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| Photo courtesy of Dr. John Strange |
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| Photo courtesy of Dr. John Strange |
Funny how a little question, only seven words long, can throw one for a loop. I had a student ask me that question an hour ago and I am still reeling from it. I'm reeling because I can't verbalize an answer.
The first thing I did was look online for an answer. Surely somewhere there is a cogent, well reasoned and yet simple answer. If there is one, I didn't find it. Google the question yourself and see what comes up. Better yet search videos using the question, plain horrible. Honestly, I doubt anyone can answer this one for me anyway.
I have always loved history, I have loved the stories that come from history. I love the connections I see between seemingly disparate events. I love recounting stories like Peale's Mastadon because of the connections between art, science, and exploration.
Now I am stuck trying to justify what I teach without any cogent thoughts appearing. Why do they have to learn history?
"We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are."
ReplyDeleteLeszek Kolakowski
That is always my answer with an explanation for why it is important to know ourselves....and no other subject is capable of doing it as well.
I articulated an answer to this question years ago. I'm not sure I can reconstruct it adequately, but I will give it a go. We need history (and the other social sciences) because each of us needs to create a personal sense of location.
ReplyDeleteHistory adds a dimension to our location that we rely upon. The same young people who question a national or cultural history would not question the importance of their own personal history to their understanding of themselves and their actions or values. The trick is to get them to see that their personal geography, understanding of change, is caught up in the history of their larger culture. History enhances our perceptions much like colour enhances our visual experience. I talk to my students about how the school they live in is imbued with significant memories. A corridor is not simply a new location every time it is experienced. It is filled with reminders of past experience that shape who we are. So to are the people we interact with. This may not be acknowledged, but it is inescapable. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteIn order to understand the entire story of a subject or situation, we first must understand the history. History explains why some things are set up a particular way. In my opinion, history is important in every subject. In order for us to appreciate the present we first must understand the past.
ReplyDeleteHistory provides us the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. We can look at our countries history and see what and where we need to improve, if at all. We have to know and understand where we came from in order to understand our future.
ReplyDeleteHere is a blog post from 3 of my students on the very question you pose. http://mrsbethgross.weebly.com/1/post/2013/08/why-study-history.html
ReplyDeleteMr. Chamberlain,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Melinda Akridge and I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM 510 class at the University of South Alabama. I must say, I know that it was upsetting for you, but I genuinely enjoyed your struggle with that ultimate student question, "Why are we learning this?" I say that I enjoyed it because it is good to see someone whose opinion I respect, struggle with the same issues that I often face. As a Language Arts teacher, I often find that my students don't understand why they have to learn the "same stuff" year after year. My stock answer has become that it is a matter of communication. I tell them, that right or wrong, if they want to succeed in the workplace, they must be able to speak and write correctly. Indeed, it is these two skills that will determine the majority of the first impressions others have about them.
Thank you for your insightful forum. I have enjoyed reading about your classroom, and just your thoughts in general.
Sincerely,
Melinda Akridge
Hello Mr. Chamberlain! My name is Marisa Farnell and I am an EDM 310 student in Dr. Strange's class at the University of South Alabama. To be completely truthful, I ask this question all the time. I have never enjoyed studying history because it's just a bunch of dates and facts. One day I voiced this to my boyfriend, who refers to himself as a "history nerd", and he told me a very simple statement: Without history, there would be no present or future.
ReplyDeleteJust like your student's question, this statement is simple, yet profound. Without what happened in the past there would be nothing today. Another statement I have heard many times regarding this question is that we need to learn from our past to make a better tomorrow. I also find this response to hold unfathomable truth. We can look to what our economy looks like today and see what happens when we DON'T learn from our past. Our economy is in a state of depression just like what happened in the 1930's.
I hope this helps you clarify how your response to this question should be!
I'll add a few thoughts. Last March I visited the American Cemetery in Normandy. Around one gravestone a fairly large group had gathered. One person was rubbing sand into the carved out portion of the gravestone so that the name could be read which is difficult to do in sunlight. I later found out the sand was from Omaha Beach which is within walking distance. Another person was reading a statement about the person who had buried there. She had obviously contacted relatives and her comments told a great deal about the American soldier who had died in the Normandy Invasion seventy years ago. I was moved to tears, as were many of those gathered around. What was going on, I wondered, since it was obvious that those surrounding the grave were Americans. I inquired and found that they were students from an American university near Washington, D.C. who were studying history. Each student had been assigned an American soldier who was buried in the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. Each conducted research and prepared a statement to be read on the field trip the class took to France. The readings were recorded on video and sent to members of the soldier's family. But these students were studying history! Why were they doing this? To learn about what had happened in Normandy 70 years ago. To learn to do research. To learn to write. To learn to make a public presentation which will be shown to a lot of other people. To learn videography. To learn about how people react to the sacrifices of others. To learn the geography of one of the most important events of the last 100 years (or more). To learn to work with others (family members, other students, teachers, residents of France). History is a context for learning that goes way beyond knowing "what happened" and "when and where it happened." I find it hard to imagine a better and more powerful learning experience. History was the context, not the end objective. History should not be taught as a subject which is memorized and then burped back. Instead it should be a vehicle, a context, for active learning that has a public purpose. Just ask the students participating in this learning event. Or the family members who got the videos. Or even those who just happened to walk by and listen in as I did. I certainly learned a lot - about history and about learning!
ReplyDeleteMaybe these thoughts will help to understand how history can be a powerful context for learning. I suspect this approach would be equally powerful in any town in America.
PS: Bill - I'll send you a picture. Maybe you could add it to the post. Thanks, John
Hello Mr. Chamberlain, my name is Melissa Neese. I am an Elementary Education major and a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I have come to love history. I think that without history we have no beginning. In order to know where we are going we have to know where we have been. We can all learn from our past in order to make our future better. After losing a friend of mine in Afghanistan, I think we need to know history to honor our forefathers and all who have served to give us a future.
ReplyDeleteHi Mr. Chamberlain, I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama. After reading your blog post, "Why Do I Need To Learn History," I had to sit and think for sometime as to what the actual benefits of learning history actually were. It has always been just a part of basic education for me, something I never really questioned. However, after some thought, I realized, if we never took the time to review history, what state would the United States be in, even the state of the world for that matter. Without history, man-kind would never have the opportunity to learn from its mistakes. Just as we may look back at the history of our own lives, such as touching a hot stove, after being burned, you realize not to do it again, the same can be said for civilizations across the world. We need history in order to simply not repeat the past.
ReplyDeleteLearning history, as if there were one history, vs learning how history is constructed and used are two very different things. When students ask 'Why study history' I think it's impt to resist a quick reply. At the same time, it's a question that needs to underpin our courses. When students ask, we can't ignore the query, but, at the same time, we need to realize the epistemological implications embedded in our replies.
ReplyDeleteThe best way I ever saw this explained believe it or not was in an old TV show from many years ago. The substitute teacher told the students on the first day that if we did not understand history, we were doomed to repeat it. Then he challenged the students to go home and collect stories from their elders/ancestors about a mistake they made, what happened, and why it was so bad. That stayed with me for years. Made it more personal to the students.
ReplyDeleteThis comment was received from Dr, Charles Connell, Professor of History, Northern Arizona University. He asked that I post it as a comment.
ReplyDeleteIf you would allow me to recast the question as “Why should you study history?” my response is this: In order to achieve a high level of self-understanding.
To study the past as a story, a mystery if you will, is to pull together the pieces of a puzzle that begins with simple questions like “Who am I?”and “Where do I fit into my family, my local community, the region, the nation, and finally, the world at large?”. By examining the past accomplishments and failures of other individuals, communities, and nations over time, one comes to understand what history really is – an ongoing dynamic study of human activity in its many dimensions. Human motivation and creativity emerges in the context of challenge and response.
As your study of history progresses, you learn what interests you and what you value in life. Thus, you achieve a better understanding of yourself which can lead to a more creative and interesting life.
charles.connell@nau.edu
Might we be deluding ourselves a bit, especially when we consider what many high school textbooks say and what many social studies classrooms look like on a daily basis. Students are often given a fairly simplistic story of Western progress, Great Men, and military adventures that supposedly helps "us" live better in the future. I am guessing that regardless of time, place, or culture it is quite common for history teachers and school officials to cloak the study of the past in idealistic goals. Upon further scrutiny, how the past is studied is entangled with the outcomes of studying the past.
ReplyDeleteOn further reflection ...In my previous comment I dodged the question by responding to the question as if it were "How should history be taught"? I will try again.
ReplyDeleteAll of us have to learn history because we live history. Each day our historical trail lengthens. That trail, that history, shapes us (and has already shaped us). I think it is important to understand how that happens (and what happened and how it happened). That, I think, is why we should learn history. But to learn that history we must reflect, ask questions, gather data, seek answers, increase our awareness to what is happening so that the questions will be more easily addressed in the future.
We need to know history in order to affect the future (if we can). If we understand our ongoing history, it is possible we can shape the future history, that is our history after tomorrow (or any time frame you want to set). That is why we need to learn history. And we can substitute almost anything for our selves in this process of reflecting, asking questions, gathering data, seeking answers, and changing the future.
But this probably does not really address the question asked by the fifth or sixth grader. My guess is that he really meant why do I have to learn the history you have (or the textbook has) chosen for me to study? A good question. I think we should think very hard about how to provide our students with more choice in the histories they choose to study. We should emphasize that what needs to be learned is how to effectively use the tools listed above (reflecting, asking questions, gathering data, etc.) which we use to study history. Schools instead seek a specific answer to a specific question and call that history.