Guide Entry to 25.05.01
This unit uses a combination of current and primary sources to help students analyze how communication and empathy can change how people react to medical knowledge. Students explore the story of a tuberculosis epidemic that particularly affected the Black population of early 20th-century Philadelphia. Tuberculosis is a disease that has been documented almost as far back as recorded history but was not conclusively identified as a contagious illness until 1882. Although the medical establishment in Philadelphia in the early 1900s was full of recognized experts in the field, the residents of the downtown “Black Belt” were slow to seek treatment from a seemingly opaque and hostile system. Elizabeth W. Tyler, a middle-aged Black nurse, arrived in 1914 as a medical social worker and helped to turn the tide through her empathetic, holistic approach. After learning the then-current science of tuberculosis and working collaboratively to argue for or against the effectiveness of Tyler’s communication style, students will engage in their own research on a scientific or medical advancement and the way in which lay-people were or were not effectively educated about it.
(Developed for English IV, grade 12; recommended for English III, grade 11; English IV, grade 12; African-American History and United States History, grades 9-12)
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