History as a Decision Lab: Structuring Decisions During the American Revolution

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary in 2026, educators have a unique opportunity to explore how decisions were made amid uncertainty at the nation’s founding. In this guest post, Joe Schmidt—an Education Advisory Council member for the Alliance and Executive Director of K–12 Education at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation—invites readers to use history as a “decision lab,” exploring how the Structuring Decisions domain of the Decision Education Learning Standards can be applied to historical scenarios, helping students step into the past to build decision-making skills for today.

We often hear that “hindsight is 20/20.” While that may be true, looking back at history offers the opportunity to examine how decisions were made, what options were considered, and what outcomes followed. With enough primary sources, we can understand the context, constraints, and consequences of a decision in “real time,” and then reflect with the benefit of hindsight.

In science labs, students can do and redo experiments as part of the learning process. In life, and in history, we cannot redo the “experiment” of lived experiences and decisions made. So how do we experiment with decision-making in history? We examine primary sources to create a “decision lab!”

In teaching and learning about history, through close examination of primary sources, one can find key decision points across time. We can trace the outcomes of these decisions—days, years, or even decades later. When we view history as a decision lab, hindsight becomes a valuable educational tool.

At Colonial Williamsburg, where I work, we have the opportunity to see this close examination of primary sources in practice. Set among the 301 acres of the largest history museum in America, performances grounded in deep analysis of primary sources help students engage with key decision moments in American history. At Colonial Williamsburg, we have daily performances that illustrate what life was like during a pivotal time in history. Each performance allows visitors to peek inside that historic moment’s “decision lab.” I’ll describe two of these performances, and how they can be used as teaching tools using the Decision Education K-12 Learning Standards.

The “Structuring Decisions” domain of the Decision Education K-12 Learning Standards highlights that we are constantly making decisions. It states, “We make multiple decisions every day; some are simple and some are complex, some we make as individuals and some as part of a group.” This is true of all people, both past and present, and sits at the heart of the first performance at Colonial Williamsburg I’ll explore, Gale from the North.

Outside the Raleigh Tavern, a crowd is gathering. The moment is April 29, 1775, and the news of British troops opening fire on people in Lexington and Concord has arrived in Williamsburg. With historical hindsight, we know how the events played out, but at that moment, the future was uncertain. Decisions made at that very spot hundreds of years ago shaped the country we have today.

As the news came in, the citizens of Williamsburg had decisions to make beyond war or peace. The K-12 Learning Standards state that the first step of a decision-making process is to “Identify and frame what a decision is and is not about”, and we see this framing in Gale from the North when Virginia’s Speaker of the House, Peyton Randolph, tells the crowd:

Enough! People of Williamsburg! Rumors. Rumors! And you have played into them beautifully. Just as designed. These are dangerous times and not for the reasons you might think. I see your fear. I feel it. But when we are in the throes of that fear, when we lose cool reason we allow hot passion to steer this ship of state. You read a sensational article in the Gazette or hear a bit of news and somewhere, amongst the salaciousness and accusation and peddling of fear, we give our control to rumor. To fear. And that, Virginians, is perhaps even more dangerous than the events themselves. You have allowed us to create a country filled with people who have replaced reason for rumor. In this moment your actions teach our children how they should respond in times of extremis.

Step 2 in Structuring Decisions instructs students to “clarify the values and objectives of the decision maker in a given decision.” As we take a closer look at primary sources of the time, we can see a wide range of colonists’ perspectives and motivations. For many colonists, decisions around allegiance were shaped by deeply held personal beliefs and fears about the future. Looking back from today’s perspective, the goal of independence seems like an obvious one, as we know what decisions were made and how it all turned out.

For many in 1775–1776, the decision of which side to support was about their need for security—but how they defined security made all the difference. Was their definition of security achieved through support of an empire that could provide defense and trade? Or was the very same empire a threat to their security because of the same army and economic iron fist? Understanding which path was more likely to align with an individual’s definition of security is a way to predict what decision they would make during the calls for independence and revolution.

In Gale from the North, Peyton Randolph expresses this tension as he confides in his wife, Elizabeth:

I feel as though I am in a vise. On one side I feel the pressure of Lord Dunmore’s expectation that I convince the people here that his actions are with sincerity on their behalf, but I feel the needs and fear of the people I am elected to represent on the other. Both closing in with increasing pressure.

When we narrow in on a person’s values, it can lead to an obvious choice. For many colonists, their definition of security was freedom from England by fighting for independence—even at the risk of dying.

Step 3 in Structuring Decisions is “generate and develop significantly different and criteria-aligned decision options.” Educators can have students come up with various decision options for different historical figures, and think through if those decisions align with that person’s criteria. Students can answer questions like, “Given what we know about Peyton Randolph and his values, what options would he consider?” Students can then follow step 4 and “gather and analyze information from multiple sources to evaluate decision options.” Primary sources, from newspapers to personal letters, reveal the range of viewpoints that existed at the time. Educators can bring primary sources into the classroom, allowing students to explore sources and perspectives firsthand.

Students’ natural curiosity can extend their learning beyond what they already know. We can’t have students predict if the colonies would declare independence (they would) or if they would win their independence (they did), but we can give them permission to make predictions about smaller decisions made by lesser-known voices in history.

Then, Step 5 prompts students to “make predictions about the outcomes of each decision option.” While they cannot rewrite history, students can use evidence to predict what individual decisions might have been made, and why—gaining valuable context to better understand the decision-making of the modern world.

The second performance I’d like to highlight is called 1776: The Trial for Independence, which drops visitors into the tense hours before Virginia’s vote on independence. It is May 15, 1776, and Robert Carter Nicholas has already held the floor from the vote for two days. As frustration builds, he challenges two men who criticized his delay.

What unfolds is less about politics and more about how to think.

Nicholas reframes the moment: “The mark of a good attorney is to understand the motivations of those he is prosecuting.” He pushes his hecklers to fully engage with both sides of the argument.

When they push back, asking why this exercise matters, his answer is simple and direct: “Was it useless? Did neither of you learn anything? You considered the opposition and that will be a valuable tool in the years to come.” Here, Nicholas highlights the importance of metacognition, or thinking about one’s own thinking, as a way to refine future decisions. Metacognition is a core component of the Decision Education Standard Valuing and Applying Rationality.

That’s the point.

Nicholas isn’t trying to tell them what to think, he’s showing them how to think.

This practice goes beyond rhetoric. It demonstrates structured decision-making, where individuals deliberately engage in perspective taking and test competing ideas rather than defaulting to instinct or loyalty.

And perhaps that is the lasting lesson of this scene: that better decisions come from the willingness to pause, to question, and to think deeply, especially when the stakes are highest.

The events leading up to the American Revolution were defined by uncertainty, disagreement, and immense stakes. These conditions mirror the most difficult decisions we face today. Historical moments can be analyzed to help students deepen their understanding of the context in which decisions were made and build the skills and dispositions they need to make better decisions in their own lives.

Studying decision-making in history gives students the tools to navigate uncertainty, weigh risks and outcomes, and think critically about the choices—big and small—that shape our world.