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Inside The Classroom:
Making History with Bill Rogers

Bill Rogers acts as President during the Disunia game.

On most days, he’s just Mr. Rogers, American History teacher.

But with his classroom transformed into a makeshift House of Representatives for the morning’s lesson, the title of “mister” will no longer do, Rogers informs his students.

“I get to be the President—probably the job I enjoy the most,” he quips at the start of class, to equal numbers of cheers and groans. “Remember to watch your budget and to vote for the things that will help you—five votes to pass the bill and eight if it’s an amendment.”
 
Channeling their inner politician, Rogers’ eighth grade American History class has traveled back in time to play a game called Disunia—where students enact the roles of different state representatives, trying to pass bills as the founding government of the United States, circa 1776.
 
“Because Massachusetts was instrumental in the Revolutionary War, is the second-richest state in the country, and has a general feel of confidence, the state should be granted $13 million to become the new capital of the United States and build a new capital complex,” argues Representatives Kerry Matlack and Natalie Kingston, of Massachusetts.
 
“Yeah, but how are all the southern states going to get to Massachusetts?” asks Representative Clif Cody, of Georgia.
 
Although the students present a solid case, the bill does not pass. But it’s the process of trial and error, Rogers explains, that will teach them the most.
 
“The kids were enacting the roles of different states with the idea that they would understand better after they completed the game why the Articles of Confederation failed,” Rogers says.  “And then as we move into the Constitution we try to teach them about today’s government and what’s in the news that relates to today’s government.”
 
Rogers is a founding father of his own sort, arriving at BB&N in 1974, after graduating from Tufts University. He started out coaching soccer and working as a teaching assistant for first and third graders, then, a year later, moved into a full-time sixth grade teaching position.
 
He gravitated to teaching history with a little push from the then-Middle School director, who was a parent of one of his students.
 
“She asked me if I’d like to come teach history, and I thought, ‘Are you kidding? Yes!’ It just happened,” he says.
 
After earning a master’s degree from Harvard University, Rogers began teaching in the history department of the Middle School in 1980. It was a smooth transition, Rogers points out, since many of his Lower School students were making the move with him. His current colleague at the Middle School, theater teacher Katie Glick ’85, was in one of his classes.
 
“I had my own built in survival system,” Rogers kids. “I taught some of those kids for five years straight.”
 
As Rogers grew comfortable in his new role and became chair of the department, he began to see the need for the 7th grade curriculum—which had been African American history—to take a new course. Along with several other teachers, Rogers decided to now focus on Latin American history.
 
“We had a wonderful time doing it, but it was a crazy time and we didn’t know what we were doing,” Rogers says with a smile.  “We tried to find other schools that were teaching Latin American history but couldn’t. Luckily we found a few universities who were delighted to have the School use their curriculum. And they became the backbone of our course.”
 
After 34 years in the classroom, he’s still excited to see his students grow, still chuckles at their humor, and is still in love with the job.
 
“People always ask me, ‘What do you like about teaching? You've been teaching the same thing for so long.’ And I say, ‘Well it’s not the same thing.’ You can learn the curriculum in a year, but the kids and the mix of the group is a whole different thing,” Rogers says. “Every group is entirely different and has a different chemistry—you don’t really teach a class until the entire class comes together in a cooperative group. You can really get frustrated if that doesn't happen. But when it does, you really feel as if you have traveled.”