talking about.
My Google search for “WWII ration books” took me to the National World War II Museum’s website (a great museum to visit in person if you’re ever in New Orleans). On the website there is a digital exhibit about ration books. That exhibit is part of a larger section of the National World War II Museum’s website. That section is called Research Starters.
Research Starters covers ten topics related to American involvement in World War II. Some of those topics include rationing, D-Day, and the role of women in WWII. The research starters aren’t intended to be comprehensive overviews of the topics. Instead, the research starters are designed to launch students into further investigation of the topics. In some cases the research starters will point students to another section or collection on the National World War II Museum’s website and in some cases students will have to leave the site to further their investigations.
Applications for Education
When I taught U.S. History I always found visuals like those in the ration books exhibit to be useful not only in helping students understand the topic at hand but also for inspiring some conversation and curiosity. If you teach U.S. History, the Research Starters collection on the National WWII Museum’s website is one that I’d keep bookmarked.
