So long as I can remember, history has been the one subject that has lowered the quality of my education the most. From the mindless memorization of dates of the �important� events, to the biased discussions of religion and world exploration, history has stood out as the one class, throughout my 12 years of education, that has brought absolutely no clarity and total disinterest in its subject matter. Without question, there are many important past events that we all should know about. But just knowing about events, including the terrible injustices, isn�t enough. We must discuss these events and come up with alternate solutions for the problems that our ancestors faced. It is also important to make history relevant. Teaching history in a vacuum is hardly worth while. Incorporating more history into the other three base subjects would bring a whole new meaning into an other wise bland subject.
Some of the things that make people so angry during discussions about history are the biases that regularly exist. The single topic with the most controversy has always been religion. During world history, many different religions are supposed to be discussed. The decision of how much time to spend talking about a specific religion, however, is left up to the instructor. This is a mistake. Each individual in every classroom across the United States has their own religious preference. Leaving each individual teacher the job of determining the amount of time spent on each religion, thereby giving each teacher the right of determining the importance and relevance of each religion, is an unfair practice that needs to stop. A similar bias exists when it comes to world exploration. Throughout history, groups have gone on world conquests. During which, many innocent cultures have been slaughtered and their people have even experienced acts of genocide. Most would consider these events significant to learn from, yet history books spend very little time discussing it when it is the Europeans that have committed these horrible acts. In all of the years I have been taught US history, neither the teacher nor the text book has ever done justice to the unspeakable acts that have seemed to curse everyone that the Europeans have ever come in contact with. History must come from the perspectives of many, not just the dominating group.
It�s the only subject that does this. History is the only subject that presents the entirety of its subject matter from the perspective of one book of text. English class is all about perspectives. In a nutshell, the goal of the class is to realize that a single event can be viewed by a million people, a million different ways; everyone has their own unique perspective on everything and this should be embraced. Several different authors are explored throughout each year. In Math, foreign ideas are constantly being discussed; different countries concepts in mathematics are being incorporated daily. The subject of Science may be the best example. Science, like History, is a subject that is supposedly written in stone. Both are very fact oriented, but can be explored in a way that makes them new and interesting. Yet American school society has made Science into a subject of exploration and discovery, while making History into one of overwhelming memorization and blatant reality. Somewhere, the point of the subject was lost.
The problem is that history is being studied in a vacuum. Nearly the entire class is taught totally absent of other subjects that have total relevance to the subject matter. History is in everything. It is all ready being taught through science, math, and English classes. I believe that teaching history in conjunction with other subjects brings so much more meaning to the individual events and the subject as a whole. If also creates various new perspectives, from which many alternate solutions may be offered for past mistakes and injustices.
I have created a web-site. Through this site, I have expressed my views on history and education in general. But this site is not only to be viewed by Internet goers, their opinions are to be posted also. In high schools all across America individuals, ethnic groups, educators, parents, and administrators are functioning( or not functioning) separate from each other. Some may be unwilling, some unable, to see beyond their narrow focus of concerns. Groups attempting to exist separately with in the realm of the school system does not initiate education, but the avoidance thereof. This web-site is designed for the use of many in airing the frustrations they might have with the educational system. It is also to be used as grounds for creating solutions from the frustrations of these many students and making those solutions and creative ideas available to everyone. These problems and ideas can be e-mailed to Tamahl Gorham. They will then be posted on my webpage and sent to members of the Board of Education of North Carolina and to other people involved with education issues. Communication is the most important ingredient in a successful school. This is not only for the avoidance of frustrations, but of violent retaliation from people that felt left out or cheated out of what is rightfully theirs; an individually catered, fair education. This site has links to other web pages that carry the latest in news and research in education. This will help graduate the world wide practice of futile bingeing and regurgitation of facts and commence worth-while learning. The richest educational experiences are had when a teacher presents you with something you have been told all of your life, but from a perspective that makes it seem as if it were for the very first time.
K-12 HISTORY
WORLD2000 HISTORY CONVENTION
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