I’m currently reading Sam Wineburg’s pivotal volume – Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past. The book looks at traditional views of how history is and has been taught, but ultimately at what history instruction has the potential to be – a vehicle for fostering high-level critical thinking skills and establishing a strong sense of personal place in the story of humanity. Quoting Wineburg from the introduction to the book:
The essays in this book begin with the basic assumption that history teaches us a way to make choices, to balance opinions, to tell stories, and to become uneasy—when necessary—about the stories we tell.
Undoubtedly these are invaluable skills that we would like for all students to possess.
I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on this volume as I read it and would welcome thoughts from others in the Presidential Timeline community (if you’ve somehow happened upon this blog and find something of value here, consider yourself to be part of this community). Keep in mind that all of this comes from a guy whose background consists of undergraduate and graduate study in the natural sciences, 11 years teaching secondary level physics, 7 years developing educational applications, mostly in math, computer science, and the natural sciences – seemingly somewhat dubious qualifications for my current area of focus, the Presidential Timeline project.
No Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>