I did an exercise similar like this before and I never had realized how much text books put a "spin" on things until I completed the exercise. Each text book author or group of authors has a perspective about the topic in history, which leads the students who doesn't know about the different perspectives and interpretations to believe whatever they read. Like Nick said in his post, students should be taught young that everything in life is going to have a certain perspective and interpretation so "that are not ignorant to the idea that everything they have ever been shown has its own perspectives, interpretations, and sometimes overwhelmingly present biases". With this being said, I also don't think that students should have to learn from one text book while they are in high school. I think that they teacher should have a variety of text books for the students to look at so they get different perspectives for each piece of history. Every text book presents the facts correctly, but the reader needs to ask the question of what piece of the story is missing. I think Peter had a point when he said, "Now I find myself second guessing a lot of writing in the sense that I know there must be some sort of other side." After doing this exercise, I know for now on that I am going to always be asking questions about what the author could have possibly left out.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Third Post
We've been talking in class a lot about how history goes deeper than just facts, like most of us have learned in high school. It is about perspective and interpretation also. Zinn "promotes meaning and relevance in our teaching", which caught my attention because I hope to become a history teacher someday. One thing that stood out to me was when Zinn said that "One major problem has been the intense focus on U.S history in isolation from the world". In high school, I always learned about how the U.S was a country that focused on isolation, but I think that it would have been better if we were taught about the relationships that the United States had with other countries. Another thing that Zinn wrote that I agreed with was "When you press students to make connections, to abstract from the uniqueness of a particular historical event and find something it has in common with another event, then history becomes alive, not just past but present". History in my opinion, is not the facts, but how your interpret and analyze those facts to figure out what occurred. I also agree with Jessica where she says that history itself does not change, but our interpretation of history does. Zinn always states "I want them to know that if people don't take a stand, the world will remain unchanged, and who wants that." I couldn't agree more with this statement because I love learning about how people stood up for their rights and prove that they can change the world for standing up for themselves. As a historian, I agreed with Caroline's post where she says that "Historical events of the past will always call our attention to be analyzed and interpreted to understand our present". Foner touches upon that subject in his article Changing History where he writes that, "Historians cannot predict the future, but the past they portray must be one out of which the present can plausibly have grown". Since reading the articles by, Foner, Becker, Jensen and Zinn in class, my interpretation of what the study of history is has changed. I'm glad we read these articles because I think it'll help me present the material to my students when I become a teacher.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Second Post
Zinn, Becker and Stearns all raised interesting points in their articles about the values of history and why people should study it I really enjoyed reading all three of them, but towards the end Becker's article started to loose my attention, although the interesting points were still there.
The one thing that Becker really caught my attention with was the definition part. He took a simple definition such as, "History is the knowledge of events that have occurred in the past." and simplified it into the definition of "History is the memory of things said and done." I think that this interested me because i never would have thought to simplify the definition like that. Another thing about Becker that I found really interesting was the fact that he states the we are all are own historians and uses the everyday life of Mr. Everyman to prove it. I agree with Sy's blog post about Becker's argument on the idea that people should study history because it has an importance on everyone's life, including the example of Mr. Everyman and the coal. On page 224, he basically is trying to prove, in my point of view, that one small thing or event can tick your memory.
I particularly enjoyed Stearn's article the best. I think Stearn's talked about things from the teaching side a little bit more than the other two articles, which would relate more to me. Stearn's says that "History should be studied because it is essential to individuals and to society, and because it harbors beauty." Stearn's arguments of why to study history in a nutshell are to learn about human behavior, understand people and other societies, moral understanding, and that it brings meaning to the present. If we didn't study other people and other societies then we fail to understand how other people behave. I thought that Caroline's post was interesting when she talks about how "it allows us to understand people and societies and the changes that have occurred in those societies."
"I want them to know that if people don't take a stand, the world will remain unchanged, and who wants that". Zinn's article is all about citizenship and moral understanding of history. He believes a lot in opinions and letting students form their own opinion instead of feeding them facts and telling them that this is what they have to believe in. He talks about how "teachers should dwell on Shay's Rebellion, on colonial rebellions, on the abolitionist movement, on the populist movement, on the labor movement, and so on and make sure these social movements in the making of history gives students a feeling that they as citizens are the most important actors in history." This was a powerful statement to me, because I feel a lot of time in high school history classes, teachers forget to mention all these movements where average people stood up and took a stand for what they thought was important. When I become a teacher, I hope that I never forget to mention the actions of everyday people, so my students have some faith that they too can do something important and help change the world. Zinn's article was the article that i agreed with his points the most.
"We have to look for factors that took shape earlier." This is one statement in Sterns article that I found myself strongly agreeing too. You always here people asking why to study history, its done and over with. The answer to that is plain and simple. History always repeats itself in some way or form. Not necessarily the event itself, but the theme somehow comes up. Some people have said that the way our economy is right now is a central theme repeat of the Great Depression. So I believe that we need to learn about the different events, societies, gender roles and the way everyday life was in history so we can get a better understand of what to expect for the future.
The one thing that Becker really caught my attention with was the definition part. He took a simple definition such as, "History is the knowledge of events that have occurred in the past." and simplified it into the definition of "History is the memory of things said and done." I think that this interested me because i never would have thought to simplify the definition like that. Another thing about Becker that I found really interesting was the fact that he states the we are all are own historians and uses the everyday life of Mr. Everyman to prove it. I agree with Sy's blog post about Becker's argument on the idea that people should study history because it has an importance on everyone's life, including the example of Mr. Everyman and the coal. On page 224, he basically is trying to prove, in my point of view, that one small thing or event can tick your memory.
I particularly enjoyed Stearn's article the best. I think Stearn's talked about things from the teaching side a little bit more than the other two articles, which would relate more to me. Stearn's says that "History should be studied because it is essential to individuals and to society, and because it harbors beauty." Stearn's arguments of why to study history in a nutshell are to learn about human behavior, understand people and other societies, moral understanding, and that it brings meaning to the present. If we didn't study other people and other societies then we fail to understand how other people behave. I thought that Caroline's post was interesting when she talks about how "it allows us to understand people and societies and the changes that have occurred in those societies."
"I want them to know that if people don't take a stand, the world will remain unchanged, and who wants that". Zinn's article is all about citizenship and moral understanding of history. He believes a lot in opinions and letting students form their own opinion instead of feeding them facts and telling them that this is what they have to believe in. He talks about how "teachers should dwell on Shay's Rebellion, on colonial rebellions, on the abolitionist movement, on the populist movement, on the labor movement, and so on and make sure these social movements in the making of history gives students a feeling that they as citizens are the most important actors in history." This was a powerful statement to me, because I feel a lot of time in high school history classes, teachers forget to mention all these movements where average people stood up and took a stand for what they thought was important. When I become a teacher, I hope that I never forget to mention the actions of everyday people, so my students have some faith that they too can do something important and help change the world. Zinn's article was the article that i agreed with his points the most.
"We have to look for factors that took shape earlier." This is one statement in Sterns article that I found myself strongly agreeing too. You always here people asking why to study history, its done and over with. The answer to that is plain and simple. History always repeats itself in some way or form. Not necessarily the event itself, but the theme somehow comes up. Some people have said that the way our economy is right now is a central theme repeat of the Great Depression. So I believe that we need to learn about the different events, societies, gender roles and the way everyday life was in history so we can get a better understand of what to expect for the future.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Why I like History
Although I didn't admit it the first day, of course I've heard the rumors about History 200. I've heard that its intensive reading and writing. I haven't heard to the extreme that you'll want to die, but "people" say that its tough. Everyone that i had talked to though had passed the course, so I know it will be manageable if I stay on-top of everything. This semester I really hope to become a better writer and be able to analyze texts/documents from history. Those are two things that i tend to struggle with. Just from the first class, I feel like I'm going to learn how to become a more confident person in those areas. I enjoy working in groups discussing different topics and bouncing ideas off of other people who share the same interest, but I am not a fan of group projects. Its always interesting to be in a group with people of an opposing views though. I've always wanted to be a teacher, but it wasnt until my senior year that i realized that becoming a history teacher would be interesting since i find the subject so intriguing. I like the study of the history because it shows you how people just like you and I lived during a different time period. I like learning about the different time periods and seeing how rapidly things changed, and what things stayed the same. I really enjoy learning political history and major time periods such as the Civil Rights Movement and The Great Depression (which works perfectly for this class).
Sunday, September 4, 2011
All about me
My name is Jaclyn Perry, but i prefer to be called Jackie. I'm a sophomore here at RIC and live on campus. I'm from Rhode island, but find it much easier to live here. so far my semester is going good, but then i haven't been overwhelmed with too much work yet. I'm taking five classes and work two jobs, so my semester should be interesting and i'm hoping I make it out sane. I'm in the class because i am an secondary education major studying in history. This class was obviously needed for my major, but it interested me because i heard rumors that we wrote a lot dealing with history and analyzed different things, which i'm not so good at. So i hope to learn how to become better at that through this course. I'm very interested in American History, some of the favorite things are political, the Civil Rights Movement and the Civil War Era. When I'm not in class, like i said before i have two jobs that keep me crazy busy, but i enjoy hanging out with my friends and going out. I'm really easy going and get along with most people. Looking forward to meeting some new people in this class.
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