I am not a history buff…

I remember, in my 11th year of teaching middle and high school history, being asked by a colleague how I had time to teach my students about the philosophy of history, theory, and historiography. My response, “I make time” was, to large extent, the product of personal shock.  As I spoke those words, my mind raced with reflective questions. “Doesn’t every history teacher do this? Why I am being asked this? Isn’t it obvious?”

Answers to these questions came, a few months later, during a professional learning community (PLC) session to plan our mid-term exam for the 10th  grade U.S. history survey.  I thought the teacher across the table from me was joking when he said, “One of the multiple choice questions has to be about Lincoln’s Secretary of War.” (Who was it?)  I smiled at the perceived humor. However, when he added, “…and the Anaconda Plan, definitely”, I realized he was serious. I also knew that his students must be getting a very different version and understanding of history.

Edwin Stanton was Lincoln's Secretary of War. I looked it up while writing this post.

My colleague’s conviction was founded in his experience with history education, understanding of the purpose of history, and epistemology. His was rooted in a late 19th early 20th century view of history as a set body of knowledge promoted by the nation-state. In turn, if the effort to teach  theory isn’t taken, then history becomes an external “truth” to be memorized. Too often this is the case.  One result of this conception of history courses has been to hasten its relegation to a secondary status below STEM courses and ELA.

Historical thinking skills have the potential to reshape history’s purpose beyond nationalism and  socialization in an imagined community. Beyond civics, history, taught as an internal, social process of knowledge construction, emphasizes the understanding of human systems, processes, culture, causation, change, and perspective. Simply put, the present is better perceived by engaging the past, not being told it full stop. As a starting point to these ends, I suggest teachers engage students with three ideas as a basis for teaching authentic history.

  1. Historical Narrative
  2. Causation
  3. Complexity over Binary thought

How these ideas can be introduced and taught are for future posts. But, for now, note that the words “theory”, “historiography”, and “philosophy” need not be used to engage students in historical thought, and not expecting memorization as history.

Overall, I promote a change in how history is perceived and taught. One way to perform this resides in college education departments. History teachers need to be trained in historical theory as a content knowledge as well as pedagogy to teach those concepts. In turn, history courses must be expected to devote time to teaching history theory and thinking skills. Without this basis, history classes are exercises in memorization. And history teachers are nothing more than history “buffs”.

 

5 thoughts on “I am not a history buff…

  1. CP,
    Just read the “buff” intro position and loved it. Will read more in time. Totally agree that there needs to be perspective given to the students so they can understand issues of the day and how they may apply to today. I never expected anything less from you than to be fully thorough. Keep it up.
    TC

  2. Well said. I think you would like this WSJ oped on the importance of teaching history. It’s sad but true that students are performing more poorly in history than in math or science:
    “The Education Our Economy Needs” http://on.wsj.com/ph1GbA

  3. CP,
    I remember the day we spoke about you leaving high school. I believe you phrased it “creative differences,” or something of the like. It was unfortunate then and still is now that a perspective-driven curriculum (rather than one anchored by straight memorization) was frowned upon. Being able to talk about issues rather than simply having facts, dates, names, etc. thrown at me was a breath of fresh air from the normal history courses. In retrospect, your history class easily was one of the better courses I took throughout HS. I was honored to have had you as an instructor and truly appreciated the effort, and push for reform.
    -DelMonaco

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