History….according to who?
Historians and teachers are at fault for
not telling the entire story. They tell the story from their perspective and are
not willing to let others give their perspective. Others like ethnic minorities
(the Native American) or women, etc. How many of you can remember in grade
school hearing the story of the first Thanksgiving and how Indians and Pilgrims
share their food and gave thanks together? Nobody tell the other side of the
story of how the Indians helped the Pilgrims from starving to death and how the
Pilgrims actually destroyed native population and culture. History has also
been written by men, totally leaving out the contributions of women. History is
also divided by class. Wealthy men and women (usually not ethnic minorities)
had no opportunity to write because they didn’t have time too and because
their stories were not deemed as “important” by others. Look at our
archives. Whose stories are there? Definitely not the working class, Native
American and some others. History, archives and museum still continue to be
bias (with some exceptions).
If teachers and historians would work to teach
all perspectives, maybe students would be willing to listen and learn about
what really happened and why things are the way they are.
Stephanie Joseph (
Reference &
Instruction Librarian
319-335-5427 Office
Phone
520-548-1025 Cell Phone
____________________________________
If I
were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Sergei Prokofyev. I was
born
in the late 19th century and was a child prodigy, composing at a
very young age. I
kept this talent up, earning myself quite a name and
fully exploiting the
bragging rights. I was disliked by Stalin,
however, and I died
the same day he did. My most famous work is
"Peter and the
Wolf."
From: Archives &
Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sokolow, Daniel
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006
9:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Teaching History
Allow me
to disagree. I don't think teaching social, socialist, or marxist history
is the key to awakening historical interest. While these are valid areas
of history, it is often the method of teaching that's at fault rather than the
specific subject matter. You can teach people all you want about Eugene
Debs, but if you can't make it interesting, no one will a) remember, or b) care
enough to learn more on their own.
Let me
say that I'm not blaming this exclusively on the teachers, though I think
enough of them are at fault. The educational system does not encourage in
depth study, as I think someone earlier mentioned. Parents do not seem to
have a ton of interest either. Popular culture has very little interest
in history, and very little on education in general. What's disturbing is
that history can be interesting and exciting, if taught properly.
And
frankly, I disagree that people can get a good grasp of history without great
men, great deeds. If you choose to add the story of regular people,
regular deeds that's fine, but I fail to see how you can truly grasp what
happens without understanding the role of the big players. You can
certainly learn a lot from the experience of the average Civil War soldier, but
skipping the role of Abraham Lincoln, R.E. Lee, and U.S. Grant is not my idea
of teaching the history properly.
Before I
go completely Cassandra on everyone, I think for all it's "All Nazis, All
the Time" programming, the History Channel and some of the Discovery
Channel history programs are a wonderful boon to the study & promotion of
history. It may be that we as history professionals are in a niche, but
at least we have these outlets in the popular culture.
DS
______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives
Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish
Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:[log in to unmask]
-----Original
Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Hempe, Andrew - HPL
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006
10:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Early Friday Funny
This is
an important question, and deserves discussion. It is no accident
that the general level of
historical knowledge in the US is extremely poor.
When historical education consists
of teaching a string of events that have
no relation to the day-to-day
reality of people's lives, people will
naturally consider history to be
trivia that really doesn't need to be
bothered with.
How many
people know why Labor Day is celebrated in the US, rather than May
Day? If you know the answer
to this, you've gone a long way toward knowing
why the average American's level of
historical knowledge is so low.
To quote
Rosa Luxemburg, the famous German Marxist, "Historical
consciousness is an essential
component of class consciousness." The fact
is, a great deal of history has
been deliberately suppressed. Who knows
about the uprising of 1877?
Or the Seattle General Strike? Who has heard
the names Eugene Debs, Emma
Goldman, or Walter Reuther? Until history is
taught in a way that emphasizes
class structure and relations, and that the
contributions of ordinary people
are important, rather than history as
something that is made by
"great men", there will continue to be a lack of
interest in the general public in
historical matters.
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