Farragut schools to learn women’s suffrage at 100
Knox County Schools students have been challenged to show what they know about women’s suffrage, as 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.
It was the brainchild of fifth-grade social studies and science teachers, Angie Maxey and Sarah Eddins, and humanities librarian Holly Matthews, Suffrage Coalition secretary, who created the Suffrage Coalition Centennial Celebration Contest, sponsored by the Suffrage Coalition, to “educate students in kindergarten through the 12th grade about the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which took place on Aug. 18, 1920,” according to state Code 49-6-1028.
As part of the statute, teachers also are required to educate students on State of Tennessee’s “fundamental role in guaranteeing all women the right to vote.”
The contest, open to all Knox County Schools students, includes three individual categories, literacy, through a poem or essay; visual arts, which may encompass the commemorative button, parade advertisement, cancel stamp design and commemorative envelope; and media, which involve a documentary.
“After judging all entries at the building level, each KCS school may submit first- and second-place winners per category and per grade division for final consideration,” a contest flyer stated.
The theme is “Celebrate a Centennial of Women’s Suffrage.” Entries must be received, along with a signed entry form, by Tuesday, Feb. 25, an extension of its original Feb. 14 deadline.
Since state statute requires instruction on the 19th Amendment, Maxey said she and Eddins also have been creating and recording monthly video presentations called “Tea Time” while in suffrage costumes during their morning new program, Farragut News Network.
