Teaching History

[Unkotare]

One of the most important aspects of teaching any historical period/event/character is helping students understand the difference between fact and opinion. It can be challenging for students attempting to do so with limited English language skills.

 

[Dante]

One of the most important aspects of teaching any historical period/event/character is helping students understand the difference between fact and opinion. It can be challenging for students attempting to do so with limited English language skills.

It's difficult enough when students are proficient in English.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

One of the most important aspects of teaching any historical period/event/character is helping students understand the difference between fact and opinion. It can be challenging for students attempting to do so with limited English language skills.

For sure. It can also be challenging to find an instructor who doesn't have some sort of axe to grind, historically speaking.

Especially tough, in that all the boring parts are the dry dates and figures--and all the exciting stuff is indeed, trying to piece together motives and trends...which almost demand that one take a stand...and form an opinion.

Despite hundreds of years of attempting to reduce history to a science, it remains an art...IMO.

 

[Dante]

For sure. It can also be challenging to find an instructor who doesn't have some sort of axe to grind, historically speaking.

Especially tough, in that all the boring parts are the dry dates and figures--and all the exciting stuff is indeed, trying to piece together motives and trends...which almost demand that one take a stand...and form an opinion.

Despite hundreds of years of attempting to reduce history to a science, it remains an art...IMO.

Most instructors have no axe to grind.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Most instructors have no axe to grind.

Oh, I dunno...take 10 4th grade teachers and have them explain the The Pilgrims.
Immediately you will have two groups...the Pilgrim group and the Puritan group.
The one will espouse the classic tale of seeking religious freedom, fleeing persecution and being saved by Squanto. Thanksgiving and pass the turkey.

The other? A groups of intolerant bigots who were left-over from the English Civil War. Puritans, Calvinists with attitude. Came to the New World to establish their 'Golden City on the Hill'--an intolerant theocracy that ruled Mass. colony for 80 years.

Are both of these true? Can both of these be true?

Is there value in the false myth? History...or what?

 

[Dante]

Oh, I dunno...take 10 4th grade teachers and have them explain the The Pilgrims.
Immediately you will have two groups...the Pilgrim group and the Puritan group.
The one will espouse the classic tale of seeking religious freedom, fleeing persecution and being saved by Squanto. Thanksgiving and pass the turkey.

The other? A groups of intolerant bigots who were left-over from the English Civil War. Puritans, Calvinists with attitude. Came to the New World to establish their 'Golden City on the Hill'--an intolerant theocracy that ruled Mass. colony for 80 years.

Are both of these true? Can both of these be true?

Is there value in the false myth? History...or what?

The Pilgrims and the Puritans are distinctly different groups. The rest is just some nutty culture war shit you seem to have made up.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

The Pilgrims and the Puritans are distinctly different groups. The rest is just some nutty culture war shit you seem to have made up.

LOL!

Fair enough..the Pilgrims were the first, followed by the Puritans. Same folks over-all though. They established a theocracy, I refer you to Increase and Cotton Mather.

Imagine history..if the natives had wiped them out from the start?

 

[Dante]

LOL!

Fair enough..the Pilgrims were the first, followed by the Puritans. Same folks over-all though. They established a theocracy, I refer you to Increase and Cotton Mather.

Imagine history..if the natives had wiped them out from the start?

Never gonna happen. Waves were coming. Migration within and around Great Britain was already a big things. Economics drove the migrations. I've read Bernard Bailyn on this.

Colonial America: In the colonies, the religious angles get far too much focus in my not so humble opinion, which leaves out much.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

One of the most important aspects of teaching any historical period/event/character is helping students understand the difference between fact and opinion. It can be challenging for students attempting to do so with limited English language skills.

That's a fact, in my humble opinion!

 

[SweetSue92]

For sure. It can also be challenging to find an instructor who doesn't have some sort of axe to grind, historically speaking.

Especially tough, in that all the boring parts are the dry dates and figures--and all the exciting stuff is indeed, trying to piece together motives and trends...which almost demand that one take a stand...and form an opinion.

Despite hundreds of years of attempting to reduce history to a science, it remains an art...IMO.

That's why the arts are a superior way to teach history to be honest. Infusing history with the arts (or vice versa) allows us to "hear" the voices of those who lived it, rather than what too many history classes are: just a recitation of events and dates.

 

[DGS49]

I guess that's the difference between teach WHAT happened versus teaching WHY it happened. The second of these is where the teacher's biases can be manifest.

Even today, Americans are quite divided on WHY the Civil War (the "War Between the States") occurred. Same for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 

[gipper]

One of the most important aspects of teaching any historical period/event/character is helping students understand the difference between fact and opinion. It can be challenging for students attempting to do so with limited English language skills.

I doubt you teach facts. You likely teach whatever the establishment tells you to teach, which is most common in the US education system.

 

[Unkotare]

I doubt you teach facts. ....

Then you get to be wrong AGAIN.

 

[leftwinger]

Wrestling? History? English? Adults roaming school hallways? Previous grads allowed willy-nilly access to classrooms to celebrate new recent grads to be? Huh? Nights? Days? 12 mo work year. West coast leaders fly in to Logan to discuss with teachers? Sandwhiches for all! Snitch Away. I smell a rat.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Then you get to be wrong AGAIN.

You teach History? With your bias and misinformation that would lead to some major problems.

 

[luiza]

Most instructors have no axe to grind.

Regurgitators rarely ever complain about anything .

They just repeat mainstream narratives of what they are told to teach .

 

[Unkotare]

You teach History? ...

Yes. Do you?

 

[Unkotare]

Wrestling? ...

Yes.

 

[Unkotare]

... History?...

Yes.

 

[Unkotare]

... Adults roaming school hallways? ...

Teachers and staff during school days. Sometimes parents during after-school programs.