Princeton Dad Wants To Change The Way History Is Taught In School

PRINCETON, NJ — A Princeton father in planning to change the way history is taught in schools through his new online educational venture.

Patrick Riccards, founder of Driving Force Institute for Public Engagement (DFI), recently launched a series of history videos on Youtube. Titled "Untold", the series explores aspects of American history that are not taught in schoolbooks.

“Many students don’t see the value of studying American History because they find it boring,” Riccards told Patch.

Over the summer, he saw his high school-going son try to study world history through Youtube videos. “Those videos were so dry and boring. Some of them were just Powerpoint presentations. They knew the best way to reach kids is through videos, but they didn’t have the content for it,” he said.

Riccards began to think of ways to make the subject interesting and relevant to students. That’s when he got the idea for "Untold", he said.

"Untold" offers a unique take on American history. From talking about gun control and how the census has changed over the years, to DJ Kool Herc and the history of hip hop – the videos seek to engage and educate young people.

A history buff, Riccards grew up being influenced by his father who was a historian. Riccards was the chief communications and strategy officer for the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the former chief of staff to the National Reading Panel.

“I was at a Black Lives Matter protest a few months ago, where I met a number of high school students. They were talking about how important it is to them to know history, and how little they know of Black history,” he said

Riccards has been working hard to make the subject more inclusive. Through his videos, he hopes to highlight the lesser known names from the past who’ve had a major role to play in the country’s history.

“We’ll be looking at people you’ve never heard of. We often talk about the Founding Fathers, but we don’t tell the stories of women or other people of color that were part of the constitutional convention,” he said.

Riccards formally launched his non-profit in April this year, during the pandemic. His video team consist of eight people, working from different corners of the world. While the company is headquartered in New Jersey, the video production team is based in Ireland and the University of Southern California’s Center for Engagement-Driven Global Education is running their research team and distributes the videos.

“Launching a new company during the pandemic is tough. We are dealing with a health and financial crisis. But I’ve been fortunate to have benefactors who believed in this and provided us with capital for the first year,” said Riccards.

Since launching in April, the company has rolled out many interesting and short videos. Riccards plans to meet with schools and teachers to get them to use his videos for history classes.

“It's easier to take risks when things are going really well. What we've been able to do really is see that there's a need and this need is not going to go away. Here in New Jersey and across the US, the product we are building is both needed and wanted,” he said.

The videos are available for free on Youtube.

Riccards has now enlisted the help of his elementary school-going daughter, to make shorter videos for TikTok – the app loved by Gen Z.

“I think we're providing content that is interesting, provocative, different and relevant. They talk about issues like equity, elections and basic rights. I hope more people watch it,” he said.

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