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There are many aspects of learning beyond simple rote memorization of factual information. I'm not going to be as blown by somebody who has an impressive ability to commit lists of capital cities to memory, for instance, as I am someone who can explain to me cultural norms in a given region, the historical background leading up to the settling of an area and how that did or didn't affect local culture throughout history, foods, music, other culture, what languages are spoken, what customs are prevalent and why, what the political landscape has looked like over time, historical relationships with other entities, prominent figures from an area, what they were known for and why, etc.
There's the level of rote recall of individual facts. Then there's truly learning and understanding and drawing connections.
Watch "Watters World" on The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News. Young people are clueless, and they don't care. Too wrapped up in the machines, texting and taking selfies.
My only disagreement with the above is that I would strike out the adjective "young." In all honesty, you are talking about two generations, not just "young people."
A nation of adults functioning at the level of junior high school students are a mob easy to manipulate and distract. This is the perfect population for those who aspire to political power and those who wish to make a fortune selling products. A populace without roots and totally self-engrossed.
And no foreign power forced these conditions onto the United States. We can't blame Communists, Muslims, etc. As the Walt Kelly Pogo cartoon so accurately put it: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
You know, you could spend a lazy Saturday googling all of these and have that information forever.
I honestly did start studying those topics this morning at the suggestion of a previous poster. Step one: the Spanish Inquisition. Thank you, Wikipedia. Within less than a minute of reading it was clear to me that in order to understand the Spanish Inquisition, I'd first need a foundational understanding of the Medieval, Christian, Roman, and Portuguese Inquisitions. As well as Judaism and Islam.
So I'd rather not right now.
Who among you readers knows all about those things right now? You may know where to FIND the information, just as well as I could.
I propose that you (everyone reading this) write and share with us a list of things you don't know. Could you bear to do it? I wasn't ashamed to do it, in fact I found it interesting.
I propose that you (everyone reading this) write and share with us a list of things you don't know. Could you bear to do it? I wasn't ashamed to do it, in fact I found it interesting.
There are literally MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF THINGS that any given person does not know. Why would that be embarrassing? Why would anybody be ashamed to learn? There is a reason lifelong learning is a thing. And why limit it to as narrow a topic as simply historical information?
There are literally MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF THINGS that any given person does not know. Why would that be embarrassing? Why would anybody be ashamed to learn? There is a reason lifelong learning is a thing. And why limit it to as narrow a topic as simply historical information?
Exactly. So everyone write out your own lists of things you wish you knew more about. Then get to studying.
You have got to be joking! This is absolutely backwards. He is an American history teacher, meaning it is hardly some "trivial fact about history or geography"!
When you are tasked with teaching populism, the transcontinental railroad, William Jennings Bryan/Cross of Gold Speech, you should know the geographic context. It is a part of the basic curriculum.
It's a trivial fact.
Actual historians do research into topics and analyze information within the context of their specialty in history.
Even someone whose background is an American history will have a specific time and area that they focus up and that they know the best. It doesn't mean they know every random fact.
History is basically another humanities and those pursuing this academically end up having very good reading and writing skills, as well as presentation and lecturing skills. But no one knows every random fact out there.
There are many aspects of learning beyond simple rote memorization of factual information. I'm not going to be as blown by somebody who has an impressive ability to commit lists of capital cities to memory, for instance, as I am someone who can explain to me cultural norms in a given region, the historical background leading up to the settling of an area and how that did or didn't affect local culture throughout history, foods, music, other culture, what languages are spoken, what customs are prevalent and why, what the political landscape has looked like over time, historical relationships with other entities, prominent figures from an area, what they were known for and why, etc.
There's the level of rote recall of individual facts. Then there's truly learning and understanding and drawing connections.
The latter requires lots of academic work. The former just requires random looking at maps and reading encyclopedias.
At the phd level you have to be able to read the languages of the area and time you are specializing in. Someone specializing in ancient Roman history would need to learn Latin and Greek. Someone specializing in Russia as it went Christian would need to learn old church slavonic.
I'm not shocked by much of anything any more. Being a history teacher, I see it almost every day. What is frightening is when it involves an adult, especially a supposed authority.
There is a teacher in my department who graduated from a fairly prestigious public university and has a few years experience teaching American History who had no idea in which state Omaha was located. Somewhat excusable for your everyday citizen, but not so for an experienced history teacher.
Even scarier is the number of people that think Omaha is the state capitol of Nebraska. Said by a Lincolnite.
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