Historical Connections Between Cause And Effect

Have students use their worksheet notes to debate the primary source documents as a class. Use the overheads to focus this discussion on each source in turn. Urge students to follow these ground rules: • Use your worksheets as a guide for the discussion or debate. • Try to reach agreement about the main ideas and the significance of each primary source document. • Look for points of agreement as well as disagreement between the primary sources. • Listen closely to all points of view about each primary source. • Focus on the usefulness of each source to the historian, not merely on whether you agree or disagree with that source’s point of view.

Why is there racial tension and political dissension in America? Why did Russia feel its Crimean invasion was justifiable? How did China become an economic power? These questions are answered by a proper understanding of history, helping us to better comprehend the world of 2015. Education’s role needs to be thus: to prepare students as learned individuals and to exist in such an international community. This is why I think history is still incredibly relevant despite focusing on the

Historians believe they need to find the truth. They make arguments, write papers, and give lecture on what they are saying is the truth. Historians want to learn what happened. This is important, because history teaches many lessons. Students of history agree or disagree with historian's arguments and what they say happened or what is the cause of some event.

History is a remarkable subject that offers and eagles eye view into the past. With textbooks such as, Hist3, a great deal of interesting information can be acquired. However, a common misconception runs rampant through students minds; the idealism that history is useless and that the subject is that of a drag. Who can blame them? Our text books can only do so much in terms of providing the means in educating ourselves when we’re not in a class room and when given the opportunity to appear in class we have the luxury of (hopefully) having and interesting professor to enlighten us on all the side conflicts, affairs, and bloodshed that has happened. Even so, when we as students have exhausted the book and our instructors, we have the privilege

History class in itself has a specific purpose which seems to be frequently forgotten. We learn about violent and horrible events in our past, as well as life- changing and positively impacting ones. From the negative events, we learn what went wrong and how to prevent similar tragedies from happening. From the positive, we gather knowledge and comprehension of the basis of our modern society. We are a self- repairing race, analyzing every flaw and figuring out what caused it. It's an ancient practice, trial and error is human nature.

History can be an intricate and laborious subject to teach and learn. James W. Loewen, author, historian, and sociologist, is the perfect example of someone who appreciates the subject in all aspects, but knows how underestimated it is. As he says in Lies My Teacher Told Me, “Our educational media turn flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest” (Loewen 11). Throughout the book, he further elucidated the idea of that quote by introducing particular topics that deserved more details and acknowledgement. Loewen argues with enough reasoning from numerous textbooks that the writers aren’t involving all facts that should be included to inform the students. Nearly all points

History class this past week consisted of lecture, class discussion, and our weekly exam. The topics discussed during this session were interesting and informative. The lecture content stimulated thought-provoking questions which lead to high student engagement level. The lecture for this week was easier follow in comparison to the lecture last week and I walked away with a better understanding of the subject matter.

To begin, a major flaw in the way American history courses are taught is due to the fact that textbooks do not allow students to form their own opinions, for everything is presented as “fact”. This is exemplified through the way early American life is taught. For example, a controversial topic is the specific destination of the Mayflower during the Pilgrim’s journey to America. Some historians believe their arrival in Massachusetts was on purpose to be far from Anglican control in Virginia, while others believe violent storms lead them off track, or there were just navigation errors. The flaw then arises for all textbooks only pick one, and present it as fact to their readers for they believe it is the students’ only way to “learn” about the past (81).

Throughout secondary school, instead of accepting the facts stated in my textbooks, I continued to ask questions. Disillusioned by how complex historical events were taught like equations with a simple cause and effect, senior year of high school I determined that I would become a teacher. As a teacher, I aspire to not be hindered by standardized requirements and teach history in a way that resonates with students and evokes passion.

Frances FitzGerald, in her essay on the modification of American history textbooks (1979), reasons that the education of students is biased through the interpretations of history, by historians, in contemporary American history textbooks because they “force students to think as historians think” thereby discouraging the evolution of new ideas and promoting intellectual laziness in students who simply conform to that way of thinking. She supports this reasoning with detailed, logical fallacy, juxtaposing anecdotes, and compelling syllogism. FitzGerald’s purpose is to expose educational bias in historical textbooks in order to make them less subjective in their accounts of history as well as include multiple

McAnulty. I already knew some things about history such as some of the lies, or some of the different standpoints, and some of the different viewpoints. But being in his class for about three weeks Mr. McAnulty has taught me a lot about history. Loewen and I have pretty much the same viewpoint of U.S History. We both want the truth and want answers. The truth to us might be a lie to someone else and that is another problem with U.S History. It isn’t consistent. People always change the historic stories that are told. If you live in a real conservative neighborhood would be taught the conservative viewpoints, and if you live in a very liberal neighborhood you would be taught on the liberal standpoints. Sometimes the story is so different no one knows the truth. That is the only thing we need to make America understand its History is the

The modern student watches and listens for entertainment purposes only, never taking a look at another perspective of the story. In O’Connor’s two stages and four frameworks, he explains that “students should be taught how to question the images they see on the screen, just as they are urged to look for loaded words or phrases in a book or newspaper.” Students’ learning and interaction is what we as educators or historians are trying to teach, that questioning is needed for a deeper understanding of history and to not repeat the

I think the best way to go about teaching history is to try to approach each historical event with objectivity and skepticism. This process described by Haskell allows you to teach your students the value of listening to other people’s opinions, by listening to others you allow yourself to be exposed to new ideas or beliefs. Being skeptical is an important value to install while teaching. Skepticism allows you to question your own historical bias and personal perspectives, having doubt creates the ability to question yourself and be open to new teachings. Although I agree with Haskell’s approach, I also agree with some of Novick’s opinions. I believe that to some point we will never know the real truth in regards to some historical events.

Sources are essential when investigating events of the past. However, narrative texts are forces to be reckoned with, in constructing our own memories pertaining to history. We can be trained to analyze every last drop of a source if we are so driven, but the moment it starts to pull at our heartstrings, we may not be so bold. Instead, we often treat narrative texts as binoculars into the past, guiding our educational journey. Doubts of credibility or accuracy are given backseat status, as these sources tap into our empathetic human nature. We automatically put ourselves directly into the story, in the perspective of the protagonist as determined by the source, and consequently any future opinion of this event will be affected

This unit had students looking more closely at their past and how it relates to the present. The students also spent a great deal of time learning about foundational skills that can help them further along in their studies. I focused on analyzing two objectives for my class. The first objective is to be able to compare and contrast the present day community to that of the past using primary sources. The second objective is to create simple timelines to describe important events in the history of the school or local community.