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.