How I Would Teach History
History Should Be Taken Personally and Taught Jazzily
“Now that we know each others’ names, class, we’re going to start off with a test and an essay.”“Argh!”
“Groan.”
“Pfloop.” (that was the sound of a boy sliding his hand from his forehead down to his chin while flapping his lips)
“And yes, the test consists mainly of dates and nouns (the names of places and people).”“Oh, come on, Daddy-O! Why do we need to learn that stuff?!? It has no practical value! In real life (after we get out of school), what difference will it make if we remember that Columbus sailed in 1492, the Mayflower reached Plymouth in 1620, James Marshall discovered gold in California in 1848, or that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 — and all that junk?”
“You're right; knowing those dates will have no impact on your day-do-day life; unless you consider scoring higher on your college entrance exams to be practical, or if you think you might want to become a history teacher some day.”“So if we don’t plan on going to college, or becoming a history nerd, it’s all a waste of time learning that stuff, right?”
“Yes, unless your grades matter to you at all.”“Taking that test is bad enough, but an essay? Really?!? On what?”
“Thanks for asking; this will be your theme: How Understanding History Makes My Life Better.”“You just admitted knowing history factoids has no practical value, so how can knowing it make our lives better?
“You missed the theme of the essay. It’s not How Knowing History Makes My Life Better, it’s How Understanding History Makes My Life Better.” “What’s the diff?”
“That question will be answered when your essay that you will write tonight—”“Tonight!?!”
“Yes, tonight. I don’t give much homework, as for the most part we will be discussing historical events together, during class, not reading assigned pages and cramming for tests. In fact, there will be no tests besides this first one. There will be no homework except the essay. Actually, you will take the same test again at the end of the school year. I will give you the answers after everyone has completed the test today. Feel free to write the answers on your test sheet — you can keep it, I won't be collecting them — and look over it from time to time throughout the year in preparation for the only other test, at the end of the year, which will have the same exact questions. You will also then write an essay on the same theme again. 'The diff,' by the way, between knowing and understanding history will be answered when the essay that you write tonight is compared with the one you will write at the end of the year. You will see how much you have learned, and what the difference is between simply knowing a few facts and truly understanding what happened in history, and why it happened, and how things can be either avoided (if bad) or perpetuated (if good).“So, yes, there will be homework tonight, but that will be the last time you get homework from me until the end of the year. Everyone should ace the test (the second time, that is), and I also have great expectations for the second attempt on the essay theme.”“Let me get this straight: after this, we won’t have any homework or tests until the end of the year?”
“That’s right.”“So we’re just going to sit around and listen to you blab about history all day…”
“Not so. We, together, will discuss specific events that occurred in history. I want us to reach a consensus, or at least an understanding, as a group.”“What do you mean by consensus?”
“Agreement. I want us to come to an agreement.”“What kind of agreement — that a certain event happened? In other words, we’re going to vote on which news is fake news and which news is real news?”
“No, I mean an agreement on which previous decision or set of decisions caused a specific event to occur (when it comes to man-made events, not solar flares and such), what we can learn from those manifestations of cause-and-effect, how an event could have been avoided if it was a bad thing or how it could be duplicated if it was a good thing.”“I doubt we will be able to agree — come to a consensus — on anything, and certainly not on everything!”
“Maybe not, but we will try, and if we end up agreeing to disagree on a certain topic, at least we’ll know where the people who view things differently than us are coming from. We can agree to respect each other’s opinions. That’s my hope. That’s my goal. And, full disclosure: I expect that we will reach unanimous accord in at least some discussions.”“That’ll be the day.”
“That was a song by Buddy Holly and the Crickets.”“Who?”
“We might get around to talking about them later, tangentially anyway. Waylon Jennings was in that band.”“Who?”
“Never mind that for now.”“What’s the point of all this discussion, though? Say we agree this king was good and that king was bad. So what — that won’t change anything.”
“You’re probably right, if that was what we were going to do, but what I have in mind is more what might be termed The Principles of History.”“Principles? You mean like Principle Skinner on The Simpsons?”
“No, principles as in fundamental truths that can be applied to other situations. Something you learn that has application elsewhere, even universally.”“Really? Do you think we’re ready for that?”
“Yes; you will be, anyway. At any rate, there’s only one way to find out. And I have faith in you.“You’ve probably heard this before, but Santayana said, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’”“Carlos Santana?”
“No, 20th-century philosopher George Santayana. How do you know who Carlos Santana is, anyway — aren’t you a little young to know him?”“My parents are big fans — I’ve heard his music all my life.”
“Good for them — he’s one of the most creative and original guitarists ever.”“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Okay, where was I... Oh, yes: History is important. You could even say history is everything, in that everything that has happened is history — by definition, once something has occurred, it is part of history. And history is not just about kings, good and bad, and wars, and natural disasters, and elections, and such. When you think of history you may think of world history, or Europen history, or American history, or California history, but this city we live in also has its history. Your neighborhood has a history all its own; your family does; you yourself do. Everyone has a story, and that story is their history. It matters, it affects your future, and it affects others. All of these contribute to the history that we will be discussing.”“We are going to discuss the history of my neighborhood?”
“Maybe.”“That’s in your syllabus?”
“I have no syllabus. I am going to conduct this class in a jazz fashion.”“What do you mean by that? I don’t like jazz.”
“Jazz is a world in itself. You can’t say you don’t like it; you haven’t heard every bit of it, or even a sample of every subgenre of it. But I didn’t really mean the music itself; I was referring to the philosophy of jazz.”“Again, what do you mean by that — how can a type of music have a philosophy?”
“Jazz is improvisational, and democratic; what one cat plays influences the next, who influences the next. And each player gets their say — all contribute to the musical discussion. Each instrument is featured at points in a jazz concert — even the bass and drums. A jazz performance is a journey; it’s an experiment. And that’s how we will proceed — everyone contributes, and should be open to be influenced and inspired by anyone and everyone else. Nobody will know what we are going to discuss on any given day. I won’t know myself. This class will basically be a conversation between all of us that begins tomorrow — after you complete your test and write your initial essay — and continues throughout the year.”“How will it work? How will we know how we’re doing in the class?”
“By participating. By joining in the discussion. Everyone who gets involved will pass this class. Most who do will get As. In fact, the only way you can participate and not get an A is if you interrupt others or, worse yet, belittle or bully them, verbally or otherwise. Today's written test will have no bearing on your grade (as long as you complete it) and the one at the end will only count for 5% of your grade. Something I want you to learn in this class is teamwork. Learn to think clearly, state your opinions confidently but respectfully, and cooperate with each other. If you do that, you will have succeeded, and helped others to succeed, too. This is not a competition, it’s a cooperative effort. We’re in this together! “What about tomorrow — what are we going to do then?”
“I don't know yet. Our initial discussion, tomorrow, will be based on what you write in your essays. We will all learn from each other.“To sum up my philosophy about teaching this class: History is personal. What I am really teaching here (after getting past the necessary evil of drilling facts into you to pass the only test you're going to have) are the Principles of History, specifically that we can, and should, learn from what people have done before — sometimes so that we know what positive things to do in a certain situation, and often what type of thinking and actions to avoid.
“Now finish those tests. Once everyone is done, I’ll give you the answers.”
Interesting premise…