Teaching the subject of world history is a very large and daunting task. There are many problems that go into teaching a subject like world history. There are disagreements and conflicting ideas by different groups over how the subject should be taught. The states all have different standards, some of which are large in scope, as to what will be covered under the umbrella of world history. Other issues such as time, resources and how well prepared teachers really are to present a subject like world history to the students come into play on how difficult it is and the problems with teaching world history.
One major problem with teaching world history is that there is no consensus on how it should be taught. In an article by Ross E. Dunn titled
Many Social Studies teachers are well versed in American history but not so much in world history. This could be because the way American public schools emphasis U.S. history over world history and it is what they were taught, know, and are more familiar with. It also could be that these teachers have more of an interest in U.S. history over world history. In either case time and money are factors in getting prepared to teach world history. Many history teachers who are not well versed in non-U.S. history do not have the time, resources, or funding to educate themselves on world history. As far as the education of the educators go, I do not think that the college curriculum has enough emphasis on world history, as in my own experience what is learned about world history is limited and very few courses are required in order to graduate and be qualified to teach a subject on such a large scope as world history. Funding is an additional problem as well as the Department of Education allocates much more to U.S. history than it does to world history in the figures of $680 million for U.S history professional development and nothing for world history. It is no wonder that there are problems teaching world history if there is no funding and not enough knowledgeable people to teach
To begin this class, a reading from an old history textbook was presented. In the reading, the author, Professor Stromberg presents his idea of teaching history in isolated regions as the best way to get the message of world history across. In response to this, as a history student, and a student taught in a different manner, I believe this is incorrect.
[3] But claiming that history is biased is not to imply that it is irrelevant and should stop being written. According to Walter Benjamin, history should stop masking itself as objective and homogeneous and instead focus on the monad: "where thinking suddenly stops in a configuration pregnant with tensions, it gives that configuration a shock" (262). Instead of charting the victor's path, history must examine how colonizer and colonized interact during a specific moment of time.
The lengths that many textbook writers go to keep our history on a positive note, and to make heroes out of many of our historical figures comes at a high cost, according to Loewen. These costs include incorrect history, and boring history. The end results are students who hate history class, and who come out of those classes not equipped to think about our past in a rational or coherent way.
...ime of the author rather then accurate historical facts. (Lies?293) Textbooks are being written this way and history is being taught this way to show people how they should act and strive to be. This relays to the student what is deemed acceptable to everyone and what is not. When it comes to a student remembering historical lessons they normally do not remember what is being taught to them unless they are moved by it. (Lies?301) So what is the result to a society where our students are being taught this way? The number one result is that students do not know the true history of their country nor do they remember what they were taught in class. This is a sad conclusion but Mr. Loewen feels it is an accurate one given responses to questions he has asked his students throughout the years. What can we do to change this and reeducate the people out there? Sadly I feel nothing can be done for those of us out there who are not truly aware of this misinformed way of teaching. But, our children need not be sheltered from our true history, rather they should learn all that has happened so we can prevent the atrocities from reoccurring again.
A lot of people may argue that it is not necessary for America to teach global conflicts like the Holocaust and Rwanda, however, it is important to learn about it to keep the citizens safe for future conflicts. If we continue to teach it in schools, it will be prevented in the future and to inform people on all the innocent lives that were lost and how cruel some people can be, and if one person steps up and tries to make a difference, the amount of genocides could really go down. By doing so, it will help genocides from not happening in the future, inform people about all the innocent lives that were lost and to show people how one person really can make a difference, and it is important to maintain peace throughout the world so they do not happen again. Contact your senators and/or school board today to ensure that America will continue to teach about global conflicts, and if they do not already, you could try to persuade them
Learning history has given me a new perspective on the World today. I have learned how WWI and WWII shaped how the world is today – from the visions of the modern to the three-world order to globalization.
Many people try to think “back to the good old days,” when really they were not that good for most people who had no rights. With the advancement in technology, we were forced to open our eyes to what is going on in the world around us and the disadvantaged people face throughout the world. As a society once we start to working on damage control to clean up the mess we got into we can finally have true change. The damage control will take time and effort from all people involved on either end of the situation. One major move I feel we can make is by giving honest history lessons that cover every part of our history in schools. I feel that American History and World History should be more emphasized on in our school systems and curriculum. If the students get the full education of our history and how we got to where we are, then moving on will become easier. We expect for children to lead us into a bigger and better future, but how can we expect that without the truth coming to light for our diverse culture. We cannot expect to make this country better without knowing their full history and the mistakes we have made in our past. Looking for another way to move forward, Essence asked Dr. Joy DeGruy on what we could do moving forward, her answer was, “…more research, support, and assistance are needed to produce vital healing…that exceeds the injury
It’s truly fascinating how there are so many different approaches to history, how so many different types of minds and schools of thought can come together to study the events of the world’s past. There are so many ways to approach what happened in our past, and the groups of historians previously mentioned are only a fraction of the actual number of different ways of researching and thinking that exists as it pertains to the study of history. History is in some ways, always a mystery, and all historians, regardless of schooling, training or biases, seek to accomplish one goal: to understand what occurred before us and why, and to use that knowledge to learn how the world was shaped into the world we live in today.
The United States is a melting pot: we have built our country on the customs of many others. We cannot be afraid to revert to old tactics so long as they are successful. Other countries hold the key to success in the education system and the United States must be willing to take note.
Reading, writing and arithmetic, these three subjects are the basic outline for American schools. In those subjects, where does history fit in? Some believe that teachers avoid history because of how corrupt America has been. James W. Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, says, "Parents may feel undermined when children get tools of information not available to adults and use them in ways that seem to threaten adult-held values." (Loewen 296.) The adults had to learn the same false history children are being taught today. By teaching children the truth about history, are adults risking the authority they hold along with adult-held values?
“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” This famous quote from Edmund Burke is one that many of us are familiar with. In spite of this, many people disregard history, branding it as unimportant or irrelevant to modern-day situations. However, history is actually a quite important subject with a myriad of lessons to be learned for anybody to apply now and in the future. Additionally, history gives us much needed information about our past, keeping us from forgetting why our nations became the way they are. It allows us to draw parallels between modern events and past events to collect our best judgment and gives us the important knowledge of the origin of our modern world, giving extra credibility
The world grows smaller and smaller as time goes on; maybe not literally, but definitely through some points of view. With everything and everyone being more connected than ever now thanks to advances in communicational technology and with the merging of cultures from all over the world, a suitable form of education needs to become the standard to accommodate such a world. Global education teaches students about the world’s different cultures, traditions, religions, languages and other important global factors contributing to our modern world. According to various recent studies, The U.S. falls behind many other nations regarding their global education standards (Webb). How then, can the U.S. or any other nation with similar education struggles
Education is a very important aspect of the lives of all people all over the world. What we learn, not just in the classroom, shapes who we are. We take our education everywhere we go. We use it when talking to our buddies about sports or music, we use it while solving a math problem, we use our education while debating with our family whether or not we should watch TV or go to the movies. Our education is the foundation of who we are, since every decision we make and every thought we think is dependent on what we know. Imagine how different the world would be if everyone craved learning to such a degree that at lunch tables all over the world the topic of conversation isn't who likes who, or how drunk someone got over the weekend, but it would be what books were read over the weekend, and what new ideas were thought of. This crave for learning would be an ideal but still suggests need for improvement with the current educational system. It seems that the problem with education is that somewhere along the lines the human race forgot (assuming they, at one point, understood how valuable information is) that learning is not just a mandatory process, but also an opportunity to transcend and open the gateway to a better understanding.
Social Studies education is a subject in today’s schools that is undervalued. The study of social studies in schools help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world (Seefeldt, Castle, & Falconer, 2010). When participating in social studies class children are learning so much about who they are, where they came from, how to succeed in the world, and more. Most of what we teach daily includes an aspect of social studies. But, since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 de-emphasis or nonexistence of elementary social studies is the national focus because of high stakes testing (Sunal, & Sunal, 2008). Social studies
When most people think about history they remember a boring class they took in school a long time ago, they recall memorizing important dates, taking map tests, and falling asleep while listening to a lecture. The truth is that history really is an important subject to be teaching students. History is more than just some lecture you receive in class, history lets us look back, see the good things and the bad things, it allows us to learn from our mistakes and prevent such mistakes from happening in the future. Things that happened in the past are still changing things that are happening today. History is needed for everyone, from government leaders down to individuals; everyone has learned one thing or another from history at some point in their life.