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HISTORY
413
FOR LIBERAL STUDIES MAJORS
Being Part of the Solution
and not the Problem in the Teaching
of History |
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HEURISTIC:
“encouraging the student to
discover for herself or
himself.” |
John M. Ysursa,
Ph.D.
Department of History
Office: AL 586 |
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Four course objectives:
·
What is
American (California) Civilization?
There is no one answer to this, and it varies depending upon
one’s perspective; i.e., what questions you ask of American
history and what points you concentrate on. In this course
we will approach this issue from various perspectives.
·
What is a
History Thinking Machine?
This course endeavors to explore ways of HOW to think about
history as opposed to WHAT we should think. Historians
train to approach the study of history with various “history
tools” that will be developed.
·
What does
it take to bring history alive?
This course examines the roots of the ongoing dilemma as to
why so many students perceive history as being
“boring/irrelevant.” By identifying sources of the problem,
the hope is that some viable solutions might emerge so that
we can break this seemingly endless cycle.
·
What does
history have to do with my life?
Benjamin Franklin divided knowledge into two categories:
the useful and ornamental. Seemingly, history appears to be
ornamental, but could it be that it might be useful? This
course explores this possibility.
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PREMISE:
"You cannot give what you do not have"
PERSPECTIVE:
"Teaching is not the filling of the pail
but the
lighting of the fire."
- William Butler Yeats
PLEDGE: "I owe it to my students of
tomorrow to challenge myself today."
THE USE OF HISTORY: History is not a fixed
story students have to swallow but a way of thinking they can apply
to life.
-James Loewen
THE 3 KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE
WORLD: The foolish fail to
learn from their mistakes and successes,
while the smart do,
but it is the wise who can learn from the mistakes and successes of others.
HISTORY AT ITS BEST: To clarify an ever-changing
present and inform the future with wisdom.
THE CHALLENGE OF HISTORY:
Historical
thought is not a natural process: it goes against the grain of how we ordinarily
think, [which is]
one of the reasons why it is much easier to learn names, dates, and stories than
it is to [understand] the past. --Sam Wineburg
THE USE OF HISTORY
History is not a fixed
story students have to swallow but a way of thinking they can apply
to life.
-James Loewen
THE THREE KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE
WORLD
The foolish fail to
learn from their mistakes and successes,
while the smart do,
but it is the wise who can learn from the mistakes and successes of others.
HISTORY AT ITS BEST:
To clarify an ever-changing
present and inform the future with wisdom.
THE CHALLENGE OF HISTORY:
Historical
thought is not a natural process: it goes against the grain of how we ordinarily
think, [which is]
one of the reasons why it is much easier to learn names, dates, and stories than
it is to [understand] the past.
--Sam Wineburg
CHALLENGE OF HISTORY
II:
"If you can't tell the truth about
who you are, you can't tell the truth about others."
--from the film Who is Afraid of Virginia Wolf
"The most important of all sciences man can and must learn
is the science of living so as to do the least evil and the greatest
good possible."
--Leo Tolstoy, novelist
“Intelligence plus
character—that is the goal of true education.”
--Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader
SDSU History Fans with author
James Loewen (Spring 2008)
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Part
II.
