Re: Forgotten anniversaries -- Spearfish Lake Tales

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1], 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

Subject: Re: Forgotten anniversaries

Author:
Leo Kerr

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 19:39:47 05/16/15 Sat
In reply to: Dmitri 's message, "Re: Forgotten anniversaries" on 08:12:41 05/16/15 Sat

it almost sounds like you're proposing... a systemic method of... exploring history.

For an explanatory example, I'm a geography major (not that it shows,) and there were two major ways presented as "how to teach geography" -- one being the style very often taught in middle school: Brazil is the largest country in South America, and it's principal exports are X, and it's principal imports are Y, and the population is Z, and the GDP, is...

Where I went for my degree, "systemic" geography, that of "why" are things there. How does a river (in general) work, that can be applied to, say, that specific river? What sorts of businesses tend to end up at corners, versus mid-block? How far from the city center? And all that jazz. Need to know the number of strawberries exported from California in 2004? Know where/how to find out. (Wow: I was a college junior when Mosaic started showing up in some of the computer labs.. not that there was a lot that could be done with it.)

Applied to history might be interesting. Confusing, difficult, but interesting. Not a collection of names, facts, and dates, but looking at causes, and then being able to try and find such things in, for example, the Battle of Hastings?

Could that *work?* It's a very interesting, curious idea.

Although I have to admit, I'm very cautious about charging, full speed ahead, in to educational experiments. I went through middle and high school as our region was swinging into "whole language". I still had learned the phonic based reading and such, but my learning of base grammar has been dodgy. (Fortunately, at least locally, whole language seems to have been discredited, but I don't know if grammar is making its way back in.)

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Forgotten anniversaries

Author:
Dmitri
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 08:00:21 05/19/15 Tue

>it almost sounds like you're proposing... a systemic
>method of... exploring history.
>

I'm not sure method matters a whole lot, and that will depend on teacher or curriculum requirements (or the committee stipulating such) at the school.

What I was questioning was content. I do agree that something probably needs to be taught, but teachers or curriculum committees also have to realize that interests differ in students. In teachers, too. And many students won't care at all about any aspect of history.

As I said before, there's an awful lot of history, more than can be learned by any one person, and more is happening all the time to be added to the whole. What portion of it to cover for a "history course?" Contrary to belief, they can't teach it all. It is always specifics that are taught, though some may be more general than others.

For instance, here in the USA, American History is the concentration. How much history of Thailand or Russian Georgia is taught here? Not much, if any at all. How much American History is taught in those and other countries, much less Michigan specific, or that of Chicago or Peru, Indiana? (That's "PEEE-Roo" by the way, not pronounced there like the country in South America.)

Looking at it that way, it's always some portion of a systemic whole in method or content, more specific than the term definition of "covering the whole system" (total world history?) would require.

[> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Forgotten anniversaries

Author:
K Pelle aka dotB
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 19:50:07 05/21/15 Thu

>For instance, here in the USA, American History is the
>concentration. How much history of Thailand or
>Russian Georgia is taught here? Not much, if any at
>all. How much American History is taught in those and
>other countries, much less Michigan specific, or that
>of Chicago or Peru, Indiana? (That's "PEEE-Roo" by the
>way, not pronounced there like the country in South
>America.)
>

Hmm, I think this article says a lot about most of the educational system in the USA;
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/one-third-of-american-8th-graders-think-canada-is-a-dictatorship-1.3082239

I read that and was stunned at the results.

kp

[> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Forgotten anniversaries

Author:
Boyd Percy
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 18:34:02 05/22/15 Fri

>
>>For instance, here in the USA, American History is the
>>concentration. How much history of Thailand or
>>Russian Georgia is taught here? Not much, if any at
>>all. How much American History is taught in those and
>>other countries, much less Michigan specific, or that
>>of Chicago or Peru, Indiana? (That's "PEEE-Roo" by the
>>way, not pronounced there like the country in South
>>America.)
>>
>
>Hmm, I think this article says a lot about most of the
>educational system in the USA;
> >href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/one-third-of-amer
>ican-8th-graders-think-canada-is-a-dictatorship-1.30822
>39">http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/one-third-of-americ
>an-8th-graders-think-canada-is-a-dictatorship-1.3082239
>
>
>I read that and was stunned at the results.
>
>kp

I'm not surprised at all. I daresay that many middle and high school students in the U.S. probably have no idea where Canada is located.

[> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Forgotten anniversaries

Author:
Mikey
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 11:37:41 07/01/15 Wed

>Hmm, I think this article says a lot about most of the
>educational system in the USA;
> >href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/one-third-of-amer
>ican-8th-graders-think-canada-is-a-dictatorship-1.30822
>39">http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/one-third-of-americ
>an-8th-graders-think-canada-is-a-dictatorship-1.3082239
>
>
>I read that and was stunned at the results.
>
>kp

Likewise.
My dad grew up in Canada and had a number of
interesting stories about his teenage years
in Toronto.

>I'm not surprised at all. I daresay that
>many middle and high school students in
>the U.S. probably have no idea where
>Canada is located.

True.
The teachers teach the exit exams and no
more than they have to.

After getting my amateur radio license I learned
a lot of world Geography ... because I had an
interest in doing so.
Every station is assigned a callsign by their
local radio authority. You are identified by
that callsign when on the air.
Anyway, one winter morning I asked the teacher
where Samoa was, as I'd talked to a radio
operator there the previous night - but it
was daytime and summer for him. The teacher
accused me of lying (she'd never heard of
ham radio) and sent me to the principal.
Fortunately the principal's uncle had been
a ham and had a clue.
The end result was that the teacher got
an education (what a concept!), and I
learned where Samoa was.