When he was younger, Griffith High School history teacher Jeff Swisher had so many questions — like why decaffeinated coffee containers had an orange lid or why people in the United States drive on the right side of the road.

Swisher’s inquisitive nature led him to become a history teacher, and he was recently recognized by his peers as the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s 2024 Indiana History Teacher of the Year.

Established in 2004, the award recognizes exceptional teachers for their outstanding contributions to American history education. The award honors one K-12 teacher from each state, the District of Colombia, Department of Defense schools and United States territories. Swisher is one of 53 winners who received a $1,000 honorarium, a core archive of American history books and educational materials from the Gilder Lehrman Institute.

The 2024 National History Teacher of the Year will be announced on Oct. 15 at the Harvard Club in New York City. The winner receives a $10,000 prize.

Swisher, of Chesterton, said he was nominated for the award by his former students, but does not know which ones.

“This is not like an award you can easily go look up on the internet or that former students received an email about nominated a teacher,” he said. “I was so impressed that they went out of their way to nominate me.”

Swisher said he’s steeped in Civil War history as well as local history of the Northwest Indiana Region, such as the great circus train wreck in Hammond in 1918 when 86 people were reported to have died. However, bringing his passion for history to life in the classroom takes more than words and pictures, so he will go as far as donning clothing or a uniform from the period he is teaching.“The trick is finding things about that history that students find interesting,” he said. “For example, when you’re learning about an ancient group of people, I like to look at things like what they wore and their music and entertainment sounded and looked like. As soon as you start connecting these things students become more interested in the subject.”

Swisher encourages fellow history teachers to get deep into their subjects and find ways to help their students connect the past with the present.

“Just be passionate with your students and that will make the biggest difference,” he said. “And when you don’t know the answer, say that you don’t know and show your students how to look it up and find the answer… how to get into that rabbit hole of why something is.”

This is Swisher’s first year teaching in Griffith, having spent the previous nine years teaching for the School City Hammond. In addition to teaching, he has been active in leading the Griffith Middle School Coding Club and the GHS Mock Trial Club. He also serves as president-elect on the Indiana Council for the Social Studies Board.

As for why decaffeinated coffee has an orange lid, Swisher said it originated with Sanka decaffeinated coffee packaging. The practice of driving on the right side of the road began in New York in 1804, and by the Civil War righthand travel was followed in every state. That’s because horse-and-buggy drivers tended to sit on the right so they could ensure their wagon didn’t run into a roadside ditch.

Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.