1 - I have a book called History Lessons: How Textbooks Around the World Portray US History (http://www.amazon.com/History-Lessons-Textbooks-Around-Portray/dp/1595580824/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257979959&sr=8-1) (yes, I totally stole it off Kathe's WishList), which I've really been meaning to read but haven't gotten around to, mainly because the very first part about colonialism (I think) was really boring... But for history-types, I think it would be fascinating (and bits that I've peeked at for other events were nifty).
It's also interesting to see what knowledge and perspectives my students come with. I had a girl from Turkey (went to a Turkish school in Kazakhstan through grade 6, then 7-8 back in Turkey) who asked me what slavery meant. I defined it thinking she just didn't know the word in English, and she looked at me like "WHAT??" Turns out she had absolutely no concept of the very idea of slavery. Which is strange, considering it's not just a US-thing. I had another student from Japan who had learned about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of course, but never as... visually as we do. She'd never seen pictures of *people* affected by it, and when they hit that part of the unit, she was pretty stressed out. Poor kid didn't get a lot of sleep for about a week.
2 - When I was in high school, 9th grade (all year) history went up to the Civil War and Reconstruction, then the semester in high school briefly touched on the turn of the century before diving into WWI. Now there's a semester in 8th grade, a year in 9th, and they start the high school semester right before WWII, I believe. And it's not like it was that long ago...
3. What are things about our current era that you think will be unknowable to the people of 2110s?
The concept of restrictions on marriage. We (with the exception of certain JoP's in the south...) are mystified by the idea of not allowing a black man to marry a white woman. Or not allowing a Catholic to marry a Lutheran. In 100 years, I think people will look back and say "Seriously? They THOUGHT that? They had to have like, votes and protests and everything? Crazy." Right or wrong, I think they'll be amazed that our society was so divided over it.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-11-11 10:58 pm (UTC)It's also interesting to see what knowledge and perspectives my students come with. I had a girl from Turkey (went to a Turkish school in Kazakhstan through grade 6, then 7-8 back in Turkey) who asked me what slavery meant. I defined it thinking she just didn't know the word in English, and she looked at me like "WHAT??" Turns out she had absolutely no concept of the very idea of slavery. Which is strange, considering it's not just a US-thing. I had another student from Japan who had learned about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of course, but never as... visually as we do. She'd never seen pictures of *people* affected by it, and when they hit that part of the unit, she was pretty stressed out. Poor kid didn't get a lot of sleep for about a week.
2 - When I was in high school, 9th grade (all year) history went up to the Civil War and Reconstruction, then the semester in high school briefly touched on the turn of the century before diving into WWI. Now there's a semester in 8th grade, a year in 9th, and they start the high school semester right before WWII, I believe. And it's not like it was that long ago...
3. What are things about our current era that you think will be unknowable to the people of 2110s?
The concept of restrictions on marriage. We (with the exception of certain JoP's in the south...) are mystified by the idea of not allowing a black man to marry a white woman. Or not allowing a Catholic to marry a Lutheran. In 100 years, I think people will look back and say "Seriously? They THOUGHT that? They had to have like, votes and protests and everything? Crazy." Right or wrong, I think they'll be amazed that our society was so divided over it.