The disappearing history term paper

The Boston Globe ^ | 5/5/2002 | Jeff Jacoby

[Leisler]

''Mesopotamia. The Renaissance. Christopher Columbus. The Constitution. Civil War. Normandy. Martin Luther King Jr. Sputnik. Vietnam. History is more than a series of events; it's more than just stories and pictures; it's more than just people. History is a unique combination of people, places, events, and circumstances that come together to reveal the character of the peoples, nations, and worlds of the past. Thus, when I look at history, a variety of thoughts and interpretations come to mind. Without the past, there would be no present. ''

[Leisler]

.History, like any other commodity, will be provided by the government as needed to achieve public consensus. It is too important to be left in the irresponsible hands of individuals.

More or less.

[Catholicguy]

Public Schools refuse to mention Jesus, which means they can't speak about The Incarnation, nor The Deicide, nor The Resurection; so, they really don't address THE most important part of History which means that what they do teach is, relatively, inconsequential.

[First_Salute]

Good post; thanks.

[Leisler]

I feel like a real crank, but I just find public schools bad in so many ways. The size, the effect of the other students, the architecture, let alone what is, or is not being taught.

[Skooz]

History is, like, this really awesome thing about dudes who used to live and the stuff they did. They, like, fought wars and wrote constitutions and stuff. They had these bad dudes they called kings and some of them even had empires. Bad to the bone, hombre. It's cool to read history because the books have lots of cool stories about people being all brave and stuff. Radical.

I'm sure the above is what my high school history essays looked like. I eventually matured and developed a very good (if I do say so myself) style of writing and earned a history degree with honors, having written 345,876,109,456 (or so it seemed) history term papers in college, never getting a grade lower than 93. I bet some of these kids will do the same. Most high school juniors can just barely be considered humanoid life forms, much less produce a coherant work of scholarship. They'll grow out of it.

[SoftballMominVA]

My sixth grader laughed at this post--and wants to know where she can be transferred. She's in the middle of her third term paper this MONTH for her history class.

And yes, she is in public school--there are a few good ones still left. I told her to go back and keep writing

[CatoRenasci]

Pupils in high school cannot write coherent essays or research papers in history because neither the chronological framework nor the facts of history are taught.

Rather, teachers give thematic courses ('exploration', 'revolutions', women in history') and expect students to place the material into context themselves. The teachers themselves learned history in this smorgasbord manner as undergraduates over the past 30 years, how can one expect the teachers to teach what they do not know?

Forty years ago and more, pupils and teachers complained that history was 'dry as dust' and consisted of little more than dates and facts -- 'kings and battles' as we used to say in university history departments. So the subject was broadened and more 'interesting' social and intellectual history were added. This was reasonable at the time: those who did this sort of work put it into context, as they had themselves been trained in the old way and knew the dates and facts. The intellectual history was good because it dealt with the high culture, and the social history broadened our understanding of what was happening historically below the level that had always interested historians. So far so good. But then, in the sixites and thereafter, with the counterculture and the student revolt, and with an increasing marxism in the university, history began to be seen as a political act, with an emphasis on black or hispanic history or women's (wimmins) history (aka 'herstory') or the history of popular culture. In short, pap.

The result was within a generation of scholars one went from a situation where all university and college historians and most teachers of history at the secondary level knew their chronology and facts (in addition to whatever real research work interested them at the higher levels) to one in which only a fraction of university and college historians have a broad historical perpsective and know their 'kings and battles', and even fewer teaching at the secondary level even can display a comprehensive knowledge at the level of a good tradition survey course textbook (e.g. Palmer and Coulton's The Making of the Moder World or Morison, Commager & Leuchtenberg's The Growth of the American Republic.

[galt-jw]

so the boston glob is bitching about the morons they created? guess what idiots? these morons will be looking after you when you are old, if you get that far...as they will be in charge of security long before then.....apparently they thought their foolish philosophy had no personal repercussions...you learn real fast when the threat is PERSONAL.....hahahahahha.

[Salvation]

Is it time to home-school or put kids in private school? I think so. What about you?

[aristotleman]

This country will be destroyed if these brainless children take over. Teenagers here disgust me. It's all me, me, me, sex, fashion and music. They mostly have no values, no ability to think critically or beyond the now, nor do they have any respect for the greatness of this nation.

[Teacher317]

In a heart-breaking moment for the history-buff in me, 2 of my top 8th grade students actually asked me, "Which war was George Washington in?" Maybe it was just a 'duh!' moment for them, or they thought it was a trick question... but I'm still reeling from the shock, which I made absolutely NO attempt to suppress at the time.

[galt-jw]

THEY ARE taking over....see, airport security screeners, govt employees, ps teachers, etc....follow the slope on the graph, it leads down....it will soon be time to flee...seriously.

[Teacher317]

(yes, I know he 'cut his war teeth' in the French and Indian War, but the question on their homework asked which war he commanded the American army, and the chapter's title is "Revolution")

[Leisler]

I think it depends upon the town in which you live. I live in Massachusetts and the range in quality of public schools is dramatic. And it isn't about money or class size. Teachers are like any one else, good elite teachers want to be with a like minded cadre, so they gravitate to those schools, with those students. Lincoln and Lexington come to mind. I think there is enough critial mass, support and materials that home schooling can work fine for an average, or even less, but commited parent(s). What ever the realities you have, your children and the nation need the very best from they young. Good luck, never say no, never say enough.

[Leisler]

They won't take over, they're brainless. They will be the mob for those that do take over. Instead of burning pitchforks in the night, it will be a riot at the ballot box. Everyone now seems to compete for the favors of the masses. ug.

[Skooz]

Your story reminds me of something one of my old History professors told me:

He was teaching a survey course on Western History to college freshman. After class, one of the students came to him and asked, "Julius Caesar, he bees for real?" (that's an exact quote). Flabbergasted, my old professor looked at her and replied: "Yes. Julius Caesar bees for real."

He told me that story when I was planning on becoming a history professor. He was letting me know what to expect.

[don-o]

Homeschool bump

[CatoRenasci]

I agree with you that most history textbooks at the high school level are abysmally bad, and have been for the past 50 years or so. The ones I was taught from were wretched. Fortunately, I had access to, and read, good college level survey course textbooks in both European and American history. My own view is that dumbing the books down is a mistake, the books used (at least in rigorous high schools - but that's a whole other can of worms) should be good undergradutae texts. Even if all of the material is not taught, or taught in less depth, what is taught will be accurate and the futher study materials are there for the interested few.