Blog 4 History

Here are the results of a study/survey that asked students to rate their United States History instructor.

Patience was mentioned 85 times by these same students; kindness, 80 times; clearness, 35; sense of humor, 32; understanding of students, 24; firmness, 21; impartiality, 24; cheerfulness and pleasantness, 19 each; sincerity, 14; sympathy, 16 ; and ability to make work interesting, 21. The writer’s own investigations along this same line with history teachers especially in mind reveal facts relative to the personal and social qualities of teachers similar to the foregoing ones. On one occasion he asked 150 high-school graduates to describe the history teacher who had helped them most to an appreciation and an understanding of history. In the tabulation of the responses to this request the following terms were used over and over again: astounding vitality, impartiality, broad-mindedness, friendliness and kindness to everyone, desire to help, keen sense of humor, attractive personality, pleasing personality, remarkable personality, pleasing manner, interest in the subject, personal interest in each pupil, delightful sense of humor, enthusiasm for the subject, power to inspire the class, ambition and energy, fairness and uprightness, truthfulness and exactness, and a companionable disposition. All these personal and social qualities in a teacher assume large proportion in the minds of their students.

These qualities seem to make a lot of sense. What year do you think this study was done?

The answer: (The teaching of history in junior and senior high schools By Rolla Milton Tryon)

I would generally agree with this pretty fair article by NPR, Today’s Tea Party Isn’t Quite Like 1773′s. The current Tea Party movement is not protesting the lack of representation like their 1773 counterparts who had no representation at all. Current protestors indeed are not happy with those who are representing them and in a lot of cases this crosses party lines. The current movement is anti-big government, anti-spending, and anti-establishment. Though there are some cross currents in comparison, I agree each has to be understood within the context of the times. In the article, Jill Lepore, a history professor at Harvard University who has an interesting book about to come out, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History, makes several observations that I do agree with for the most part. However, when Lepore says, “What most people know about the American Revolution, they learned in elementary school,” I scratch my head as that clearly is not the case. Some may have an elementary level of understanding and there are all kinds of reasons for that.

Americans “want to look to a common past.” But the idea of a unified-in-purpose nation, she says, “has its origins in 19th-century romantic nationalism.” She encourages her students and others to wrestle with the true meanings of the American Revolution. This questioning of what the tea parties — present and past — are all about “is an important part of our political debate.” And so the arguments rage on.

And as we have discussed before and as other websites do on a daily basis, the battleground of history is the use and abuse of it. And indeed the arguments will “rage on” atleast through the November election season.

American Revolution historian Jack Rakove made what I thought was the best observation:

The Tea Act of 1773 that sparked the Boston Tea Party, Rakove says, was born of the crown’s collusion with corporate Britain — the East India Trading Co. So if Tea Partiers are up in arms over the American government being in cahoots with the corporate world — say, over the Obama administration’s handling of the Troubled Assets Relief Program that bailed out many faltering financial institutions — the present-day dismay would have legitimate roots in the ire of yesteryear. “That wouldn’t be implausible,” Rakove says.

That is where the current movement could make some key important historical comparisons.

Recently Elementary students in Virginia attendede the The Cedar Creek Battlefield Kids’ Civil War History Camp to learn about the daily lives of Civil War soldeirs, the battlefield, and some Civil War history.

John Ortman brought his son to the event and declared, “When a 10-year-old develops an interest in history, I think you need to feed that,” Ortman said.

From the news story:

Members of the 5th U.S. Artillery, Company D; the 100th Pennsylvania Company A; and the 1st Virginia Cavalry, Company H, all lent a hand in explaining aspects of the war, from marching instruction to combat demonstrations on horseback.

Before they saw any action, recruits had to take an oath of allegiance to “support, protect and defend the Constitution and the government of the United States against all enemies domestic or foreign.”

The group then began learning facing movements and how to get into formation by standing elbow to elbow, all with the help of their fearless leader, Sgt. Jeff Pennington, of the 100th Pennsylvania Company A.

“Don’t be afraid, you’re soldiers,” he said.

To read more…

Richard Dreyfuss has been praised and criticized for his work in trying to educate young people about American history and the Constitution. He has said: “America is falling far short in preparing its children to become leaders and participants in the democratic system.” Not sure how I feel about this comment, but nonetheless I have in the past applauded his efforts.

From the AP:

ALBANY, N.Y. — Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss is receiving the 2010 Empire State Archives and History Award for his efforts to improve civics education in America’s schools.

According to the Archives Partnership Trust, the award ceremony was part of a public discussion with nationally prominent Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer scheduled for Tuesday night in Albany, N.Y.

Dreyfuss launched The Dreyfuss Initiative last year to spur interest in strengthening American democracy by promoting civics education. His films include “Jaws” and “The Goodbye Girl,” for which he won an Academy Award for best actor.

Other recipients of the award include actor Sam Waterston and historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The Archives Partnership Trust is a non-profit that supports the New York State Archives.

Online: http://www.archives.nysed.gov

A good article about one of Dreyfuss’s recent events.

In my regular (general) United States History class when I asked if anyone knew why they were called “Minute-men,” a student spoke up and declared, “Why that’s cuz they only fought for about a minute before they ran.” He was dead serious. Class erupted in laughter (they were not laughing at him, he laughed as well.) But this did lead me to talk about some myths.

Paul Revere’s ride is another one that has several myths. According to some: “Paul Revere stopped at taverns along the way and was so drunk he fell off his horse at a tavern in Lexington and was captured by the British.” In 1968 The Boston Globe published a story on Patriot’s Day that Revere was drinking the night of his ride. However, historians such as David Hackett Fischer (Paul Revere’s Ride) have successfully dispelled such myths.

“Listen my children, with attentive pause; To the midnight ride of William Dawes.”

Now, a good class discussion piece might be to ask the students why did William Dawes get short changed in history for his efforts that night? Some will say Revere was simply a better promoter. Maybe, but Dawes contributes to his own dimise. As Fischer notes, Dawes made various mistakes during his ride and failed to alert the correct people in numerous towns. However, this still does not explain why Dawes has been forgotten, afterall he did alert a lot of people and made good such time he caught Revere in Lexington just after midnight.

The Guide To Online Schools, which is an online education directory that specializes in online degrees, online schools, and distance learning, picked Blog4history.com as one of its 100 Best History Blogs.

From the publisher:

Reading about history on encyclopedia-type sites can be a drag. The information is completely static, and new research and discoveries take time to make their way into the text. History blogs, on the other hand, recognize that history is a dynamic field: they update frequently and find new and interesting ways to interpret old information. Here you will find a list of the best historical blogs out there, organized by both time period and region.

The list for United States History:

United States History

* Religion in American History: A group blog written by two academics and various guest bloggers, this site discusses issues of religion in America. From the founding and colonization to current issues, no (religious) stone is left unturned.
* U.S. History Blog: General U.S. history makes up this blog. Other media concerning American history are aggregated here.
* Historian: Written by a professor of history at the University of Colorado, this fun blog explores history and sexual politics in America, from 1492-present. She discusses LGBT issues, current research, pop culture, and more.
* Boston 1775: J.L. Bell writes this blog about Boston in the time leading up to the American revolution.
* Native America, Discovered and Conquered: The Lewis and Clark law school library maintains this great blog about what happened to Natives of America during the country’s “discovery.”
* Naval History Blog: If you’re interested in military history, this is the place to go. Maintained by the U.S. Naval Institute, this blog has lots of guest bloggers and multimedia content.
* Civil War History: This blog covers the period of history in the mid 19th century during the American Civil War.
* Blog 4 History: This aesthetically pleasing page has great posts about happenings in U.S. history. There are also primary documents, such as diaries and letters, on the site.
* U.S. Intellectual History: This group blog has posts about the history of thought in America, and the intellectuals that have shaped American national identity.
* Western Americana: The American West is the historical focus of this blog. The fur trade, mining, ranching, cattle, and the frontier are covered.
* Explore Southern History: Cities in the Southern U.S. are highlighted on this blog. Natural wonders, forts, and archaeological sites are some of the subjects explored.

Presidents have regularly addressed students annually for as long as I can remember. However, I don’t actually remember watching one or being forced to. But nonetheless, as a teacher I was told by my administration that today I had to show President Obama’s address to schoolkids. No problem was my response, sounds good. And according to most news stories I have found, High School students across the country said they found President Barack Obama’s annual back-to-school talk Tuesday both “inspiring and relevant.”

As stated, I had no problem showing an address by the President of the United States. My students and I had a nice talk afterword and I thought Obama’s speech was great.

Just that I suspect that had this been a different President the requirement to show the education speech today might not have happened? But whatever, it was only 15 minutes and it was a good speech. Obama is very good at speeches.

State University of New York at Oswego is but one of countless teacher universities that train their instructors to teach about “Circles of Oppression.” For this university, it wants its teachers to recognize that we live in nothing more than a world of injustice. From their syllabus:

The first concept is: There is injustice in our world. Some groups of people are consistently privileged; while others are consistently disadvantaged. The privileging and disadvantaging becomes unjust when it is unearned or undeserved. Often such injustice is perpetuated around race, class, gender, ability, or sexuality groups that people are identified with. However, the faces of oppression often differ across time, place, and situation. Understanding how privilege operates, how disadvantage (or marginalization) occurs, how advantage or disadvantage is cyclical in nature, and how people tend to deny that such injustice is occurring is half of the work we do in C&I to help our students understand teaching for social justice.

We’re all for equality and justice. But when you walk the line of social justice you are walking on a slippery slope as it becomes a judgment call. We’re not talking about racism or hate, that is obvious. If we read the literature of this university and many others, it is about something else.

Oswego wants its teacher candidates — who every year become educators in our children’s classrooms — to be “Change Agents” for social justice.

Teachers, according to Oswego, are to ” interrupt the cycles of oppression.” They are the self-proclaimed judge and jurors of education. Continuing:

Helping pre-teachers learn how to interrupt (or challenge) oppression means learning about (or inventing) strategies to counter oppression (of race, class, gender, (dis)ability, sexuality, and others) across the grade levels and content areas in which our teachers work. Teachers can work as change agents through the content or topics they address as well as through particular pedagogical practices that tend to undermine patterns of oppression.

This institution does not want to produce educators who are going to foster critical thinking and present a classroom of open-minded education. Again

What does it mean to teach for social justice? It means recognizing oppression in its multiple forms, and then taking action in the classroom to interrupt the cycles of oppression. When teachers teach for social justice they are working to end the cycle of oppression.

Taking action in the classroom to teach what? How do you teach social justice without making judgment calls and how do you possibly do that without injecting your own biased viewpoints?

I think those of you who understand what this is really about are probably as appalled as I am. This institution is but one of many that is training the teachers of tomorrow to separate, judge, and teach division.

Look at the graph at the top, it is from this school’s website. It is a convoluted road map to teaching students to see themselves as victims. To teach, in a way, hate and division. There is no such thing as social justice they have been trying to figure this out for over a hundred years. We can focus on justice in the eyes of the law, and that has been addressed from universal suffrage to discrimination. How do you teach that graph? It is not about justice.

More to come…

The History Channel is offering a variety of teaching tools for educators concerning our war veterans. Also they have lately offered teachers and educators some interesting and since it is, well, frankly free stuff it makes it really cool. The latest is their “Take a Veteran to School Day” program which seeks to connect students and veterans.

From the website:

“Take a Veteran to School Day is a national program developed by HISTORY to link veterans with students. Schools and communities invite veterans of all backgrounds to share their stories and receive thanks for their years of service. Teachers, register your Take a Vet to School Day event today and we’ll send you 30 free Take a Veteran to School Day wristbands while supplies last.”

Click here for more information.

I purchased my iPad in June and spent the summer playing with it and have come to the conclusion that it can revolutionize the classroom and at the very least, the student experience within the educational system. I did not anticipate such a revelation. I wanted it for simple functions such as internet at night while in bed and not wanting to grab my laptop, and some other cool apps. But what I am seeing is that the iPad is a nice device for reading books (which shocked me as I never thought I would say that as I am a traditionalist and love paper and cloth). I say stop printing textbooks and require students to purchase an iPad. At $499 for a 16 gig WiFi iPad (which is plenty) it saves money and trees. Students from High School to College will in the long run save money and save their shoulders from lugging around a backpack of books.

Here are my favorite apps for Teachers and Students of History:

1. Dropbox – allows me to share documents, files, PDFs, powerpoints, from my home office computer, home laptop, school computer and iPad. Simply fantastic and helps me stay organized.

2. WinAdmin – this app allows me to remotely access my PC laptop at home or at school from my iPad. So I can run a powerpoint from my iPad while lecturing. Very cool.

3. Quick Office HD – a mini-office suite that allows me to edit Word files that I can easily store and send via dropbox.

4. U.S. History Quiz (McGraw Hill) AP flash cards. A nice and affordable set of flashcards that I can use via my WinAdmin and project using my PC computer from the iPad.

5. GoodReader – allows me to view any type of document from a PDF to a powerpoint.

6. Inkling – is the first generation of iPad textbooks with a growing list of college and AP level text books that students can purchase and download. They can download just a chapter or an entire textbook.

7. Kindle (for iPad) – I love reading books on Kindle. I can highlight sections, get a quick definition by simply tapping the word, and go directly to an Internet search. I can leave bookmarks and notes. Great device for teaching and reading.

8. Desktop – allows for iPad multi-tasking which is a downsize, but the iPad is not about replacing the laptop computer.

9. Historical Docs – there are dozens of apps that allow teachers to have at their fingertips, via the iPad, important historical documents.

10. WordPress – this app allows for me to quickly get into and out of a wordpress blog and there are numerous that are helpful as a teacher.

I will have more on technology and specifically the iPad.